Douglas County Emergency Communications shift supervisor Tony Foster stands by his work station with its seven monitors that feed him information during his 12-hour shift.

Standing in front of his work station in the Douglas County Emergency Communications center, Tony Foster concedes it’s an impressive display.

“People say, ‘Seven screens, that’s a lot,'” he said. “I would take two more. Nine screens. That would be good.”

Under the stress-calming, low light of the center, Foster’s seven monitors present such information as a Douglas County map, important phone numbers, addresses and statuses of current incidents. It is his work station for his 12-hour shifts as day dispatch supervisor.

The four other dispatchers on duty last Monday afternoon watched similar screens, ready to take 911 phone calls or call out emergency response.

In 2014, dispatchers moved into a newly renovated space at the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, which is equipped with 10 stations. That number factored in the future needs of the city of Lawrence and the county, said Rich Barr, deputy director of Douglas County Emergency Communications. Right now, it staffs four dispatchers for those shifts early in the workweek and adds a fifth for Fridays and weekends when a higher volume of calls are expected, he said.

“Our goal is five for all shifts,” Barr said. “We’re working toward that goal.”

Those efforts include training more dispatchers, Foster said. That’s not a quick process because it takes time to train dispatchers to work independently. Just how much time varies from person to person, but the rule of thumb is six to eight months, he said.

“We take a lot of pride in how we handle emergencies,” he said. “It’s important that when people call 911, they get the best service possible. With the sheer amount of technology and knowledge dispatchers have to have, we don’t want to have people stressed by asking them to do too much before they are comfortable.”

Although shifts from Thursday through Sunday are typically the busiest, the center can get instantly hectic at any time of any day, Foster said. He experienced such a day early in his career as a dispatcher.

“When I was really new, there were three situations at the same time,” he said. “There was a construction accident on K-10, a rollover on Interstate 70 and a motorcycle accident on U.S. 24-40. It wasn’t any one of those, but all three at the same time, that taxed our resources to make sure everybody got the responders in the time they needed. It was a sunny, clear day. There was no correlation. Like so many things in this business, it was how the dice rolled.”

The ability of the center and those like it to professionally manage such a crisis is currently being celebrated with National Emergency Telecommunications Week.

“It brings to light what we do,” Foster said. “A lot of times, we are behind the scenes with the job we perform.”

The Douglas County center is looking to use the week to promote the Smart 911 system that has been available for the past three years. The system allows county residents to enter online at smart911.com information that could be critical in an emergency, Foster said. That information could be where a house’s doors are, location of gas shut-off valves, medications that residents use, allergic drug reactions, medical history, pets and more.

Residents can use the website to enter as much or a little as they choose, secure in the knowledge dispatchers can only view the information when they call 911, Foster said.

“What’s nice is it’s only the information a person wants to share,” he said. “The only time we can see the information is when the person calls 911. It’s a very secure system.”

The system also allows a caller to communicate with dispatchers through texts, Foster said. It is currently the only means to text the center, which can be useful when someone doesn’t want to be overheard sharing details with a dispatcher, he said.