New Police Dept. Requires Dispatchers

When the town of El Mirage (Ariz.) (pop. 7,600) decided to end its contract with the Maricopa Sheriff’s Department and create its own police force, dispatching also changed dramatically: from the sheriff’s department to the town of Surprise (pop. 30,000) under an intergovernmental agreement. Under that plan, Surprise will hire eight more dispatchers (six funded by El Mirage), and staff one additional dispatcher per shift. Background checks are in-progress for all those positions, and supervisors are picking up the slack until the new hires begin work. Recruiting officers has become a big issue since the the decision to end the sheriff’s contract was made in July. The new department went “live” last week with only 32 of the 54 authorized positions, forcing officers to work up to 60 hours of overtime a week until more officers are hired.