They pass along the vital information to police dispatchers and then it's on to the next crisis. There are no windows in the sixth-floor office where 911 operators sit in their small cubicles. The light from their computers casts blinking blue hues on their faces. Operators field about 25 calls an hour. Fourteen operators are on duty during the slowest shift, midnight to 8 a.m., while 21 staff the phones at the peak hours of 4 p.m. to midnight.
Operators say the volume of calls often makes it impossible to respond to each emergency.
This past Fourth of July, for example, more than 6,000 calls came in a 24-hour period. Several times, the lines were jammed. When that happens, red lights on the operators' phone panels light up a dreaded Pavlovian signal that sets the adrenaline glands pumping even faster. At times like that, no operator leaves the phone, not even for the bathroom. Someone, maybe even someone they know, is waiting a crisis out until an operator becomes available.