Emergency call center workers say their centers are understaffed, struggling to fill vacancies and plagued by worker burnout.
The law enforcement veteran appointed to oversee reforms at the Minneapolis police department in the wake of George Floyd’s killing plans to retire in September.
Holmes said staffing issues in many centers worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, and like many jobs in public safety, it suffered from image problems after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Brian Fontes, CEO of NENA, said the group has been advocating for national legislation to change the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ classification of 911 workers from office or clerical workers to protected service workers like other emergency responders. The change would boost morale by more accurately describing the role of 911 workers and open doors locally to include those workers in benefits programs offered to police and others, he said.
The technology, called Next Generation 911, would convert the hard-wired centers to digital internet protocol-based technology. Advocates say the technology would mean more precise location tracking, better access to immediate language translation, the ability to text with callers or take video calls to help see what’s going on in the case of a medical emergency.
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