By Joshua Wood
Saratoga Sun
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

SARATOGA — “Throughout the entirety of the event, our dispatchers were subject to the screams of the 911 callers, the gunshots in the background and the 911 callers yelling that our deputy was dead over the phone.”

Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken recounted the officer-involved shooting on June 8 in Baggs as he advocated for legislation during the Oct. 1 meeting of the Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Committee in Riverton. 

For the second time during the interim between legislative sessions, the committee discussed a bill that would allow dispatchers to qualify for workers’ compensation for mental injury. Such services are available to first responders, a definition which currently doesn’t include dispatchers.

“When the phone rings”

On June 8, Sgt. Zach Burns with the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office was shot three times while responding to a call of a man firing a gun within city limits. The shooting, said Backen, came upon conducting a traffic stop. The gunman, who has still not been identified, was later killed by law enforcement in a shootout. Burns returned home earlier this year.

“They [dispatchers] were also subject to the worst sound, which is radio silence when you’re trying to raise a deputy after a violent altercation,” said Bakken. “In order to help alleviate the stresses and the emotional injury they were subjected to that day, they filed claims for workman’s compensation and they were denied because of their classification as not a first responder.”

Bakken wasn’t alone in testifying in support of the draft legislation. Joining him in Riverton was Adam Estenson, mayor of Thermopolis. Estenson told the joint committee he and another mayor had begun discussing the issue of dispatchers as first responders and encouraged their local law enforcement to “help move the conversation forward.”

“For us, this came down to a simple reality. Dispatchers are first responders. When a dispatcher goes to work in Wyoming, the phone doesn’t ring because your favorite aunt is wishing you a happy birthday. When the phone rings, someone is very often having one of the worst days of their life,” said Estenson. “In our small Wyoming communities, there’s a pretty good chance that dispatcher knows the person on the other end of the phone. They may know the family whose house is burning, they may recognize the voice of the caller having suicidal ideations, they may know the person involved in the wreck. Sometimes they pick up that phone and discover the person on the other end is their own family.”

Estenson said the Hot Springs County Dispatch had such an experience when one of the dispatchers received a call about a crash involving her own child.

“She stayed at the console. She did her job, she got the information where it was needed and continued doing her duty until someone could relieve her at that console. Afterward, we as a community did what we could to help that valued member and with a lot of experience stay at the console,” said Estenson. “In my time as mayor, I’ve seen two seasoned dispatchers reach the point where they could no longer stay in the profession.”

“These aren’t abstract numbers”

Under current state statute, the first responder definition extends to law enforcement, employed or volunteer firefighters, search and rescue personnel and ambulance personnel. 

Wyoming isn’t alone in not considering dispatchers as first responders, as surrounding states are a mix of classifications, according to information provided by the Legislative Services Office.

In Colorado, for example, dispatchers who suffer mental injuries are compensated for up to 36 weeks, and they must be either temporarily or permanently disabled. Idaho treats dispatchers—or emergency communication officers—as first responders and mental health benefits apply to first responders with post-traumatic stress injuries. Nebraska offers workers’ compensation for mental injuries but does not include dispatchers in their definition of first responder.

A presentation from LSO claimed adding or expanding benefit eligibility would increase risk to the workers’ compensation fund, but that since 2020 there has not been a pattern of overuse of the fund by first responders. According to the same presentation, there are 350 dispatchers in Wyoming with an average hourly rate of $24.76. With that information, LSO proposed an annual premium of $854.82.

“From my seat as mayor, these aren’t abstract numbers. These are employees we recruit. We train them, we depend on them and we care deeply about them. In the testimony today we talked about costs and claims and definitions and what other states do, and that’s all important,” said Estenson. “I’m simply here to put that person behind the console, the person on the other end of that phone when you have an emergency, in this seat here today.”

“Dispatchers are the first first responders”

Both Bakken and Estenson in their testimony said they believed dispatchers should be considered first responders.

“It’s my professional opinion, so take that for what it’s worth, many of my cohorts that our dispatchers are the first first responders, if you will,” said Bakken. “They coordinate life-saving resources across their entire jurisdiction, they walk people through basic first aid, prehospital trauma care, CPR, suicidal ideation [and] mental health crisises (crises) all via telephone, radio and text. They essentially manage the entire event prior to the physical boots on the ground arriving on scene.”

As the committee discussed the draft legislation, two amendments were offered. 

One from Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R–Torrington included dispatch centers operated by joint powers boards with municipal and county dispatch centers. Another, proposed by the Wyoming Mental Health Alliance, sought to broaden the scope of mental health providers in the draft to include “all medical professionals qualified within their scope of practice.”

The draft legislation will be revisited in November when the joint committee meets on Nov. 12 in Cheyenne.

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