LaToya Lawson works for the West Palm Beach Police Department. Every day, she answers dozens of calls from people in trouble.
“It’s not just the phone calls; it’s also getting the calls to the police and telling them everything they need to know to keep themselves and the people safe,” Lawson said.
After nine years on the job, she has seen and heard everything.
Lawson said, “We could be sitting here talking and all of a sudden there could be a shooting or stabbing. It’s not planned, they’re just screaming in our ears, and we need to stay calm.”
But Lawson says that keeping that level of calmness is getting harder because there are fewer people to answer the phones when emergencies happen.
The West Palm Beach Police Department is short nine dispatchers right now, and they get almost 10,000 calls a month.
The manager of telecommunications, Suzette Dodd, says that next week there will be an open house to try to fill some of the open positions.
Dodd said, “We’ll set up stations so they can see what the job is like and fill out an application right there.” “Training usually takes six months.”
Departments all over the country are struggling because they don’t have enough dispatchers. Even though West Palm Beach is meeting national benchmarks, they say they could use the extra help.
On April 5, there will be an open house at the West Palm Beach Police Department at 600 Banyan Blvd.
