Cobb Reporter

Cobb County 911 officials are actively making changes to the system in hopes of being able to attract new employees, emphasizing things like increased pay and an improved hiring process as part of their updated efforts to recruit more staffers. 

This comes as FOX 5 Atlanta reports in 2022, nearly 900,000 911 calls are expected to be channeled through the Cobb County Department of Emergency Communications.

“We dispatch for Cobb police, the sheriff's office, city of Powder Springs police, Marietta police, we also have fire," Director Melissa Alterio told FOX 5 Atlanta.

Typically speaking, there are as many as 20 people on duty to answer 911 calls at any given time of the day, with Alterio arguing those numbers should be increased to at least around 25 staffers, the report states. More recently, Alterio said she is starting to see an uptick in applications, thanks in part to their training academy.

According to FOX 5, there are currently 11 people going through the training academy, each of them learning about medical, police and fire protocol as well as getting practical experience. After the academy training is over, new recruits are subjected to an additional eight to 10 months of training. 

The next training class will begin in January. More information is available at: https://www.joincobb911.com/">joinCobb911.com.