One-Third Vacancy Rate

Over one-third of the dispatcher positions at the Gilbert (Ariz.) police department are unfilled, mostly due to a lack of qualified applicants for the job. The city added 15 positions two years ago to help handle an every-increasing workload in the southeastern suburb of Phoenix. But the shifts, working holidays and weekends and other job conditions limit the number of people who apply or finish training. The department is now more carefully screening applicants using the CritiCall system and hopes that will better predict successful candidates. Unitl then, 13 of the center’s 37 positions are vacant. Read more here.