HEC employees concerned for citizen's safety

02:53 PM CST on Tuesday, November 30, 2004

By Amy Tortolani / 11 News

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Dispatchers from Houston's Emergency Center gathered Tuesday to voice concern over their working conditions and how they might affect public safety.

Why are HEC employees sending out a call for help?

Latrella Thomas and Demetrias Flint have both been answering citizen's emergency calls for more than a decade.

KHOU-TV

The shortage of employees and system problems are causes of concern for two veteran emergency dispatchers.

They worry now that they may fail citizens in their most desperate times of need.

"If you're not alert and understand the citizens and what they're saying, then you got a lot of other worries going on, like if the system is going to be up and working, if it's accurate -- so it's a safety issue," says Flint.

The 911 call takers say they are being forced to work overtime because there are too many vacant positions and colleagues who continuously call in sick.

"Sometimes we work 12 to 16 hours a day," says Thomas.

The public information officer for Houston's Emergency Center says it is working to fill those vacant positions. This isn't the first time there have been problems at the HEC.

"It's getting worse. The system is constantly going down," says Flint.

Since it opened its doors in fall 2003 there have been several incidents of trouble with the system. It suffered again a few weeks ago during a systems upgrade.

Flint and Thomas women say it happens more times than the callers know.

The HEC says it is running at 99.7 percent efficiency, and it's even bringing in a third party to evaluate the overall system.

But the two women claim by the time that happens, it may be too late to help the citizens.

Flint says that it worries her that one day she might not be able to send help, and that someone might die. "You sure don't want that to happen to your family, and I don't want it to happen to mine," she says.

HEC officials say that Monday was the first day of work for 12 new employees, and that should reduce the long days for other employees.

But those who've been there a while say they want to meet with Mayor White to make sure other problems get addressed in a timelier manner.