Crime & Safety
East Haven 911 Dispatchers: Busiest Along the Shoreline
National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week begins Sunday. And it's a good time to take a look at how busy East Haven's professional dispatchers are — by the numbers.
Each year, the second full week of April is set aside to honor the men and women who serve as public safety telecommunicators — aka 911 dispatchers.
This year, National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week begins on Sunday and runs through to next Saturday, or April 14-20.
And so what better opportunity to not only recogize East Haven's own professional dispatchers for their service, but also take a quick look at how busy the town's 911 lines actually are.
A Busy Start to the Year
For the first three months of this year, East Haven Professional 911 Telecommunicators answered 2,916 emergency calls, according to a post on the union's Facebook page.
Those almost 3,000 911 calls do not include non-emergency business line calls that are also answered by one of the town's five dispatchers: Raymond Kline, Ralph Vuolo, Kim Coppola, Stephen Johnson or Liz Christian.
"In those three months, we dispatched 1,555 calls for service," Raymond Kline, who runs the union's Facebook page, stated in the post.
He added that those calls can range from public assists, gas and other hazmat emergencies, motor vehicle accidents, all types of fires, medical calls, wires down, water-related emergencies, as well as other types emergency calls.
"Our 911 center operates with 1 professsional telecommunicator on per shift, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year," Kline noted.
Busiest Along the Shoreline
But how does East Haven's call volume from January to March this year compare with other area towns? It was by far the busiest emergency 911 system here along the shoreline.
Let's take a look at the region's town-by-town breakdown of 911 call totals for the first quarter of the year:
- East Haven - 2,916
- Branford - 2,304
- North Haven - 1,860
- Guilford - 1,648
- North Branford - 1,085
- Madison - 1,016
- Clinton - 832
- Old Saybrook - 710
"Remember, this is 911 calls only, this doesnt include calls that come in on routine phone lines," Kline noted again, referring to the neighboring town's numbers.
What do you think of East Haven's emergency phone line call volume? Are you surprised at how it compares to those of other shoreline towns? Let us know in the comments below.
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