Charleston Co. consolidated dispatch director details staffing shortage

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Officials with the Charleston County Consolidated Dispatch 911 Center delivered a presentation to Charleston County Council where they coved the challenges the center is facing, including their low staffing numbers.

“Of the 124 9-1-1 call-takers and dispatchers that we should be having on the floor to answer calls,” Charleston County Consolidated Dispatch director Jim Lake said, “we have 67 doing that job.”

Lake says they have taken several steps to reduce that gap, and now have several people in training.

“Nine are on-the-job training,” he said, “15 are in classroom. So as of April 7, we have 24.”

This leaves the center with 33 vacancies, which Lake says is the lowest number they’ve had in years. A constant issue he says they run into when working to fill those remaining openings is what’s known as “application ghosting.”

“From June 2022 to February 2023,” Lake said, “we received 516 applications, but over 40 percent of those did not respond to us when we tried to bring them in for an interview, or further along.”

Lake says they’re currently utilizing several recruitment methods to help with their efforts.

“Open interviews, in-person recruitment events, online recruiting, radio advertisements,” he said, “anything we can to bring people in.”

The dispatch director also touched on workload reduction initiatives they’ve recently enacted, and those they plan to implement soon.

“What we’re finding is that we’re doing work that we probably shouldn’t,” Lake said, “and it’s taking away from the work that we should be doing.”

One thing Lake says his staff shouldn’t be doing is fielding administrative calls, which he says will stop starting July 1.

“Our 911 call-takers are the same people answering those administrative lines,” he said. “So, if they’re busy taking an administrative call, they are not answering an emergency call, or a more important call.”

The 911 Center is still hiring, and the starting wage is $19.18 an hour.