Public Employee Press

911: Billions wasted, no benefit to workers

John Armstrong has served as a Police Communications Technician for the New York Police Dept. for 25 years. PCT Karen Hunter has 30 years of experience come March. They talked with PEP about issues 911 operators face every day. Armstrong is chair of the PCT/Senior PCT chapter for Local 1549 and Hunter is sergeant-at-arms for the Local 1549 Political Action Committee.

"The NYPD needs to educate the public about how to make a 911 call," Hunter said. "For starters, callers should state their location. We aren't asking all these questions frivolously," she said. One recent call to 911 that ended with a child's life being saved after he fell into a sinkhole was never made public; he was saved due to the operator's quick thinking," Hunter said. On the other hand, the media sensationalizes stories with sad endings and the onus is on the 911 personnel. "Nobody ever hears a good story about 911," Armstrong said.

There are approximately 500 codes-like 1013 (Police Officer Needs Assist) and 1059 (Fire Call). New codes are constantly added, but the training is too short for the job requirements. "There are always new procedures and lots of changes that we have to know," Armstrong said.

Stress levels emergency communications personnel have to cope with at work are high. "We have a TV room, but there's no place here to go if you just want to get away," Hunter said. "They do have a stress class, but it really needs to be expanded."

"We try to treat the public as we would treat our own families," Armstrong said. The sense of duty and service is strong among the 911 dispatchers and supervisors who handle the constant barrage of emergency calls. Blame for "the system's shortcomings shouldn't be passed onto the people who are on the front line handling emergencies," Armstrong said.

Not state-of-the-art

Local 1549 Executive Vice President Alma Roper, a former PCT, points to the times when the computerized phone system gets very slow, freezes up or shuts down as some of its shortcomings. "We still do not have the state-of-the-art system we were promised," she said.

— JL