The House has advanced multiple efforts this session to recognize the service of, and difficulties faced by, 911 dispatchers. Three House bills include language that would add dispatchers to state statute’s definition of “first responders,” which would give them access to more support and benefits. A bipartisan group of lawmakers thinks it’s about time.
Legislators say dispatchers are vitally important and are the first link in the chain of emergency response.
“They’re the first contact when you call 911,” said Representative Robert Sauls (D-Kansas City), who offered one such amendment to a bill that was sent to the Senate (House Bill 1637). “Obviously you talk to an operator, and they have to go through a lot of stuff. They have to go through a lot of turmoil, subject to very high intensity, stressful situations.”
Because dispatchers aren’t considered “first responders,” they aren’t afforded benefits seen by EMTs, firefighters, police, and others. That includes health and retirement benefits, but also help to deal with the stress of their job. Lawmakers think that needs to change.
Representative Lane Roberts (R-Joplin), whose extensive law enforcement career included time as Joplin’s police chief and director of the state’s Department of Public Safety, said, “I was a police officer for 43 years, and in my wildest nightmare I can’t imagine doing what those people do.”
Representative Chad Perkins (R-Bowling Green) worked for four years as a dispatcher. He filed one of the bills to make dispatchers “first responders” (House Bill 1676, approved by one House committee). He said this is the most stressful job in the field.
Roberts and Perkins agree that dispatching is more than answering the phone and relaying a call. Operators receive training for multiple contingencies and emergencies.
Because of the high stress they face, on top of regularly updated training and often low pay, advocates say people who work as dispatchers rarely do it for very long. Some areas of the state are having a hard time filling vacancies in call centers.
Perkins said by adding them to the definition of “first responders,” they would be afforded more state benefits. This could be part of a larger effort to recruit and retain operators.
Representative Shane Roden (R-Cedar Hill) is a firefighter and paramedic as well as a reserve sheriff’s deputy. His House Bill 2381 has received initial approval in the House and contains the “first responder” definition language.
He told his colleagues, “For the dispatchers that have always been there for us this is a step in the right direction, to acknowledge that they are the first responders that they are.”
