I-TEAM: The crisis behind invisible superheroes
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - National Public Safety Telecommunications Week takes place the second week of April, and locally, that’s the week after the golf tournament.
More than 10,000 calls came through the Augusta-Richmond County 911 center on Masters week last year. The annual call volume in the county is twice that of Columbia and Burke counties combined.
However, the I-TEAM found a high call volume doesn’t equal high pay.
The city recently increased the starting pay for 911 workers in Augusta, bringing it up to about $33,000 a year. Still too low to attract and retain workers equipped with the unique skill set required to answer life-and-death calls all day long.
Walk through the door of the Augusta-Richmond County 911 center.
“It’s not your typical call center,” said LaShay Jones.
This is where the city’s invisible superheroes work to save the day.
“People aren’t calling 911 for no reason. They’re calling because they need help,” said Jones.
LaShay Jones is no stranger to the superhero business.
MORE FROM THE I-TEAM:
- Discrimination lawsuits filed against Richmond County Sheriff’s Office
- Price of Privacy: The dark side of data
- Shallow promises | A closer look into Izzy’s law
- Dealer released from prison early after Columbia County fentanyl death
“Law enforcement has changed over the last few years so with that I started to think more about my safety and the safety of my family,” she said.
A background in law enforcement combined with motherhood gave her a unique skillset for the role of a 911 air traffic controller.
Liz: “What’s the most challenging part of this job for you?”
Jones: “I would probably say when we have, like, incidents where you have so many different agencies that are attached to the same call.”
In August, gunshots rang out at Josey High School, injuring a student and closing three campuses.
Jones: “911, do you need police, fire or an ambulance?”
Student: “Hello. I go to T.W. Josey High School. Someone was shooting. OMG.”
Jones: “Okay, listen to me very carefully, what I am asking you is the shooting inside or outside your school?”
Student: “The shooting was inside the school. We were sitting at lunch and there were two gunshots. OMG, OMG, I can’t breathe.”
Jones: “All units stand by. Hold all radio traffic. All units stand by.”
Jones: “All units on SB side and also units on Olive Road and 15th Street.”
Jones: “Okay, I got all the units en route to you, okay?”
Student: “Okay, can I call my mom now?”
Jones: “Yes ma’am. You can go ahead.”
Barra Fornshell inherited her superpower from her parents.
Liz: “And so you’ve been doing this for two years? What made you go from nanny arborist to 911 call taker?”
Fornshell: “So, my mom actually is a former number one dispatcher in California. And then she became a sheriff’s deputy. My dad was a sheriff’s deputy, and my stepdad was a police officer.”
It’s the ability to remain calm during high-stress a call and immediately move to the next emergency.
“I had CPR on an infant. It was like a 6-month-old,” she said.
Fornshell: “Place two fingers on the breastbone right between the nipples, okay?”
Caller: “Yes ma’am.”
Fornshell: “You need a one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. That’s the pace you need to be going at, okay?”
Caller: “I, 2, 3.”
Fornshell says after the previous call, her next call was CPR on another infant.
Fornshell: “911, do you need police, fire or an ambulance?”
Caller: “My grandson is not breathing. He is only 7 months.”
Liz: “What happened to those two infants?”
Fornshell: “I don’t believe either of them made it.”
“It’s not for everybody,” said Fornshell. “Multitasking is super important. I think having empathy, but also not going too far and trying to be overly involved, if that makes sense.”
Liz: “What’s kept you here for four years?”
Jones: “For me, personally, the passion for helping people.”
But passion doesn’t pay.
“You know, with 911 in this industry, the pay is one concern, but it’s also the stressors internally and externally that individuals are facing,” said Daniel Dunlap.
Dunlap is the director of the 911 center.
“Some people can’t work for the salary that is being offered,” he said.
Liz: “So why haven’t you bumped up the starting salary?”
Dunlap: “That’s things that we had to do a couple of years ago where we had to eliminate a few positions in order to give increases.”
“Staffing” is listed as one of the major issues in the budget request for the 911 center.
Not everyone is cut out to work in public safety communications.
Some leave because of the stress of the work; some leave for work at smaller dispatch agencies.
Neighboring agencies with less call volume are paying higher starting salaries.
ANOTHER I-TEAM INVESTIGATION:
- More Richmond County Sheriff’s Office firings, demotions
- See how many employees RCSO is losing
- Warrants detail jail confrontation between deputies, inmates
- Amid jail arrest, cop already faced DUI charge
- Augusta DA responds to Richmond County jail incident emails
- Video sheds light on jail incident that spurred arrests of multiple law enforcement officers
- A look at the details in recent Richmond County investigators’ arrest
The I-TEAM found Columbia County receives half the annual calls as Richmond County but starts dispatchers off at $7,000 more a year.
“You know, typically we’ve been advised to keep the budget flat. So those have been the orders. That’s where it comes down,” said Dunlap.
“No increase in service delivery” are the orders from finance to department heads over the last few years.
The I-TEAM found only 50 of the 75 allotted positions for 911 are filled.
Liz: “When is it like at a dangerous level where people cannot reach someone?”
Early Valentine’s Day morning, a ring camera caught a home go up in flames.
A neighbor told Commissioner Sean Frantom that nobody answered his call when he dialed 911.
“Well, typically, and as I explained in an email, you have situations where one incident can saturate and outnumber the number of people that are actually answering the phones,” said Dunlap.
The I-TEAM reviewed call and staffing reports and found three people were working when ten calls came into the 911 center within the same ten-minute window as the fire call.
Many of the superheroes here are supermoms too.
Dunlap: “You got to think 12-hour shifts, you work at night. There’s not too many 24-hour babysitters or entities out there that can watch your child for you.”
End-of-shift reports show callouts from work are often childcare-related.
Liz: “Y’all are pretty much like the first responders before the first responders. and then not to be able to retain people or hire people. And you’re asking for money like, I mean, it’s tough. "
Dunlap: “You know, it’s tough. It’s important to stay positive, as frustrated as it can be at the end of the day, it’s taking care of these folks as much as we can.”
Because these superheroes take care of us.
A couple of years ago, the fire department invested in an automatic dispatch system which means a computer — not 911 dispatchers — dispatches the closest available fire truck to an emergency.
This has helped to alleviate the call volume on dispatchers.
Copyright 2024 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
