WESTFIELD – The Public Safety Communications Commission took action Wednesday at a special meeting to fill an emergency telecommunications dispatcher vacancy.
Police Chief John Camerota said the vacancy was created when the Police Commission appointed Jullian Koziol, who has served as an emergency response dispatcher for the past three years, to serve as the police department’s domestic abuse clerk.
That appointment created an opening in the ranks of the emergency dispatcher corps.
“We lucked out,” Camerota said. “A former dispatcher who left for greener pastures decided that those pastures are not as green as he thought, so he is reapplying for the emergency response dispatcher job. He has all of the necessary training and is ready to go.”
The commission voted to hire Jason Ronan to replace Koziol who will assume her domestic abuse prevention duties on Monday, Aug. 10. Camerota said that he anticipates Ronan will have a similar start date.
Public Safety Communication Director John Medley said that two other people are currently completing the state mandated training as well as on-the-job training program and are expected to join the emergency dispatcher corps by the end of the month.
“Jason Ronan is filling a vacancy, effective this month and we have two people in training to be certified as emergency telecommunication dispatchers, so we should have a full complement (of dispatchers) by the end of the summer to reduce overtime,” Medley said.
Camerota said that the lack of properly certified dispatchers has required that department to be “using a lot of overtime.”
The Public Safety Communications Center is located next to Barnes Regional Airport and is co-located with the city’s Technology Department. The City Council approved an ordinance creating the Public Safety Communications Department which combined the dispatcher functions of the Police and Fire departments.
The state further regulated emergency dispatcher procedures and training. The state Public Safety Department “is charged by statute (M.G.L. c. 6A, § 18B) with establishing certification requirements for enhanced 911 telecommunicators, including but not limited to, emergency medical dispatch and quality assurance of emergency medical dispatch programs in the Commonwealth, and with establishing standards requiring public safety answering points to have certified emergency medical dispatch personnel or to provide emergency medical dispatch through certified emergency medical dispatch personnel.”
Meanwhile, officials say a Lawrence 911 dispatcher is under investigation for hanging up on several callers who did not speak English.
WBZ-TV reports the dispatcher, whose name has not been released, has been placed on paid leave and could lose her job.
Police Chief James Fitzpatrick says dispatchers are supposed to get a translator on the line if they’re having difficulty understanding a caller. He says residents should not hesitate to call 911 even if there is a language barrier.
Fitzpatrick says one caller who may have been in need of help and was hung up on never called back.
Mayor Dan Rivera says the dispatcher’s actions could have put residents in harm’s way.
According to U.S. Census estimates, more than one-third of Lawrence’s residents speak English “less than very well.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
