Alaska lawmakers urge federal reclassification of 911 dispatchers

The Alaska Senate Labor and Commerce Committee heard testimony Wednesday on a resolution urging Congress to reclassify emergency dispatchers as first responders rather than clerical workers.

House Joint Resolution 38, sponsored by Representative Carolyn Hall of West Anchorage, asks Congress to pass the Enhancing First Response Act. The federal legislation would move public safety telecommunicators from the clerical category to the protective service class, joining police officers, firefighters, and paramedics. The change would grant dispatchers access to federal training programs, grant opportunities, and mental health resources currently available only to other first responders.

Alaska placed its first 911 call in Nome in 1968, just six days after the nation's first emergency call in Alabama. The profession has changed dramatically since then. Early dispatchers answered phones, learned the location of an emergency, and sent help. Modern dispatchers receive extensive medical training and guide callers through CPR, childbirth, severe bleeding control, and de-escalation techniques over the phone during life-or-death situations.

The work takes a psychological toll. Dispatchers coach people through traumatic events, hand off the response to crews on scene, then immediately answer the next emergency call. There is no closure to the cycle.

"This never-ending cycle of psychological trauma bears its course on the profession," Hall said. "Filling emergency dispatcher positions is difficult and the turnover rate is high."

Erin Kallora, public safety manager for the City and Borough of Juneau, testified that the current federal classification does not reflect the critical work dispatchers perform. She manages the communications center where Juneau's public safety dispatchers work.

Kallora said federal statistics on post-traumatic stress and suicide rates are not kept for dispatchers because they are not categorized as first responders. The technology and responsibilities have changed dramatically over 30 to 40 years. Dispatchers now work with mapping information, caller location data, and other tools far beyond the paper notes and three-part carbon copy forms of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

"It is work that they conduct, has repeated exposure to tragic events, has lasting mental effects, and I believe dispatchers should be in the protective service occupational category along with other first responders," Kallora said.

The Enhancing First Response Act would reclassify public safety telecommunicators under the Standard Occupational Classification system maintained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The bureau currently classifies the profession as a clerical occupation.

Hall introduced HJR 38 on February 23 with co-sponsors Representatives Eischeid, Mears, Story, Josephson, and Galvin. The Alaska House passed the resolution on third reading March 30.

"Emergency dispatchers are our first, first responders," Hall said. "Sixty years ago it made sense for these dispatchers to be classified as clerical, but that is no longer the case. Reclassifying the profession at the federal level not only acknowledges their importance in the first responder system, but it offers dispatchers access to federal training, grants, and wellness resources their fellow first responder colleagues have access to, offering respite during a difficult career."

The committee set aside HJR 38 for further consideration at a future meeting. No vote was taken Wednesday.