"When you get in the position, a lot of times people will say, after taking calls, 'I'm just not cut out for this.' " Mohler said. "Because a lot of times they'll take the stress home with them, and not be able to complete it. A lot of times they become afraid to even answer the 911, because you don't know what's going to be on the other end until you pick it up."

Ferre said she can still remember stressful calls she took over a decade ago.

"It's been 15 years, and I still remember a little girl crying when her father was beating her mom up," she said. "You remember those things. You remember the dad that's sobbing because his son just shot himself. Those are hard to live with, and that long-term stress gets you. Dispatchers get unhealthy and burned-out and they quit."

Mohler said the Utah County Dispatch Center is operating with one less staff member than the minimum, which has forced mandatory overtime shifts for dispatchers.

"Over the last few recruitment periods, we've had less people applying, or less people that are qualified to fill the positions. We've actually been unable to fill additional positions, so it's put us down several at a time," she said. "The salary is higher in other dispatch centers, or private sector jobs."

Ferre said she thinks if dispatchers are pushed to work more and more, mistakes that have occurred in the past will become more frequent.

"If they ever want to fix it, and not have mistakes like we've had, and problems with newer people, then you've got to legitimize it, and you've got to turn it into something people think they could do for 20 years," she said. "But until they do something like that, they're going to continue to have the kind of problems they're having."

Entry-level wages for a Utah County dispatcher is $11.44 an hour. After seven years, they top out at $13.77 per hour. In Provo, dispatchers can earn up to $17 to $20 an hour if they are veteran dispatchers.

Harris said he thinks there are multiple entities that can improve the current staffing situation with better benefits and pay.

Ferre said she thinks cities can't afford to save money with lower-paying dispatch positions.

"One of the corners they cut is dispatch, but the problem with doing that is you don't juggle emergencies," she said. "You can't play Russian roulette with this. You don't hope that nothing's going to happen because we're down to two people. When it comes to 911, people expect us to be there, no matter when it is."

Harris said that while some steps have been taken, more priority needs to be placed on dispatch funding. "(The Utah County Commission) allowed for the hiring of two additional people a few years ago, which was great," he said. "But we still have the same retention problem as in the past I don't believe that the pay is commensurate for the type of work that these folks are involved in."

Harris said he believes that dispatcher benefits should be more in line with other public-safety officials.

"They give firefighters and police the chance to retire after 20 years," he said. "I'll tell you something, you can take half of the people that are currently working public safety, and I don't think they could make it through dispatch."

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E-mail: mdecker@desnews.com