JoCo Emergency Communications Center wants to bring more exposure to 911 dispatcher career path
“A dispatcher is just a really rewarding and honorable career choice,” Kate Dorsey said. “They help people. They take care of a lot of different things.”
“A dispatcher is just a really rewarding and honorable career choice,” Kate Dorsey said. “They help people. They take care of a lot of different things.”
“A dispatcher is just a really rewarding and honorable career choice,” Kate Dorsey said. “They help people. They take care of a lot of different things.”
The Johnson County Emergency Communications Center is hoping to bring more exposure to the 911 dispatcher career.
Dispatchers are in high demand across the country. In Johnson County, they need to fill a few spots.
Kate Dorsey is the operations manager and has worked in the dispatch center for more than 20 years. She said in 2022, they took more than 134,000 calls.
“That’s about 400 calls a day on average that they’re taking,” Dorsey said. “They never know what's going to happen when they pick up the phone. They could be taking a road closure somewhere, or they could be picking up a baby, not breathing and giving instructions to a mom.”
Each year, she said the number of calls increases, and they need more people to answer them.
"When you don't have the bump in staffing as you have a bump in calls, it gets very stressful for the people that we do have,” she said.
Right now, the JoCo dispatch center is operating at minimum staffing levels. More people could help make the job less stressful.
Dorsey said it is not necessarily an easy job, but it’s rewarding to be able to help people every day.
“A dispatcher is just a really rewarding and honorable career choice,” she said. “They help people. They take care of a lot of different things.”
She said there is a lot of room for growth within the department. You can apply here. There is a four-thousand-dollar sign-on bonus for qualified applicants.