Sidebar: Help Wanted: Multitasking

All the potential new sources of data flowing in and out of 911 call centers may require additional training for call takers, who will be expected to multitask.

Many 911 call center directors say they already find hiring and retaining call takers a challenge. The pay and benefits don't match up with other public safety jobs.

"How all the new technology is going to affect people who do the job is a huge issue," said Delaware's E-911 coordinator Terry Whitham, who is also co-chair of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials' 911 emerging technologies committee. "When I first took the job, the training was, ‘Just sit in this chair and push these buttons,'" he recalled. "Now we can't pull in an officer from the road to fill an empty seat in the call center, because the complexity level of the job is too great."

Part of the solution will be in the design of software interfaces, said Pete Eggiman, director of 911 services for the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metropolitan 911 Board.

The important thing, he said, is that the interface be easy to use and uncluttered. "If it's a text message, they type. If it's a video, they watch it and forward it to the appropriate place." Forwarding an image shouldn't take more than a few keystrokes, he said.