As Spokane builds its own 911 system after ending its county dispatch contract, Local 29 President Michael Walker says dropping EMT certification requirements for new dispatchers echoes past failures

By Emry Dinman
The Spokesman-Review

SPOKANE, Wash. —When Spokane got rid of its own fire dispatch and outsourced the job to the county’s 911 system in late 2022, the quality of service dropped substantially, according to leaders in the city firefighter union.

Local 29 Union President Michael Walker was dispatched Sunday for a report of a person who had “fallen” behind a local business. When Walker’s four-person crew arrived on scene, they found the subject had fallen because they had been stabbed, and it wasn’t clear whether the assailant was still in the area.

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No paramedics or police were initially dispatched because of that lack of information, Walker claimed in an interview.

Walker argued Monday that the county’s dispatchers improperly categorize the urgency of a call often enough that it has become a public safety issue, whether by convincing firefighters to turn on lights and sirens to cut through traffic when it’s unnecessary, or by unintentionally downplaying an emergency.

When the city employed its own fire and medical dispatchers, they were uniformed members of the firefighter union and required to maintain CPR and EMT certifications that Walker argues equipped them to adapt to emergency situations and ask the same questions firefighters would.

Now that the city is unwinding from the county’s 911 system and launching its own, Spokane firefighters had hoped they were returning to what they argue worked well in the past — alongside dispatchers who, importantly, are represented by the same union as the firefighters, Walker said.

The city seems to have other plans, Walker said in a Monday interview.

Spokane never outsourced its in-house police dispatch, whose call takers are represented by Local 270, the union representing the largest number of city employees. The city believes Local 270 should also represent newly hired fire and emergency medical dispatchers as the city slowly builds up a full 911 dispatch system.

Mayor Lisa Brown argues this is ultimately a “jurisdictional question” between two unions debating who should represent new employees, a question that will be answered by the state Public Employment Relations Commission. That commission will hold hearings later this week, though it’s not clear when a decision will be reached.

“The qualifications of our dispatchers will be top-notch,” Brown said in a Monday interview. “The plan is to have them be highly trained and qualified and have appropriate certifications.”

Deputy City Administrator Maggie Yates argued that many of the city’s issues with quality dispatch service stem from a lack of control over the countywide system, and those issues will be solved with the launch of a city-run 911 dispatch service.

City spokeswoman Erin Hut noted that, regardless of which union represents dispatchers, they will all receive CPR training, and all emergency call takers will be certified in emergency medical dispatch. The issue at hand is which union will absorb the new employees, she said in a prepared statement.

“It has nothing to do with the hiring process or qualifications of those being hired, that will be done through our Civil Service process regardless of representation,” Hut wrote in the statement. “Our qualifications to hire would be the same or similar to those we already have in place and those of (the countywide dispatch system).”

But the job qualifications are intrinsically linked to whether the firefighter union represents the new dispatchers, Walker argued in a follow-up text.

”... Local 29 would require these certifications for initial employment because it produces better quality dispatch and is best for quality of care, prior to ( Spokane Fire Department’s ) arrival,” Walker wrote.

More broadly, he argued the current level of service from SREC is insufficient, and while city police dispatchers do their job well, it’s a distinctly different job. EMT certification, he emphasized, is a significantly higher standard of training than what the city appears to be asking of its new dispatchers.

Asked why the city appeared to be dropping the EMT certification previously required for its fire dispatchers, Brown expressed frustration and pointed back to the hearings later this week to determine which union would represent new employees.

“We’re not going to have a back and forth with the union president on this issue,” Brown said.

Does EMT certification or fire service experience make dispatchers better at triaging calls, or is solid EMD training enough? Tell us how your dispatch center handles it.

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