San Francisco city leaders came together Wednesday to celebrate the completion of a yearlong renovation of the city’s 911 dispatch center.
The updated 911 dispatch center had an official ribbon cutting as it is renovated and ready.
Mary Ellen Carroll, the executive director of the Department of Emergency Management, joined Mayor London Breed and others to highlight a remodeled center.
“We had to get ready for our next generation 911 technology, out new computer aided dispatch system, that we were will be getting over the next few years," she said. "Just in general, make room for more advancement in technology, so that we can expand as we grow.”
The center also includes a new training room, revamped break room, a supervisor workspace reconfigured for better oversight and five more dispatcher workstations with room to grow as needed.
Burt Wilson, who is a dispatcher and union leader, said the renovated space is half the battle. While the other half is finding the dispatchers that San Francisco and nearly every other U.S. city desperately needs.
“The real issue is staffing, we have a staffing crisis and we need to update our system,” he said.
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The city said the push to address the staffing challenges started years ago.
“We are finally starting to see a turn in that crisis," Carroll, said. "So, for instance we were unable to fill our academy classes, not even by 50% over the last two years, we are going to see a class next month that will be almost full and we have two more classes that are scheduled that we are very confident will be full."
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Leaders said they are also working to streamline the application process and have hired a recruiter.
