A behind-the-scenes look at Salem’s 911 dispatch center

When people in the Salem area call 911, the person answering the phone walks them through their situation with ease that comes with years of practice.

Dispatchers assigning police or fire responders to 911 calls rattle off memorized combinations of numbers and letters that correspond with law enforcement or medical units.

Around 1,500 calls come into the Willamette Valley Communications Center every day, bringing hundreds of health emergencies, technical questions and traffic concerns to people on the receiving end of those calls.

Salem Reporter recently spent an afternoon sitting alongside a call taker and dispatchers coordinating with the Salem police and fire departments. The news organization agreed to keep details of the calls confidential to preserve privacy.

The city-operated center covers a 2,000 square mile area with a population of over 415,000 people in Marion, Polk and Lincoln counties, according to its website.

“You never know what to expect and so I think that’s kind of what keeps you coming back,” Maureen Fennimore, who’s worked in dispatch for 12 years, said. “It’s always different, your day is never the same.”

Many people call 911 on one of the worst days of their life, whether it’s a health emergency, violent situation, a traffic crash or other life-threatening situation.

In 2024, the center received over 420,000 calls, almost evenly split between emergency and non-emergency incidents, according to city information. Of almost 300,000 law enforcement calls, the Salem Police Department was dispatched the most, followed by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

In March, the city announced the center was expanding its 911 services to three Lincoln County agencies, bringing the center’s total number of partner agencies to 32.

The center is funded mostly by the agencies it serves, which includes fire and police departments, ambulance services and sheriff’s offices. Agencies contribute to the Willamette Valley Communication Center fund which had around $15 million in the city’s 2025 budget.

The hundreds of thousands of calls coming in during the year are handled by about 80 employees. Around the country, 911 call centers are facing understaffing, which can affect wait times for callers and workloads for call takers and dispatchers.

Work as a dispatcher

Originally from Silverton, Fennimore had her heart first set on becoming a firefighter paramedic and at 19 started training for the job through a program at Chemeketa Community College. Due to college costs, Fennimore took a job as a call taker with Salem’s dispatch center to help afford the program.

“I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll give it a shot, we’ll try,’ and I did it, and I got hooked,” she said. “I just, I love it, because I still get the fire (emergency medical) side of stuff that I enjoyed, but I also get the law side. They’re both good, and so you can’t pick one or the other.”

Fennimore worked as a call taker for three years in Salem and moved to Idaho to continue as a dispatcher before returning to Salem a little over a year ago. She now works as relief, filling in at any needed position.

The room where people handle calls stays relatively quiet as people calmly walk people through intense situations like performing medical aid or more routine matters like updating a criminal case. The silence is only interrupted by requests for help or questions about a caller or case someone is working with.

With each new 911 call, a chime-like sound plays throughout the room and a countdown starts on large TV screens that track wait times and calls on hold. Most desks have at least three screens displaying incoming 911 calls, past call reports and programs coordinating information with responders.

Call takers respond to 911 calls and speak with the public while dispatchers coordinate which agency and officers respond to the scene of the call if needed.

When someone calls to request an ambulance, they usually get one, according to the center’s operations manager Andrea Tobin. People needing medical advice will get referred to a health care professional.

For callers reporting a crime, it depends on where the call comes from and the policy of the local law enforcement agency to decide whether an officer will respond. 

In more rural areas with smaller police departments, officers will respond to people wanting to talk to the police. In larger places, like Salem, officers only respond to reports of actual crimes or suspicious behavior.

To become a call taker, people have to pass a background check, psychological exams and complete a month-long training program before spending several months working alongside a training officer.

Call takers have to complete 18 months in the role before they’re able to learn radio dispatch.

Once people make it into radio dispatch, they start with dispatching police and then move on to fire. After becoming skilled at both, people can work any position in the center to relieve people for breaks.

According to Deputy Fire Chief Scott Leavell, the time it takes people to move up from one position to the next varies due to individual factors, like how fast they pick up skills 

The room where calls are taken is filled with dozens of desks divided by call takers and dispatchers, who sit according to agencies they dispatch for, such as Salem and Keizer police, county sheriff’s offices and fire agencies.

To help answer 911 calls or direct first responders, people at the center use booklets, called emergency medical dispatch cards, to find specific language to give instructions or ask questions during calls.

There are usually around 12 call takers and dispatchers at a time answering calls, handling each with speed with the ability to switch quickly from walking through health scares and criminal cases to everyday questions.

Some calls can be emotionally difficult for dispatchers due to the upsetting or challenging situation at hand, such as a violent or life-threatening emergency.

One of the biggest changes since Fennimore started is the technology used in emergency dispatch services, including the ability to text 911 or have video calls that show callers how to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR.

“Usually text to 911 is always associated with (domestic violence), like, the domestics, where ‘I can’t talk because there’s somebody in the room with me,’” Fennimore said, but 911 texts also help people in a medical crisis who aren’t able to talk over the phone.

For Fennimore, one of the biggest challenges is coming into work despite the number of bad calls she takes.

Earlier in her dispatch career, she worked on a call with a child’s death, she said. It’s one that sticks with her.

“You just tuck it away, and then you deal with it as you can,” she said. “You talk to your people, and you know, do your exercise and do your yoga, whatever it is you need to do … you just process through it all that way so it doesn’t overwhelm you at one point.”

Difficult calls also encourage dispatchers to get faster at questioning and instructing callers and keep working to get both callers and first responders home safely, according to Fennimore.

“This is why you do what you do. You do it to do that help. Because, just because you had this one that didn’t work out, well, you had another one that did work out, where the kid did get saved,” she said.

She recalled several positive or lighthearted calls she worked on that balanced out the difficult ones, including one where a woman called 911 for help getting her dog unstuck from a recliner chair.

In another instance, she received a call reporting an elder abuse situation and after officers arrested someone in the case, they continued to check in on the senior and provide food and supplies for several days until senior services stepped in.

“The things like that, where it makes you happy, you’re like, okay, this is good … that feeling of satisfaction at the end of it, that’s what I enjoy the most about it,” Fennimore said.

Contact reporter Madeleine Moore: [email protected].

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