By Lanz Christian
Vallejo Times-Herald
VALLEJO, Calif. — Working in the Vallejo Police Department’s communication center is a juggling act.
Swamped with literally thousands of calls a week, the 19 dispatchers are charged with assessing each 911 call and deciding how to allocate the police and fire departments’ limited resources.
Since March, the communications center has been operating under a “crisis mode” -- deferring all non-emergency calls to voicemails in order to free up the dispatchers.
The communications center is often staffed with just three dispatchers, said communications manager Elisia Thomas.
One monitors the police channel, another monitors the fire channel and all other dispatchers answer the phones.
“If we have a major structure fire, it takes three people” to dispatch -- one dedicated to police, one to fire and one to act as backup, Thomas said.
Thomas estimates the center gets about 2,000 calls a week.
Despite the loss of staff, the communications center can answer and assess all its 911 calls, Thomas said.
However, part of the assessment process is determining whether calls are actual emergencies.
Reports of property crime, such as vandalism or car burglaries, are generally treated on a non-emergency basis. “If it’s a cold report, or if you don’t know who did it, we refer you to www.vallejopd.com or the general voice mailbox and we will get back to you within 48 hours,” Thomas said
Citizens are encouraged to file these reports online or call the voice mailbox directly without calling 911, Thomas said.
If a 911 call is determined to be a non-emergency, the call is transferred to voicemail.
Even before the city’s bankruptcy, not every call necessitated an officer’s physical response, Thomas said.
The city ends the year with just six investigators, who focus on violent crimes.
Once a caller reaches a dispatcher, the dispatcher then asks the caller a series of questions in order to determine the severity, if any, of the incident and the appropriate response.
“When we ask a question, we try to ask leading questions so someone isn’t going to start talking about something else (other than the incident),” Thomas said.
As the dispatcher is dealing with one situation, she is also juggling the other phone calls coming in, Thomas said.
This includes the dispatchers on the police and fire channels, who are often making phone inquiries for the officers they dispatch, she said.
Often, the quick questions the dispatchers ask make them appear as if they are short on the phone, Thomas said.
A person who wishes to file a non-emergency report can do so online from any computer, including a kiosk in the lobby of the Vallejo Police Department.
The kiosk was installed last month and has been seeing usage, said Bill Powell, support services manager.
The filers will be e-mailed a copy of the report and a temporary case number.
Dispatchers must pass a class required by Peace Officer Standards and Training before they are hired, and then must complete six to 12 months of on-the-job training.
Copyright 2008 Vallejo Times-Herald