APD’s 911 center seeing progress in filling dispatcher, call taker vacancies

Austin Police Department has made progress in filling vacancies and improving retention in its Emergency Communications Center over the past 12 months, with more new hires expected by the end of the year.

A memo released last week from Robin Henderson, interim chief for Austin Police Department, informed City Council that since last October, ECOMMS has reduced its number of vacancies for call taker and dispatcher positions to 39 remaining openings, a decrease from the 69 openings listed 12 months ago. Those hires bring the dispatcher pool to 91 percent filled for 75 total positions, while the call taker pool’s 104 positions are 69 percent filled.

The memo notes that the average class size for new hires has increased since last year, and that 20 new employees are expected to be hired in the next three months, with four former ECOMMS employees who’d left in good standing reapplying with the department.

Vacant positions in the city’s 911 call center have been a persistent problem for APD, with many highly publicized instances of residents not getting emergency calls answered promptly or, in some cases, not at all.

The memo also spells out some of the tactics the department has used to fill open positions and improve retention, with a full-time background investigator and temporary human resources specialist hired to speed up recruitment and hiring.

The department has also launched local and national campaigns with recruitment coordinators who participate in job fairs and other recruiting events in addition to working with the Texas Workforce Commission, Texas Municipal League and other organizations to promote job opportunities.

ECOMMS has also added to its leadership, with a new lieutenant and two assistant managers to help oversee the division. Henderson said employee retention efforts are expected to improve with the start of a career progression plan that was introduced last month. That plan includes promotion opportunities and pay increases through an employee’s tenure, the creation of five new call taker and dispatcher job titles, advancing an employee based on years of service and receipt of state licensures, and opportunities to cross-train for additional compensation.

The new hires show progress from a May presentation to the Public Safety Commission, when the center had 49 vacancies to fill, with the focus on adding two supervisors, four lower-level supervisors and 16 dispatchers.

At that meeting, Maria Calagna, director of emergency communications for APD, said the department was receiving three or four times as many applicants for its openings as it had in the past.

Part of that increase was attributed to a salary increase to about $23 per hour. Calagna also said the changes to the hiring process had reduced the hiring timeline from an average of 14 weeks down to 10 weeks.

In addition to improving its hiring process, ECOMMS has also floated the possibility of operating a second facility that would attempt to improve communication and data sharing between city and Travis County emergency response, the Texas Department of Transportation and the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The Urban Transportation Commission received a presentation about the proposed second Combined Transportation, Emergency and Communications Center facility at its May meeting. The existing CTECC facility had received more than 1.5 million calls through the first few months of 2023, according to Robert Turner, CTECC general manager.

Turner told the commission a second center would improve coordination for the response to major accidents and emergencies, including weather events that require water and backup generators.

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