A Leap Forward in Emergency Response for St. Louis Residents
The 911 Dispatch Center will be the location for all City of St. Louis dispatch services, including police, fire, and EMS.
Today, Mayor Tishaura O. Jones and other City leaders broke ground on the new 911 Dispatch Center that will help improve 911 response times and public safety in St. Louis.
“This $45 million 911 Dispatch Center is one of the biggest public safety investments in St. Louis in recent history,” said Mayor Jones. “This facility will bring all of our dispatchers under one roof, in line with national best practices, and is an important part of how we will continue to bring down our 911 response times.”
The 911 Dispatch Center, which is funded with help from the State of Missouri and the Biden-Harris administration’s American Rescue Plan Act, will be the location for all City of St. Louis dispatch services, including police, fire, and EMS. The new building will also house the City Emergency Management Agency, known as CEMA.
The City has already begun the physical and technological integration of its dispatch services, with EMS and police dispatchers sharing a physical location since 2023. Going forward, the City will have public safety dispatchers trained to handle calls for police, fire, and EMS using the same technology, all at the same location.
In addition to these improvements and the increased ability to hire and retain dispatchers that the modern facility will provide, the City is also investing in its people. That’s why, in 2023, dispatchers saw significant and needed pay increases. Most notably, the starting salary changed from $32,240 to $47,008 for EMS dispatchers. $47,008 is also the new salary for public safety dispatcher II and police dispatchers, who were previously paid $41,548. Annual pay for public safety dispatcher I employees grew from $39,910 to $43,914.
Thanks to improved hiring and practices, the City now responds to approximately 75% of 911 calls within 10 seconds, up from less than 60% in early 2023. Continuing this positive trend and reaching the national standard of 90% is imperative and a high priority for the Jones administration.
Additionally, at today’s groundbreaking, Mayor Jones announced that the approximately $10 million in ARPA funds that remain available in St. Louis will be reappropriated to the 911 Dispatch Center through an ARPA appropriation bill to be introduced to the Board of Aldermen next week. With that, every dollar the City received through ARPA will be on pace to be obligated before the December 31, 2024, deadline.
“The administration of these massive investments is a huge undertaking, and I am proud of how my team, our department leaders, and members of the Board of Aldermen have worked together to ensure we spend this money wisely and in ways that will be felt for generations,” said Mayor Jones. “With this bill, every last cent of this federal funding will be spent on improving St. Louis, as promised.”
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