911 Center needs help

Chelsea Weeks, Claremore Daily Progress, Okla.
·2 min read

Aug. 16—Northeast Oklahoma E911 Trust Authority — commonly known as the Rogers County 911 — is in need of help and is seeking to hire four full-time workers.

"We're here to serve the community, but we need help doing that," Director Vicki Atchley said.

Atchley said they are allocated to have 24 people and run with three to five personnel per 12 hour shift, but are understaffed. Atchley said she's been trying to fill the four full-time positions for six months.

"Right now we are running short on every shift because we can't train people," she said. "We can't hire people."

Atchley said workers are having to work overtime because they have to have at least three seats filled each shift.

"So, when they work overtime, they're working an additional 12-hour shift," she said. "I've got one on the floor that's on her 11th 12-hour shift. ... So, you're wearing people down and burning them out. You know as well as anybody else, if you work that many hours in a day, that many consecutive days — you're not sharp."

Atchely said the call center gets 200 calls — 911 and non emergency calls, plus radio traffic — a day. She said they average 200K calls a year with half of them being service calls.

"So, we're a busy center," she said. "And that's because we dispatch for the entire county except for Catoosa."

Atchley said being understaffed has impacted the morale of the center, stress level and ability to help people who call as they have to make priority decisions. She said all calls are answered, but user agencies — like fire or police — may have to wait longer for them to respond.

"We survived COVID," she said. "Post COVID, we are not surviving."

Atchely said the hiring process takes up to three weeks and includes an assessment test, two-hour sit along, two-hour skills test in multitasking scenario based situations (which includes skills in spelling, type 45 words per minute, computer literacy), oral interview, background check and medical screening.

"We're still guided by FBI regulations," she said.

She said training for the job can be from six months to a year long.

The pay is $15 and includes employer paid benefits.

Anyone interested can email rogerscounty911.ok@gmail.com for a job application or go through Express Personnel.