911 dispatchers and operators get boost
Gov inks law to make them 1st responders
Thousands of 911 operators and dispatchers across New York state won “first responder” designation under a law signed Saturday by Gov. Hochul.
The bill signing was welcome news to the city’s 1,400 dispatchers and operators, a group made up primarily of women of color who have often felt overlooked even though they are the first voices New Yorkers hear when they call 911 and are key in relaying critical information to cops, firefighters and EMS.
“It means everything to us to be acknowledged as first responders,” said Monique Brown, a dispatcher and operator here across a 32-year career. “It lets the world know how important our job is.”
Legislators say the bill requires that agencies employing 911 operators provide them training “to maintain and enhance [their] knowledge, skills and proficiency.” The 911 operators hope the new law will help them win better pay, benefits and working conditions.
Brown was at work Saturday, 20 years to the day after she helped route NYPD Emergency Services Units to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, from a desk at 11 MetroTech Center.
“I remember the smoke and chaos, people covered in ash,” said Brown. “Some didn’t have shoes on, torn clothes and all they did was get up and go to work that day.”
She now works at a 911 center in the Bronx.
New York becomes the seventh state to formalize the designation. Several previous versions of the proposal languished in Albany until both the Assembly and the Senate passed the bills unanimously back in June.
“Having this bill signed lets us know at last we’ve been recognized finally,” said Alma Roper, executive vice president for Local 1549, which represents the city’s operators and dispatchers.
Roper was a 911 supervisor on Sept. 11, 2001.
“What bothers me is that everyone gets recognized but us,” she said. “This bill gives us the respect that we have worked so tirelessly for.”
Key to bringing the bill forward were Assemblymen Peter Abbate, a Democrat from Brooklyn, and Joseph DeStefano, a Republican from Suffolk County.
“A lot of people think the operators are just people who answer the phone. They don’t recognize the importance of their work,” said DeStefano, who was a 911 supervisor in Suffolk for 27 years. “It’s a recognition that opens the door for many things.”
Abbate noted it took two years to get the bill passed. He said he got involved because cops and firefighters told him how important the operators were to their work.
“They play a vital role and when you realize how stressful the job is, we thought it would [be] deserving for them to have the title,” he said.
Chrystle Bullock, a 20-year veteran of the city’s 911 system, said the stress of hearing one person after another in crisis all day long takes a toll.
“This is going to be a great morale booster,” she said. “Hopefully, the bill will get us better health services, like paid mental health days. We don’t realize how the work affects us.”