Starting next week, the staffers at the Glynn-Brunswick 911 Center are going to be making more money, part of a tiered payment incentive plan approved by the county commissioners to address retention issues at the emergency agency.
According to Cara Richardson, director of the GB-911, the new starting salary will be $43,000 on a step-tier program. The pay plan, funded in the county’s FY25 $205 million budget, also includes new salary tiers for county law enforcement officers and firefighters.
Richardson says the funding is crucial for the E-911 Center, which is down two staff members from last year. The agency currently employs 27 people, but is budgeted for 32. The high-stress job that requires extensive training has an average tenure of 23 months.
She hopes the financial incentives will make it easier to recruit and retain workers while the county works to implement technology upgrades that are coming via a $3.7 million grant that Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter helped secure. The federal funds are supposed to help replace Glynn County’s emergency communications radios, which had an end service date of Dec. 31, 2023, with radios that have LTE and wi-fi capabilities.
Why does this matter?
The GB-911 is the answering point for calls for Glynn County Police, Glynn County Fire and Rescue, College of Coastal Georgia Police, Brunswick Police Department, Brunswick Fire Department and Jekyll Fire/EMS.
Operators in Glynn County are tasked with answering the calls within reasonable times and dispatching whatever service is needed. In comparison, larger metropolitan areas such as Atlanta employ a horizontal Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), which means one person answers the calls and another person dispatches them.
The staff fields call for their respective positions. For example, the Glynn County Fire Rescue Dispatcher takes calls and dispatches Glynn County Fire Rescue units as needed.
The GB-911 center schedule is based on a 14-day period in which staffers work 12-hour shifts with two days on, two days off, three days on, two days off, two days on and three days off. It is usually referred to as every other weekend off.
GB-911 data from Jan. 1 until May 31, 2024, show that call center staffers have a highly paced job.
According to an analysis by The Current, 65.6% of the 24,601 emergency calls made in this period were answered in less than 5 seconds. More than 97% of all emergency calls were answered within 10 seconds, which surpasses the efficiency standard recommended by Georgia’s homeland security agency.
What’s less clear is how Glynn’s 911 emergency center employees are dealing with the pressures of the job.
Glynn County’s human resources department last conducted a county employee engagement survey in 2017 and a training survey in 2019. Respondents in both came from other agencies. According to Dwayne Pollock, director of human resources for Glynn County, GB-911 staffers have not responded to the county’s requests for non-mandatory satisfaction surveys in the past two years.
At the beginning of 2023, the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAEDTM) and the National Association of State 911 Administrators (NASNA) surveyed the 911 center staffing levels across America to understand the challenges these centers face in maintaining an adequate workforce.
The survey found that job stress and low wages are two top reasons people leave 911. It also found that work hours are often problematic because of the job’s 24/7/365 requirements. Staff shortages can compound this, with agencies forcing people to work overtime.
As previously reported by The Current, 911 center employees in Chatham County have reported similar problems with workplace burnout and understaffing.
What does the future look like?
“Develop a community education and outreach program, participate in the county strategic planning for public safety-oriented customer service and feedback and obtain accreditation from (Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies) CALEA,” replied Richardson when asked about the future of GB-911.
The center also plans to upgrade to the Next-Generation 911 system from the enhanced 911 system they have. According to the National 911 Association, older systems across the country are becoming obsolete as new technology becomes available. The NG911 would grow the center’s ability to accept and process various layers of information, including text, images, video and voice calls.