SACRAMENTO — The first Sunday of 2023 started slow in a dispatch center that serves Sacramento County but quickly picked up as rain, flooding, and winds carried dozens of cars off roadways and trapped drivers in floodwaters along Dillard Road near Highway 99.
Have you ever called the police to report something, only to wait on hold and hang up out of frustration? In Merced County, chances are the person on the other end of the line probably feels the same way.
Those who help others sometimes need help themselves.
As part of the Ohio First Responder Recruitment, Retention and Resilience Program, the department will be allocated $310,000 over a two-year period for annual wellness checkups for police officers and dispatchers, funding for additional mental-health visits as needed and advanced individual-wellness training for employees, according to Myers.
“We are absolutely diverting essential resources away from people who need it toward a feature on a phone.”
During a mid-December weekend the dispatchers at the Summit County 911 Center fielded 71 automated crash notifications from skiers’ iPhones and Apple watches at the county’s four ski areas. None of them involved an emergency.
The passage of Senate Bill 3127 that officially went into law this week was a surprise.
It specifically makes “emergency medical dispatchers” first responders. But he said that doesn’t cover everyone.
