Commissioners in New Hanover County voted Monday night to approve using $200,000 to help the county's 911 call center hire more temp employees.NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WECT) - Commissioners in New Hanover County voted Monday night to approve using $200,000 to help the county's 911 call center hire more temp employees.
It's no surprise that the stress of the job leads to heavy turnover, but the emergency director said there's more this year than expected. The money will be used to train new hires to work the call center's communication systems.
Emergency Management Director Warren Lee told commissioners that the center has received a high number of calls, including 24,000 abandoned calls. Of those, nearly 16,000 required dispatchers to send law enforcement to contact the caller.
Lee said that it's difficult to distinguish what exactly constitutes an emergency when the center receives calls for numerous agencies in the county.
Commissioner Rick Catlin said the county created the problem by instructing residents to contact 911, rather than an individual department like the Sheriff's Office.
"We need to quit becoming the clearing house for every law enforcement and emergency agency," said Commissioner Jason Thompson.
Commissioners agreed to revisit the issue at a later date to determine a long term solution to the flood of calls to the 911 center.
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