By Nick Draper
Idaho Falls Post Register
Copyright 2007 The Post Register
All Rights Reserved
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — With barely two-thirds of the center’s positions filled, those who are left face long hours answering Bonneville County’s emergency calls.
Amy Hinson’s computer crashed at the wrong time.
The malfunction prevented the supervisor from answering calls flooding the Idaho Falls dispatch center at about 7 p.m. Thursday, leaving her co-workers to bear the brunt.
“I don’t want to leave y’all,” said Hinson out loud as she hastily rebooted her workstation while the three other dispatchers dealt with a 911 call involving a suicidal man with a gun.
She was back online in a matter of minutes, but an extra person would have been useful.
Those additional bodies have been hard to come by. Since the summer, the dispatch center has been chronically short-staffed, with 15 people working out of a possible 21.
And the shortage isn’t due to a budget crunch or any cuts by the city. The center simply can’t find people willing to handle emergency phone calls.
“We just have a hard time keeping a full staff,” Idaho Falls Dispatch Coordinator Heather Kunz said. “That hasn’t happened for a while because of the nature of the job and the stress it puts on people and their families.”
It’s hard to be a good mom or dad when you’re routinely working 12-hour shifts, which is what the dispatchers have been doing for the past six months.
The hiring process doesn’t alleviate staffing problems quickly, either.
Before someone can be interviewed for an open position, an extensive background check and polygraph test must be completed, Kunz said.
“You can’t just hire somebody off the street to do what they do,” she said. “They’ve got to be somebody who maintains their calm while the world is falling down around them.”
Once employees are hired, they have to undergo a three- to four-month training period before becoming a certified dispatcher. Trainees learn how to run the complicated computer system and multiple software programs.
Dispatchers typically have been working in groups of four, even though there are six available workstations.
“I can’t remember the last time we’ve had all six (up and running),” said Lindsey Huntsman, another supervisor.
Help is on the way, though.
Three people have started training, and the Idaho Falls City Council approved additional funding for another person, bringing the possible number of dispatchers to 22.
Yet it’s unlikely that the Idaho Falls dispatch center, which handles calls for all first responders in Bonneville County, will ever have 22 dispatchers on staff.
Even employing 21 people would take a huge burden off current employees covering extra shifts, Kunz said.
Still, a full staff would be optimal.
Not only because 12-hour shifts would become a rarity, Hinson said, but because there would be an extra hand when unexpected circumstances - such as a computer crash - come up.
“It would be awesome,” she said.