Comm Center in ‘Crisis Mode’

A pair of articles in the Times-Herald newspaper says that the Vallejo (N. Calif.) police-fire comm center is operating in crisis mode, mainly because the city is nearly broke, officers have been leaving the department and there are not enough resources to handle the incoming calls for service. Two dispatchers handle radio, leaving one to answer telephones, transferring non-emergency calls to voicemail and telling crime victims to report their incident using a Web form. There are just 19 dispatchers to cover all the comm center shifts. Read more about the situation here, and then read a citizen’s complaints about the service here.