911 Call Centers Face Financial Crisis Due to COVID-19

“Before the pandemic happened, it was the case that we needed Congress to write a check so we could upgrade 911 centers nationwide” and implement next-generation 911, Reddish said. “There’s this technology gap, and we could be saving more lives if we had better technology in the 911 centers.” The most recent estimate is that it would cost $15 billion to upgrade centers nationwide, he said.

Interoperability remains a problem, Reddish said. “If you’re in two different counties, or if you’re using two different vendors’ systems, very likely they’re not going to be able to talk to each other and share information that can be absolutely critical when you’re talking about emergency response.” Interoperability is a problem in broad areas, he said.

Suicidal thinking is at “alarming rates” among call takers, Reddish said -- 14% for 911 operators versus 3% for the general population. “If you were in a room full of 911 professionals and looked around, one in seven of them might have contemplated suicide in the past year,” he said. Operators need more resources to make their jobs easier, he said: “This is live-saving work; it’s incredibly difficult and stressful.”

Jim Lake, director of the 911 center in Charleston, South Carolina, said it has spent an extra $17,000 on cleaning and sanitizing because of COVID-19. “Because of the closed businesses, reduced tourism, all of that, we’ve significant cuts to this current budget and also travel bans, hiring bans,” he said: “Our budget experts expect those to be worse next year.”

Arizona has had a history of taking 911 funds for other uses, especially when times are bad as they are now, said Liz Graeber, 911 administrator for Phoenix. “Always on our mind is will 911 sweeps start happening again and we’ll start having our money diverted.” She noted the cancellation of baseball spring training had a huge effect on the local economy.

A dedicated sales tax is a big part of South Sound’s funding and the center was told early on to be ready for 25% reduction due to the pandemic, said Deborah Grady, executive director of the Tacoma, Washington-based 911 center. That’s $5 million or 10% of the budget, she said: “For us, there’s no way to replace that unless we go back to the partner agencies that are also struggling.” The center had to cut costs and isn’t funding any new projects, she said. Staffing is already low, so a hiring freeze would be difficult, she said. “We have been very forward in communicating budget information with our staff,” she said: “It’s definitely concerning.”

All the centers remain on lockdown and do extra cleaning. But unlike many other workers, most call takers can’t work remotely, officials said. Remote work, though, has been a trend in some areas.

There are times when you have someone who's not an operator, like a technician or a law enforcement officer, come into the center, Graeber said. That person is required to do a temperature check and notify the center in advance, she said. 911 call takers can’t work from home because they need the secure, dedicated connections at the call center, she said.

Lake’s center is off limits to everyone except operators, and the floor plan was revised to ensure better spacing, he said. Some operators with underlying health conditions work in a separate room and administrative and support staff work from home, he said. Anyone who leaves a console wears a mask, he said.

Marshall County, Kentucky, has a strict no visitor policy, said Chris Freeman, 911 director. First responders interact with operators through a window. Shifts are kept separate and workers must check their temperature before reporting and twice during each shift, he said. Some first responders don’t understand why they can’t just come in, he said. “It’s such a small environment, with such a small amount of employees and being short-staffed anyway, one single case could essentially shut down” our center, Freeman said. The center had to stress the “ramifications” for the entire area of having to close, he said.

Editor's note: This publication has written a series of articles about how the novel coronavirus is affecting telecom stakeholders including 911 operators. It includes five articles so far on 911: 2004270046; 2004130032; 2003180033, with two published in recent weeks. They are here and here, in front of our pay wall (along with some other virus coverage).