Project RETAINS - 9-1-1 Issues - APCO International

Comm Center Staffing Formulas
Old Studies in a New Environment
YVONNE KLEES, FEATURES EDITOR

Staffing comm centers with the proper number of dispatchers/calltakers is not an exact science. Formulas can and should be used as a basis for getting the staffing you need. Unfortunately, existing formulas are a bit antiquated, and no national, standard staffing formula exists on which comm centers can rely.

After reviewing the data from two studies conducted in the late 1970s, industry experts concluded the formula is still valid, even given technology changes and increased volume of wireless calls. But the information must be revalidated to meet these changes, said Joe Noce, APCO's Arizona chapter president and administrator for the Mesa (Ariz.) Police Department. Noce researched staffing formulas while developing a comm center business plan for his master's degree program. He found two studies that included staffing formulas. The first was conducted in 1975 by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA). In it, CAD system operations at two California police departments were observed. The second, "The Design and Costing of 9-1-1 Systems - A Technical Manual," resulted from a nationwide two-year study begun in 1978 by SRI International for the LEAA. It was designed to assist federal, state and local officials in planning and implementing cost-effective 9-1- 1 service and to provide comprehensive, step-by-step instructions for designing a 9-1-1 system.

Noce focused primarily on the more comprehensive information in the 1978 study, but he maintains the validity of the 1975 report. "When I was working on my business plan, my supervisor told me I couldn't use something that was written in 1975 or 1978. The technology has changed. What I found after talking to several industry experts was these studies are valid. What we must do is revalidate them," he said.

An important aspect of the formula is determining a center's service level. "For instance, you want to answer calls within 10 seconds [a national call-answering standard], the average call is 15 seconds and it takes 10 seconds after you hang up before you can take another call," Noce said. "Your agency's criteria determines that service interval. Then you plug in your statistics and your projected call load [volume]." Mark where the data intersects on a matrix to determine your staffing levels.

That, of course, is a very raw outline of the process, which is much more involved. Thirteen pages of the manual are dedicated to compute the number of calltakers needed to staff a comm center. To arrive at this number, several values must be obtained or assumed for the parameters of ringdown time, average call-answerer-occupied time and call volume.

"Ringdown time" is the length of time a phone rings before it is answered. "Average call-answerer-occupied time" is the average time it takes a calltaker to process an incoming call by the direct dispatch method, plus the time taken to transfer, relay or refer calls.

Call volume is determined by data taken from the busiest hour each PSAP shift is in operation.

Use these factors to begin computing the necessary number of calltakers per shift for a one-stage (dispatching and calltaking function performed by the same person) or multi-stage (dispatching and calltaking are two separate functions) operation. Incidentally, results from APCO's nationwide comm center staffing survey reveal 44 percent of all respondents served as both calltakers and dispatchers.

After determining the number of calltakers needed to staff each shift (swing, night and day shifts), you can compute the total number of required call answerers. The total call-answering staff must be large enough to work 40 hours a week and have time off for vacations, sick leave and holidays. To compute the simple, estimated number, multiply the total number of calltakers by an adjustment factor between 1.5 and 1.7. Your answer will reveal the total number of calltakers needed.

There is much more to staffing than just using the formula. You must consider other factors. Your staff may have other duties, including report-writing, data-entry and filing. Dispatchers/calltakers may monitor activities on surveillance screens, they may dispatch more than one type of service or they may have to deal with the public. These variables affect the accuracy of the numbers you come up with.

Perhaps one of the most dramatic changes made in the past 10 years that will affect the manpower you need is the proliferation of wireless calls made to 9-1-1 centers. This will significantly increase call volume and the time it takes to process a call.

People with wireless phones are much more likely to report something they see, whether it is an accident or a crime. "I think we're responsible for this increase in calls inasmuch as we are a profession that encourages people to call us," Noce said. "Plus people can call us whenever they want, whenever they see something happen, which adds to the increased call volume."

It takes a longer time to process wireless enhanced 9-1-1 calls. "With wireline phones at least we have the [location] information," Noce said. "With wireless phones, it takes longer to get that information. If you have an ALI (Automatic Location Identification) query and lose connectivity, you can at least find someone that way."

Steve Souder, administrator for the Arlington County (Va.) Public Safety Communications Center and APCO Comm Center Staffing Task Force chair, said a PSAP's staffing needs and budget requests are often driven by the number of calls they dispatch. "But when you get 70 calls reporting the same accident, only one dispatch will result," he said. Therefore you must track wireless and wireline calls separately .

"Our wireless call volume is at 38 percent," Souder said. "In some places, it is as high as 50 percent. Anyone with an interstate high-way located nearby will get a lot of wireless calls."

Establishing a staffing formula is difficult unless you can attach a standard to it. "'Who said that? Where did you get that formula? Why did you do that?' These are all questions you get from people in government if you don't attach the formula to some national standard," Souder said. "If you can tag it to a standard created by, for instance, APCO, people will accept the formula as having authority . "

"There should be a national standard of sorts, and there is nothing to keep APCO from establishing one," Souder added. "But it should have relevance to all the agencies affected by it."

He concluded, "Having a standard doesn't mean complying completely with it, but at least you would have something you can hang your hat on. The numbers won't just reflect the whim and will of a particular center without justifying why you should use them."