North Hennepin News

With the COVID-19 epidemic causing stay-at-home orders and shutdowns to combat the spread of the virus, many essential employees who cannot work from home are still working hard to help protect the public. 

911 dispatchers are among these essential employees, helping to protect first responders while staying safe from the coronavirus as well. 

Although their call volume is down 25-50%, dispatchers also have to be sure to help protect first responders, asking questions about fevers and symptoms in order to make sure first responders are not responding to a call that would put them at risk of contracting the coronavirus.

“It is our duty. This is what we agreed to do when we took this job. We knew that it was a job that we could never work remotely from home so we are happy to do it,” said Cindy Galland, one of the call dispatchers at Hennepin County Dispatch Center to CBS Minnesota. 

Like other essential places, the Hennepin County Dispatch Center is also taking precautions to prevent the potential spread of the coronavirus among its employees. In order to reduce the number of people in the building at the same time, supervisors are now working 12-hour shifts. Inside the building, dispatchers have permanent keyboards and seats assigned in order to reduce movement throughout the working space while they answer calls.

“Our dispatchers, we are changing their lives just like anyone right now, and they are true sports. They understand the job they got into and they have to make these changes. They are not easy ones to make,” said Tony Martin, the Emergency Communications Director at Hennepin County to CBS Minnesota.

According to Martin, in the event that a staff member of the dispatch center contracts the coronavirus, the center would shut down, and operations would be moved to a backup center located in Golden Valley.