Roughly 35,000 emergency calls went unanswered by Boston Police Department dispatchers last year, a serious lapse one union representative says is due to an understaffed and overworked operations division.
Operations employees have been ordered to work double shifts, or 16-hour days, three to five times a week for the past three years, according to Neal O’Brien, senior business representative for SEIU Local 888.
This often results in dispatchers working 90 hours per week, O’Brien wrote in a letter to Police Commissioner Michael Cox.
“Some operations workers have become so fatigued with this abusive work schedule, that in some instances have reached their breaking points and have risen from their chairs unannounced, rifled their headsets to the floor and stated they quit,” O’Brien wrote.
According to the department’s rules and procedures, officers are limited to working 18 hours per day and 90 hours per week, but there is leeway for supervisors to approve additional overtime.
The long hours, resulting from “understaffing” in the operations division, led to roughly 35,000 unanswered 911 calls last year. Approximately 650,000 calls were answered in 2022, O’Brien wrote.
The Boston Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.
City Councilor Erin Murphy said the unanswered emergency calls put the quality of life and safety of residents at risk. She also pointed to staffing problems in the emergency services department, which resulted in a lack of ambulance service in certain neighborhoods last weekend.
Further, Murphy spoke of the 911 dispatchers themselves, saying the 90-hour work weeks and 16-hour days are “unsustainable” and “unhealthy.” It’s also created a “stressful work environment,” she said.
“It’s going to force a bigger conversation about, how do we hire and retain and what changes do we need?” Murphy said. “I know that’s been an ongoing concern for 911 call takers, that something has to give. Something has to change there.”
The complaint from SEIU Local 888, which represents more than 75,000 members in Massachusetts, follows a similar gripe from the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, which alleged three officers were ordered to work 24-hour shifts last weekend. The Police Department denied this, saying the overtime was voluntary.
“The responsibility for this staffing problem is now squarely on your shoulders,” O’Brien wrote, addressing the police commissioner. “Your human resource department has employed a hiring and retention model over the last three years that is a miserable and redundant failure.”
He added, “There is poor accountability for taxpayer money squandered in this situation between the overtime paid to mandated workers and the overtime paid to the managing superior officers.”