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Cloudy early with partial sunshine expected late. High 56F. SSE winds shifting to NW at 10 to 20 mph..
Mainly clear early, then a few clouds later on. Low around 20F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph.
Updated: December 28, 2021 @ 2:01 am
The St. Joseph Police Department needs communications operators. They are currently short eight positions.
The St. Joseph Police Department needs communications operators. They are currently short eight positions.
The St. Joseph Police Department needs communications operators, and officials are looking for applicants.
Capt. John Olszowka recently took over the command center at the police department. They field calls for the police, fire, EMS and sheriff’s departments.
Olszowka said they’re concerned about staffing during a busy storm season.
“We should have a total of 19 operators — we only have 11. So we’re eight down,” Olszowka said. “On an average day, we field about 300 to 400 non-emergency phone calls just coming through the center. Last Wednesday (during the wind storm), it was almost 900. The 911 calls were also tripled.”
The open positions are listed on the city’s website, stjoemo.org, and starting pay has recently been increased. The St. Joseph City Council approved additional funding for salaries, bringing the starting pay to about $18.50 an hour.
“Increasing the starting pay, and the pay of all our dispatchers by 7.5% is a significant increase,” he said. “It’s very well needed and deserved by the ones that are here, and that will bring our starting pay up … around $38,000 a year, roughly, if I’m not mistaken, which should help us recruit and get some new applicants and, like I said, hopefully, fill those positions a little more.”
Olszowka said dispatchers need to be good at multitasking and using multiple screens at a time. Applications can be found at stjoemo.org.
Morgan Riddell can be reached at morgan.riddell@newspressnow.com
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