The Commercial Appeal
MEMPHIS — The moment Metrica Spears sits down in her black rolling chair, the calls come in.
Shootings. Assaults. Car accidents. Through it all, her voice remains level and she directs the callers to the help they need.
Spears is a veteran dispatcher at the Memphis Police Department’s 911 call center. For 14 years, she has fielded frantic phone calls from Shelby County residents in need of assistance.
“I try not to make it personal,” Spears said. “You have to take every call and even though we’re here to help people, we just can’t put ourselves in the element, because if we do that we’ll take that home and it manifests into our every day lives.”
Spears is one of the 119 operators who currently work in the center, but MPD 911 communications manager Marvin Pender says many more are needed.
The average hold time when someone dials 911 in Shelby County is 110 seconds, much higher than the national average of 20 seconds, he said. This is because there aren’t enough people on staff to man the phone lines.
“Our main goal is to make sure we have a body in each seat ... that’s going to cut down on your hold time when you call 911,” Pender said.
Earlier this month, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland announced plans to hire 30 part-time 911 dispatchers. Pender said MPD has already hired 15 full-timers who will start on Feb. 22. As of Friday morning, the call center received 1,084 applications for the 30 spots.
One incentive to apply may be the pay — both full- and part-time dispatchers start at $19 an hour, Pender said.
Pender said a 911 operator needs to be energetic and able to handle a great deal of stress. Dispatchers are required to live in Shelby County and dependability is crucial — the center needs those “bodies in the seats” in rain, sleet or snow, he said.
“The goal is to get everybody the help that they want and to make sure officers get home safely daily,” Spears said.
The application period for the part-time positions closed Friday afternoon, and the interview process begins Monday. Every applicant is required to take a typing test. This first step weeds out a lot of applicants, Pender said.
“The typing test normally eliminates a lot of people, because you have to be able to type 25 words per minute, but you’d be surprised,” he said.
The second step is a call simulation where the aspiring dispatchers listen to recorded situations and type what they hear. If they pass that test, they go through background checks and interviews, Pender said.
Once hired, the new employees go through a rigorous six-week training period to prepare them to answer the roughly 100 calls an average dispatcher receives during a normal shift.
The center receives 3,500 to 4,000 calls a day. In 2015, the center handled two million calls and dispatched police to one million of them, Pender said.
Coty Barker is one of the more recent additions to the center; he began work as a dispatcher on Oct. 19. His previous job in the emergency room at Methodist North Hospital prepared him to handle high stress situations, but he’s still adjusting to work in the call center.
“Being relaxed one second and red alert the next I was sort of prepared for it when I came in, but I was not prepared for a lot of other aspects of the job,” Barker said. “I wasn’t prepared to hear some of things I’ve heard sometimes on the phones.”
Barker said he’s also had to learn the wording officers use based on the part of town they work in because “every precinct has their own language.”
Inside the call center are dozens of computer screens and the buzzing of calm voices doling out instructions through headsets. The room is split into two sides — one for call taking and one for police dispatch. A normal 8 hour shift is split between these two duties, Pender said.
On the dispatch side, each desk is devoted to a specific part of town — Mount Moriah, South Main, Tillman, Raines and others. Dispatchers send police out on calls and keep track of officers, and the call takers speak with the public to direct their calls to the appropriate responder.
The call center operates on three shifts: the “Bravo” starts at 7:45 a.m. and ends at 3:45 p.m., the “Charlie” runs from 3:45 p.m. to 11:45 p.m., and the “Alpha” shift is from 11:45 p.m. to 7:45 a.m. Employees get two 15-minute breaks and a 30-minute lunch break, Pender said.
Most 911 calls are received between 11:45 a.m. and 7:45 p.m.
Pender said the most common calls received are for home alarms or domestic assaults; Barker said it varies based on the shift.
“If it’s New Years, it’s going to be shots in the area, and if it’s the middle of the night usually it’s an ambulance,” Barker said.
Pender said job turnover varies and depends on the person. Some dispatchers have worked at the center for more than 20 years. MPD provides dispatchers access to their Employee Assistance Program where 911 operators can speak with professionals to work through personal issues or stress of the job.
When an dispatcher is involved in a highly stressful call, like an officer shooting, death, or other critical situation, he or she is required to go to a “debriefing.”
“They get to talk to an actual licensed psychiatrist and some of their peers there as well, anyone who was involved in the incident,” Pender said. “They come to one room and talk it out, it stays in the room between them.”
The call center is also stocked with shelves of Pringles, Crush Cola, Skittles and other snacks so dispatchers can nibble on a pick-me-up if needed.
“I try to spend as much time as I can on my motorcycle,” Barker said. “That’s my stress relief.”
Copyright 2016 The Commercial Appeal
All Rights Reserved