Emergency dispatchers sought across Minnesota; initiative started to promote recruitment and retention

Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – The Minnesota Department of Public Safety is launching a new awareness initiative and hiring push to combat the decline of 911 emergency dispatchers across the state.

In a May 8 news release, the state’s public safety agency said residents need to be aware that staffing shortages in emergency dispatch services increase the workload and stress levels of their current employees and can affect emergency services to a community.

Benton County Sheriff Troy Heck said 911 is a phone number that needs to always be answered.

“It’s not acceptable for somebody in need to dial 911 and not have somebody there,” said Heck. “Regardless of whether a dispatch center is at full staff, or three-quarters staff, or half-staff, somebody has got to be there to answer that phone. And when we don’t have enough people stepping forward and taking up the gauntlet to do this career, it falls on those who are willing to do that.”

The new initiative is aimed at increasing print and digital advertising, billboards and creating public service announcements to try an lure more applicants into the profession.

“We’re hoping (the hiring and retention initiative) is hard to miss once the campaign is in full-swing,” he said. “It’s going to be on radio. It’s going to be on your streaming service. It’s going to be on your phone. It’s going to be on billboards. We really want this campaign reach people and … let everyone know that this is a really great job that is probably waiting for them in their community.”

Public safety telecommunicators, as they are called by the agency, need to be the calm voice on the end of the emergency line to be ready to listen and relay information provided by callers during their worst moments.

In a video released by the agency, multiple emergency dispatchers describe what characteristics are important in taking emergency phone calls.

“Be that calm voice for that person on the other end that is having a hard day too,” said Jody Olson, a 911 dispatcher. 

“You have to be able to decipher what someone is saying verbal versus  not verbally,” said Lacy Detlefsen, a 911 dispatcher. “You have to be able to listen to what’s going on in the background and pick up on little clues.”

“(Operations) run smoothly when a call comes in, we process the call, and everybody on the team does their job,” said Jeremy Baker, a 911 dispatcher. “We get people there in a set amount of time and we save lives.”

“You know, we’re the first, first responders,” said Karina Kunze, a 911 dispatcher.

According to the agency, 911 dispatchers answer more than 2.8 million emergency calls every year.

Jeremy Baker, a 911 dispatcher, said he remembers a call involving an ice fisherman falling though the ice on Pelican Lake in Otter Tail County and said, if the dispatcher hadn’t done their job, the situation may have turned out differently.

“We took a 911 call from an ice fisherman who had fallen through Pelican Lake and he was up to his waist and he was unable to get out,” said Baker. “He was able to get his phone and dial 911. That dispatcher stayed on the phone with him for probably about 20 to 30 minutes, and, if we weren’t there to answer that 911 call for him, I don’t know what would’ve happened that day.”

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety also created a new website specifically dedicated to recruiting 911 operators and steering applicants into available jobs.