TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) - The Tallahassee-Leon County Consolidated Dispatch Agency, an organization that has faced backlash for response times, is now training new 911 operators.
When Dee Crumpler became the interim director of the CDA in December 2015, one of his first goals was to get more personnel in the Consolidated Dispatch Agency.
Crumpler says they were about 23% under staffed. It's not a quick process, to train a 911 operator it takes about nine months and then an additional 18 months before the 'art' is really learned.
The first 'emergency class' started this week, it consists of 13 individuals. The CDA is starting another class is April and they hope to have 24 individuals in that class.
The requirements are 30 hours of college and or a year of work experience, people who can think on their feet, multi task, as well as take a polygraph test. The starting salary is around $30,000.
In the process of hiring an additional group of people that they're calling 'tier one' call takers, that will take non-essential, non 911 calls. Over 60% of the CDA's calls in the last two months were non-911 related calls.
