City works to hire more 911 dispatchers to prevent shortages

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Imagine if you called 911 and no one was there to pick up. That’s what the City of Rochester’s Emergency Communications Department is working to prevent.

Right now, many 911 dispatchers are having to pull double shifts to get the job done. Now, the city is working to attract more to the job, going against a nationwide trend.

“We do have a 911 staffing shortage. So does the rest of the country. It’s a nationwide issue,” said Michael Cerretto, director of the Emergency Communications Department.

Cerretto said attracting people to work the hours required of a call center is a challenge.

“The latest survey out of the national organization of 911 personnel, the number one reason people leave is for shift work. They leave because of the shift work. They leave because of the hours,” he said. “The number two reason is due to better opportunities, which usually is money for a Monday through Friday job. So I think those are the two reasons, main reasons why people leave 911 centers and I don’t think we’re any different here.”

Despite the shortages, Cerretto assures that the center hasn’t had any issues answering calls.

“The shortage is not affecting the callers at all. We haven’t had a case where that has happened,” he said. “The shortages do affect the staff. Staff works a lot of hours, a lot of doubles. So it does affect the staff. But as for the people that are calling, we’ll be here. We’ll be here to answer the phones. That’s what we do.”

Plans to fully staff the center have been in the works since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Over the last three years, actually from January, right in the middle of COVID, we continued to hire here where a lot of places didn’t,” Cerretto said. “On top of that, we worked with our human resources department. We were able to streamline the process as much as we could within civil service. Additionally, we have applied for the help program, which is in New York State. It’s a way that, we can hire, without having to take a civil service test, which is shorten the process even more.”

The department’s primary strategy for attracting more workers is offering competitive salaries and benefits.

“We increased the starting pay and increased the top pay. We start off at a little over $47,000 to be a telecommunicator, which is the first to answer the phones. And they start off around $52,000 for a dispatcher. And on top of that, they get health care and a pension,” Cerretto said.

If you’d like to apply to work in the Emergency Communications Department, you can visit the city’s website.

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