Lindner Local Schools, thanks very much. Good luck.
>> Thank you. Thank you. >> A legislative hearing at
the Capitol this week focused on staffing
shortages in law enforcement, looking at
county jurisdictions in particular.
of the emergency? >> One place staffing
shortages are being felt acutely across the state.
In 911 emergency call centers among dispatchers.
What has led to shortages and what can be done about
it? We turn to Columbia County Sheriff Roger
the Capitol. And Sheriff, thanks very much for being
here. >> You're welcome. Glad to
be here. >> So describe the shortage
of dispatchers in your county.
>> Yeah, I think we're consistent with the rest of
the 901 PSAP dispatch centers across the state.
There's been a struggle to get qualified dispatchers
in the door and get them trained in our county.
We're we're four short. We've been 4 to 5 short for
just over a year and a half, which puts a, you know, a
great strain on the other dedicated dispatchers that
are currently there. >> Yeah, indeed. Now, I
read that the pay is between about 50 and
$70,000 a year. Why is it hard to fill a retain these
positions? Is it that the pay cannot make up for the
stress of the job? >> Well, I think it's a
combination of both. You know, most dispatchers
around the area are going to be making around that 25,
$26 an hour. You know, which is not a bad paying
job, but you're working nights, weekends, holidays.
It's not Monday through Friday shift work. These
are long hours. Very stressful. You know, if you
taking that call from that mom whose young child is
not breathing or from a car accident or a domestic, you
know, or a sexual assault, there's a lot of stressful
calls. And these dispatchers are the ones
that answer that call to get the first responders to
that scene. >> And and so with a
shortage, in addition to, to that, they're working a
lot of overtime hours. >> Oh, absolutely. I know
dispatch centers across the state that have contracted
with other dispatch centers. I know one county where the
sheriff is actually dispatching at night
because they're so short. Our dispatchers are working
a lot of overtime. It's nothing. Nothing for them
to work 20 extra hours in addition to their 40 hours
a week. >> What does a shortage of
dispatchers mean for emergency response in your
community and others? >> Yeah, I mean, we've been
able to backfill it with our dedicated men and women
in our dispatch center. But the fear across the state
and in our county especially, is when they
burn out and they leave and we get any shorter, we're
going to struggle with having someone answer that
call for service. When someone calls for that,
that immediate need of fire, EMS or law enforcement, you
know, we need a proper, timely response. We need a
trained dispatcher to gather all the adequate
information to get the right first responders
there. And if they're tired, if they're calling in sick,
if we don't have the staff to to sit in that dispatch
center, there's going to be a delay in first responder
services, which is a public safety issue.
you is that as the lead law enforcement official in
your county, to be worrying about emergency response
times? >> Oh, it's it's critical.
This has been our number one focus in our county for
about the last year. There's no question there's
law enforcement officers that work the street, our
jailers and our county jails. Many county jails
are not at full staff. But our dispatch center. I mean,
they have to be there. They have to answer that, that
call for service. They they just have to we have to
have someone sitting in those chairs and there
cannot be a delay. Seconds truly make a difference
when you're calling for assistance.
>> What are some of the solutions being looked at?
>> Well, our county specifically, we really did
a an adjustment of pay. We did some premium incentives
for working at night and on weekends. We have done some
other financial type of incentives. So if you're
here a year, three years, five years, you get a bonus.
We have changed the hours. One unique thing with us is
we just consolidated the Wisconsin Dells Police
Department's dispatch center, which, you know,
was about $1 million project. And we had to
increase our space up there. Our dispatch stations, the
equipment, update them. So that was a big project, you
know, because Wisconsin Dells area is is busy in
the summertime especially. But, you know, actually all
12 months out of the year now. So we've we've given
them more help. We've we've increased, you know, some
of the the little things up there, as crazy as it
sounds, we got them a treadmill. We started some
yoga classes here. We do a lot of stress management
with helping them cope with the stress of taking these
calls. Because our dispatchers work 12 hours a
shift, and that's a long time to be sitting there,
and they don't get the opportunity, like so many
other workers, to get up and walk around, to move
around, to leave the station and go get fresh
air outside. They have to stay close to that radio at
any given second. That any given second. That