ST. CHARLES COUNTY — Faced with an ongoing labor shortage, St. Charles County officials are rethinking how they staff their 911 dispatch center — and are spending more than $500,000 to hire out-of-state contract dispatchers as a “stop-gap measure†to relieve staff from sometimes working 18-hour days.
St. Charles County has struggled to replace emergency dispatchers who have resigned or retired since 2019. At one point St. Charles was short 19 dispatchers; it is now 10 openings away from being fully staffed with 44 dispatchers.
“We are just in a bad situation right now and are trying to think outside of the box about what we can do,†said Jeff Smith, director of the St. Charles County’s 911 center. The center, which last year received an average of 193 emergency 911 calls per day, also fielded 360-plus calls per day related to building alarms, traffic stops and ambulance transports to a hospital or nursing home.
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ºüÀêÊÓƵ City and ºüÀêÊÓƵ County are facing the same emergency center staffing shortages, and are keeping close tabs on what St. Charles is doing.
St. Charles County this week approved a 6-month contract with a Colorado-based company, Moetivations Inc., that will provide up to eight certified 911 dispatchers for roughly $518,000. Those eight dispatchers will be split into pairs to work alongside county employees.
At a public meeting Monday, St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann described the contract as a “stop-gap measure†for the dispatch center that handles calls for 10 fire protection districts, one municipal fire department, the countywide ambulance district and the St. Charles County Police Department. He said the county will continue to try and hire dispatchers.
Smith, the 911 center director, said he doesn’t think it is realistic that the department will be able to hire 10 dispatchers within the next six months. Since Jan. 1, 2022, the department has hired 24 people to work as dispatchers. Of those hires, four are still in training, four work as dispatchers, one works part-time — and 15 are no longer employed there.
“This is such a unique job that it is really hard to know until you are physically in the chair, staring at this panel of computer screens, and fielding calls whether or not you can handle the stress of it,†said Smith, who said potential hires are allowed to sit with an on-duty dispatcher for about an hour in hopes of giving them insight into the role.
In recent months, Smith said the department has seen an uptick in applicants. He said dispatchers need to be tech savvy, able to multi-task, able to pass psychological screenings and other background checks. The starting pay for a dispatcher is near $56,000 in St. Charles County — the highest in the area.
In addition to the Moetivations contract, Smith and other department leaders continue to look for ways to bolster the county’s roster of 911 dispatchers, including a pilot program allowing high school students to train while in school and be eligible to work as a dispatcher immediately following graduation.
St. Charles County is not the only place in the metro region to struggle with staffing issues. Dispatch centers across the region — and the nation — have been grappling with staffing shortages for months, if not years.
In November 2022, ºüÀêÊÓƵ officials acknowledged its 911 dispatch center was short 36 employees.
Since then, ºüÀêÊÓƵ police have been working with the city’s department of personnel to “cut some of the red tape†to expedite the hiring process. Police spokesman Sgt. Charles Wall said he did not know if the city was considering contractor dispatchers, like in St. Charles, but said he believed the city would at the very least consider the option.
ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Councilman Mark Harder, R-Chesterfield, attended the meeting Monday in St. Charles County. In an interview Wednesday, Harder said like other places in the region, ºüÀêÊÓƵ County has a “significant shortage†of dispatchers.
He said the county has a number of new hires, but they are still in training and likely won’t be fielding 911 calls for another several months. Officials say it can take up to eight months to train a new 911 dispatcher.
Harder declined to say if ºüÀêÊÓƵ County would seek a similar contract with Moetivations Inc., but he did say that the county should “look at what we can do to combat the shortage of 911 dispatchers.â€
Back in St. Charles County, officials said workers there have worked more than 350 overtime shifts in the past 20 months, including 146 overtime shifts so far in 2023.
“There are a lot of dangers in working someone consecutively 18 hours a day, or even 12 hours a day. Maybe you get fatigued, maybe you slow down and need to ask someone to repeat something or you struggle to put something into the computer as fast,†Smith said. “We know we need to make changes.â€
Even with the staffing shortage, Smith said there is no reason for St. Charles County residents to worry that their 911 calls will go unanswered.
“Our folks that we have now are tired, they are worn out, but at the end of the day they are resilient. They continue to come through because they know the people on the other end of the line are depending on them,†Smith said. “They know how important this job is and they are committed.â€
Dana Rieck of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.