Part Two of Three: A Fair Retirement for New York State’s 911 Dispatchers
A Three-Part Look at Life Behind the Headset from Casey D. Howe, veteran 911 Dispatcher and Advocate, Follow Howe’s effort on Facebook
In the first part of this series, I tried to explain what 911 dispatchers carry. We hear people during the worst moments of their lives, help them through the phone and radio, and then answer the next call before we have had time to process the last one.
That is why I am fighting for an optional 25-year retirement plan for New York State 911 dispatchers and emergency communications professionals.
This is not about asking for a handout. It is not about taking anything away from police officers, firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, correction officers or anyone else in public safety. I have served beside many of them, and much of my own family has spent their lives in public service.
This is about recognizing that dispatchers are part of public safety too.
People sometimes say, You knew what you were signing up for.
To an extent, I did. I grew up around public safety. I was an EMT for more than 15 years. I volunteered as a firefighter and led a volunteer EMS agency. I understood night shifts, holidays, missed family time and the responsibility that comes with answering a call for help.
What I did not know was how impossible some calls are to prepare for. I do not know how anyone could be fully ready for the sound of a parent screaming for help, talking someone through CPR on their child or hearing the last moments of someone’s life.
I also did not know what it would feel like to hear friends or family members in trouble over the radio while sitting at a console, unable to physically help them. I have experienced trauma in other areas of public safety, but nothing has affected me in the same way dispatching has.
Read Part One of Three, “And the Phone Rings Again below:
That does not mean other first responders have it easy. They do not. Dispatchers carry a different kind of trauma. We are emotionally present at scene after scene, often without seeing the outcome or having the chance to talk it through before the next emergency begins.
And the phone rings again.
Now consider how long a 911 dispatcher in New York State may have to keep doing that work.
Under the current system, a Tier 6 dispatcher who starts at age 18 could be 63 before receiving an unreduced retirement benefit. That is potentially 45 years of answering emergency calls, working nights, weekends, holidays and mandatory overtime, missing family moments and carrying pieces of other people’s worst days home.
Forty-five years.
That is too long.
The optional 25-year legislation, S.7635-B and A.9162-A, would allow participating public employers to provide eligible dispatchers and emergency communications professionals with a 25-year retirement plan.
For me, it may shorten my career by about five years. For a young dispatcher just starting out, it could mean 15 or 20 years. That is a lifetime in this profession.
I am not fighting only for myself. I am fighting for the dispatcher who is just beginning and has no idea yet which voices will stay with them. I am fighting for their spouse and children, who should not have to spend decades watching the job slowly take more and more of the person they love.
After 25 years of taking emergency calls, giving lifesaving instructions, working mandatory overtime and carrying the voices of people in crisis, a dispatcher should have the option to step away with dignity.
I do not think that is unreasonable. I think it is humane.
A fair retirement plan is also about protecting the 911 system itself. Communications centers across New York State struggle to recruit and keep experienced dispatchers. This work requires people who can make fast decisions, communicate clearly and stay calm while someone else is panicking. Those skills take years to develop.
When a center is short-staffed, the people who remain work more overtime. They miss more time with their families. They become exhausted. Eventually, some leave because they or their families cannot take any more. Then the cycle begins again.
A 25-year plan would give people a reason to build a career in emergency communications and stay long enough to pass their experience to the next generation. It would tell dispatchers that New York State recognizes the demands of this work and values the people doing it.
Retirement reform will not fix everything. Dispatchers also need confidential mental-health care from people who understand emergency communications. We need peer support, supervisors who recognize trauma and enough staffing so that, after a devastating call, a dispatcher might actually have a few minutes to step away.
We have to stop pretending that hearing trauma is harmless simply because we were not physically standing at the scene.
The New York State Senate and Assembly have passed this legislation. The next step is for Governor Kathy Hochul to support it and sign it when it reaches her desk.
I love this work. I am proud of the people who sit beside me and the people across New York State who answer these calls every day. I would not trade the moments when my voice helped save a life or bring a child into the world.
But loving the job does not mean pretending it cannot hurt us. I can be proud of what I do and still admit that the work has taken pieces of me and affected the people I love most.
Twenty-five years is long enough.
Casey D. Howe is a supervising emergency services dispatcher in Allegany County and an advocate with NY 911 Retirement. The views expressed are his own.
