By Pamela Wood
The Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. — Baltimore County officials say they are using firefighters, paramedics and police officers to temporarily fill staffing gaps at its 911 center.
Eight employees from other departments were transferred to the 911 center in September and will be working there until March, said Ellen Kobler, a county spokeswoman.
Six employees who used to work for 911 — but who now are police officers, firefighters and paramedics -— are on temporary assignment as dispatchers. Two others, including a public works employee, are temporarily working in administrative roles at the 911 center.
Baltimore County has had difficulty maintaining staffing levels at the 911 center, which has both call-takers who answer emergency calls and dispatchers who assign officers and fire crews to respond to calls.
“These are very difficult, challenging positions,” Kobler said.
John Ripley, president of the Baltimore County Federation of Public Employees, which represents 911 workers, questioned whether it’s wise to take first responders off the street to work in the 911 center.
“If you pull one officer off the street, it weakens the county’s ability to respond to emergencies,” he said.
This isn’t the first time that the county has pulled back former 911 workers. In spring 2015, seven police and fire department employees were called back to temporarily fill vacancies at 911.
Ripley said many employees are frustrated about a recent switch to 12-hour shifts that rotate among different days, as well as a high amount of required overtime and standby shifts on their scheduled days off. The union also filed a grievance with the county over pay adjustments that corresponded with the switch to 12-hour shifts.
All of those pressures have led employees to quit, Ripley said. Bringing back former 911 employees is a stopgap measure instead of addressing the fundamental problems, Ripley said.
On paper, the 911 center has more than the required number of employees, Kobler said. There are 198 employees and the authorized staffing level is 172 employees, she said.
But 47 of the employees are recent graduates of training classes and are still doing on-the-job training and not yet working independently. So effectively, the 911 center is short the equivalent of 21 employees, Kobler said.
Baltimore County is soliciting applicants for the next training class, set to begin in December.
Copyright 2016 The Baltimore Sun