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LAPD 911: Don’t blame operators for a crumbling system
9-1-1 in the News, Trends | Greg | July 9, 2010 at 8:58 am
A veteran of LAPD dispatch recently responded to an article in the Los Angeles Times that she felt unfairly targeted emergency dispatchers in the wake of a union orchestrated sickout.
Luisa Goodwin, a dispatcher with LAPD for 8 1/2 years, argues that the current staffing levels are already insufficient to handle the agency’s call volume and that the problem will be compounded by furloughs and layoffs that will be imposed on dispatchers in the coming months.
Part of her reply is excerpted below:
The headline on Andrew Blankstein’s article on July 3, “LAPD’s 911 operators stage a sickout,” has a glaring omission: The sickout was not the idea of dispatchers who work for the Communications Division. I know because I am one.
While some of those employees participated, this sickout was staged and directed by the Coalition of LA City Unions. It focused on a wide range of city workers in danger of being furloughed or laid off, not just dispatchers. It is unfair for Blankstein to lay the blame on our shoulders alone.
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