Sutter County faces dispatcher shortage; Yuba County dispatchers help pick up the load
By Maricela De La Cruz
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SUTTER COUNTY, California (KCRA) — With only three of 13 dispatcher positions filled at the Sutter County Sheriff’s Office, neighboring Yuba County dispatchers are temporarily taking service and business calls from midnight to 8 a.m.
“The purpose of doing that was to allow us time to handle calls for service during the day and also allow us to train several dispatchers that we’ve hired,” Sutter County Sheriff Brandon Barnes said.
The 90-day partnership between the agencies is the most cost-effective for Sutter, as its hiring process continues. The county’s board of supervisors also approved wage increases for new dispatchers at the sheriff’s office.
To Barnes, dispatchers are the “unsung heroes” of the department.
“They’re not in the patrol car that drives down the street that you see every day but they are the voice that is on the other end of the phone and sometimes during people’s most critical or disastrous moments when they’re scared. They call 911 and that voice is the voice that is going to lead them during the next several minutes of whatever that incident is,” Barnes said.
The sheriff’s office maintains that there will be no noticeable interruptions in service to the public.
In a statement, the Yuba County Sheriff’s said that they have a wonderful working relationship with Sutter County and it’s important that they help each other when a need arises.
“Our Dispatch Center is staffed and equipped to handle the additional calls as they are simply receiving the call and contacting Sutter County deputies via radio to respond to the requested location. The calls will be prioritized in the same way as it always is; higher priority calls will be dispatched first. Yuba County is not having to bring on additional staff to facilitate the assistance provided to SCSO.”
New hires are expected to finish training in about three months.
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