The Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency (CRESA) operates around the clock handling emergencies that range from cardiac arrests to property crimes, all while adapting to a rapidly growing population and increasing demand.
For Jason Fritz, CRESA deputy director of 911 operations, the daily reality inside the communications center is both intense and constant.
To start the day, CRESA begins with a minimal amount of staffing on the communications floor. That staffing model shifts throughout the day as demand increases. Fritz explained that early mornings tend to be quieter, but by the afternoon, the call center ramps up significantly.
“We build up our operations every two hours, and so by the time we hit our peak call volume at around 1 o’clock, we’re fully staffed at around 14 to 16 folks on the floor with a supervisor, sometimes two supervisors depending on what’s going on,” Fritz said. “And that could be anywhere between four and six call takers, and then probably 11 to 12 dispatchers; again some of them with call taking capabilities, as well, to handle that influx of calls. That happens notoriously with any call center. The bell curve is the same … It gets busier in the afternoon and evening and night hours, and then it starts to drop off.”
With the peak call volume time frames and staffing totals to handle that workload, Fritz explained it isn’t without its steady stream of emergencies and high-stress situations.
“I can walk out on the floor and almost notoriously I’m listening to somebody give CPR instructions,” he said. “Or a little rare is the baby deliveries, but it’s not uncommon. We do it quite often. You know, lots of disorderly subjects, assaults. It’s just day in and day out. That’s the type of work that we do.”
Growth bringing pressure, and change
As Clark County’s population has steadily increased, so too has the demand on emergency services. That growth has put pressure on staffing levels, something Fritz said the agency has been working aggressively to address in recent years.
“When I came here in ‘23, CRESA was kind of behind the eight ball on staffing,” Fritz said.
The shortfall led to significant strain on employees, including long, mandatory shifts.
“We had call takers and dispatchers that were working mandatory 14-hour shifts,” he said.
Fritz explained that part of the staffing woes was budget related while part of it was the expectation to “do more with less.”
When Fritz started, CRESA had some new board members and a fresh strategic plan accompanying 10-year growth. An aggressive hiring pattern had just started as well, he said.
“I saw a lot of red on the board, which means we were below staffing and we need to get staffing in there, and it was just red all the time,” Fritz said. “And as we got into late ‘24, early ‘25, the red started to go away and there started to be more stability, right? And you could feel the relief from the dispatchers on the floor that they weren’t forced to work 14 hours, and overtime was actually becoming a little bit more popular. People wanted it. They wanted to volunteer for overtime because they weren’t getting it as much on a mandatory basis.”
Since the staffing woes that occurred when Fritz started at CRESA in his role, the agency has made strides in hiring, bringing on more than a dozen employees and working toward a more sustainable staffing model.
Despite progress, staffing challenges remain. Fritz said the agency is still working toward full staffing and planning ahead for attrition and leave.
“We’re running around six bodies down right now,” he said. “But we’ve got two call takers that are out on the floor in training and we’ve got a full academy scheduled for June.”
Training and turnover present ongoing challenges
Becoming a fully trained dispatcher is a lengthy and demanding process, often taking more than a year from hiring to certification.
Becoming a call taker can require a timeframe of around six to eight months. In that time, applicants will take part in a two-month in-house academy with classroom study learning CRESA’s policies and procedures, how to take calls and other requirements of dispatchers.
“Because that’s important to know what happens on the dispatch side so they know to ask the right questions on the call taking side,” Fritz said.
After the in-house academy, they begin working with a certified trainer who helps them as they start to take calls, which can be two to four months of on-the-job training to get fully certified in call taking. After being fully certified, Fritz said they are released to the floor to take calls on their own, but not fully off-leash yet.
“They have a four-month probationary period,” he said. “They’ve got four months to do non-supervised, basically, training on their own before they’re actually off probation. At that point, they would be eligible to go into dispatching if they wanted to. When they go through police and fire, it could be another six to eight months.”
The full timeframe from new hire to dispatcher could take anywhere between 12 to 18 months. Fritz said it is a very intense program and not an easy job.
“We have about a 50 percent washout rate, even as careful as we are at hiring people. Just the hiring process alone is pretty rigid,” he said. “Going through some of the testing that we do, and, you know, once candidates make it through that, you’re like, ‘Hey, we’ve got a pretty good, solid candidate here.’ And then they get out there on the job and it’s either just wasn’t meant for them once they start taking those calls day in and day out or, for whatever reason, they’re just unable to do the tasks that we need them to do. We obviously invest everything we can into them to keep them as long as we can, but unfortunately, sometimes there’s a point where you just have to cut ways.”
