It’s safe to say that dispatchers at the Texas County 911 call center in downtown Houston answered a lot of calls in 2018.
Assistant director Terra Culley reports that the agency fielded 25,321 calls last year. Of that total, 61-percent were related to law enforcement, 19-percent medical issues, 8-percent fire and 12-percent “other” (including misdials, children playing with the phone, pocket dials and hang up calls).
Culley said Texas County 911 began 2018 with eight dispatchers and finished the year with 10, and that she and director Susan Hale also take shifts at dispatch stations. The agency handled calls last year for police departments in Houston and Licking, nine county fire departments and three Texas County Memorial Hospital ambulances. Calls for other entities were also in the mix, such as other ambulances and fire departments that have coverage areas that extend into Texas County.
Culley said 911 dispatched for the Texas County Sheriff’s Department for a short time in the summer of 2018, when Rowdy Douglas stepped in as interim sheriff following the arrest of former Sheriff James Sigman.
“We did it temporarily for a few days while Rowdy got some things straightened out,” she said, “then they took it back.”
At the beginning of 2019, the TCSD was added on a permanent basis, a move that has greatly increased Texas County 911’s call volume. Culley said 64 calls were fielded for the TCSD in 2018, most of which were transferred since that agency was still doing its own dispatching. In January 2019, that number grew to around 800.
Terra Culley
“Our call numbers for 2019 will look pretty different,” Culley said. “And at any given time, there could be three deputies on duty or maybe up to eight, and we have to keep track of every one of them. The transition has added a lot of work for our dispatchers, but they’re taking it in stride and doing well with it. We’re pretty proud of them.”
Sheriff Scott Lindsey said the change hasn’t been free of glitches, but is generally going well.
“I think the transition has been fairly smooth,” Lindsey said. “Any time you implement a new project there are going to be some challenges. We have experienced some technical problems with the phone system and radios. Most of those issues have been worked out, while an upgrade to our phone lines still in progress.”
Lindsey said the benefits of the move outweigh any downsides.
“The primary benefit is for the public,” he said. “By having one dispatch center handle all calls it saves time in getting services on the way to the emergency. A benefit for our department is the ability to track all of calls through the computer aided dispatch system from 911.”
Culley said one more dispatcher has been hired this year (who started this week) and one or two more will be brought on soon. Two or three dispatchers are on duty at all times.
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“We’re working toward having three on during every shift,” Culley said.
Texas County 911 dispatchers each have five computer screens to monitor at their work stations. Each has a different function, including incoming and outgoing calls, radio communication, a map system, Computer Aided Dispatch event documentation (CAD) and M.U.L.E.S. (Missouri Uniform Law Enforcement System). The crew on duty shares two other computer screens related to determining an appropriate response agency.
“A lot of people think we just sit here and answer calls,” Culley said. “There’s a lot more to this job than that.”
For a 911 dispatcher, predicting what the next call will involve is impossible.
“We never know what’s coming in,” Culley said. “Things can change in a hurry.”
Many of Texas County 911’s dispatchers have significant experience, so for them surprises are few and far between.
“The longer you do this and the more calls you answer, you’ll eventually deal with the suicides, deaths, bad car accidents, fires and about every other type of ‘bad’ call,” Culley said.
Living in a community with a relatively small population increases the chance that a dispatcher will know people involved in whatever is happening on the other end of the phone line.
“Most of us who have been here for at least four or five years have dealt with family and friends,” Culley said, “sometimes in tragic cases and sometimes not.”
The office phone number at Texas County 911 is 417-967-5309.
•Total calls received: 25,321.
•Law enforcement: 61-percent.
•Medical: 19-percent.
•Fire: 8-percent.
•Other: 12-percent (includes misdials, children playing with the phone, pocket dials and hang up calls).