Wait times can still happen
While most calls are answered quickly, wait times can vary during major incidents when call volume spikes.
“We strive to look at the National Emergency Number Association standard of handling calls, which is, 95 percent of your calls are answered in 20 seconds or less, and 90 percent of your calls are 15 seconds or less,” Fritz said. “We’re right in there, about 18 seconds is what our average answer time is.
However, during large scale incidents or mass call volume, delays can certainly occur. Fritz explained that often during a major incident, or a high-visibility fire — such as a freeway brush fire — CRESA will receive several hundred calls in a matter of minutes.
“We may have eight or nine folks that can answer the phone call at that time, and that’s even when we're fully staffed,” Fritz said, adding that a couple hundred calls can create a lengthy queue. “So do we have those hold times? Sure, I can see those out there. They’re one-offs as far as I’m concerned.”
Fritz strongly encourages residents to never hangup on 911 if one were to get frustrated with a wait time. Ultimately, all that does is push a recall to the end of the queue.
“It is very important to hold,” he said. “We always tell people ‘don’t hang up.’ When you hang up, that person that was on hold for two minutes and 34 seconds, you hang up, it’s going to show up to us as an abandoned call. They’re eventually going to get a call back from us.”
To improve efficiency, CRESA recently implemented new technology to handle those abandoned calls.
“We actually have an automated text that goes out if you abandon your call,” Fritz said. “They’re going to get a text saying, ‘Hey, you recently called 911. Did you really need help? Yes or no?’ If you press ‘no,’ the call gets cleared out and we’re good. If you say ‘yes,’ it is going to automatically connect you back into the 911 system so that we can talk to you and find out what that additional information is.”
Fritz said that new technology will help free up call takers from having to call back manually, which takes time away from answering a crucial call, if the call back was for an accidental 911 ring.
A high-stress environment
Fritz emphasized that the reality of working in a 911 center is far different from what is portrayed on television.
“Well, first of all, not what they see on TV for sure, right?” Fritz said. “Calls aren’t handled that quickly. … It’s not what you see there. It’s a very stressful environment.”
Call takers often deal with people during the most difficult moments of their lives, requiring them to quickly shift between high-intensity emergencies and routine calls.
“You’re dealing with people on their worst days,” Fritz said.
Sometimes, call takers are dealing with people that maybe have never really called 911 in their life. Fritz said some calls per shift do not involve immediate threat or damage to someone’s life or property, which is where calling 311 can come into play.
A constant emotional shift can occur throughout the lengthy shift, which can take a toll.
“As a call taker, you just took a call unfortunately of somebody that was in cardiac arrest and probably didn’t make it, and then now you’re switching and taking a non-emergency call,” Fritz explained. “So just being able to work through that, being able to have a good work-life balance, but yeah, it can be a very stressful environment. For your average shift being 10 hours a day, it’s 10 hours of just nonstop calls coming in. You’ll handle several hundred calls in your shift.”
Supporting those behind the headset
Recognizing the emotional toll of the job, CRESA has also expanded support systems for employees, including peer support programs and debriefings.
“We have a peer support team here too, as well, now,” Fritz said. “Which, five, six, seven, eight years ago, you didn’t even have that.”
While first responders see firsthand the worst of the worst, visuals that can create PTSD, behind the headset, call takers and dispatchers will hear what may be happening or an instant reaction to what did happen before law enforcement, firefighters and EMS arrive.
Fritz noted that even without being physically present at a scene, call takers can experience trauma through what they hear. He added that he has heard blood-curdling screams of a woman actively being assaulted, and that was enough for him to be left with a lasting impact.
“I will get pages that say, ‘Hey, so and so just took a really tough call.’ We’ll make sure that person is being checked in with. If they need some time off the floor, we get in some time off the floor,” Fritz said. “And if they need peer support engaged, then they’ll get peer support engaged.”
Call takers and dispatchers are now also increasingly included in debriefings following critical incidents.
“Our partners out in the field being able to include us in their debriefings has been huge,” Fritz said.
Supervisors and staff monitor each other closely on a regular basis to ensure support is provided when needed.
“I think sometimes you can just say, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ Fritz said. “And they’re good, you know, check back in with them a couple of hours later because sometimes it takes a couple of hours for that to trigger. It’s a tough job, and you need to make sure that their mental stability is there and they feel supported in that manner.”
