Budget hike could speed up 911 call response, leader says – Indianapolis News | Indiana Weather | Indiana Traffic

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Marion County and Indianapolis Metropolitan Emergency Services Agency, also known as MESA, is hiring 911 dispatchers in Indianapolis.

Chief Tom Sellas says about 20% of dispatch positions are vacant, and retaining employees is difficult if the agency doesn’t have the funds to pay competitive salaries.

MESA has requested an increase in its 2025 budget of just under $2 million over its 2024 budget. The total requested amount is just under $30 million. The agency’s 2024 budget was just under $28 million.

“We’re always looking at how to provide a service that’s needed. That’s how we build our budget,” Sellas told a City and County Council committee Wednesday reviewing the 2025 budget. “That’s a service that’s needed. That’s what we bring to you so that we can do the job that’s required of us.”

Sellas said at the budget hearing that response times have decreased because the agency does not have enough staff to answer emergency calls faster.

“Now it’s between 18 and 24 seconds,” Sellas said at a budget hearing. “In August, it’s 24 seconds. I’ll tell you, when MESA was first established in 2022, we were at 34 seconds. And it’s bad, and we’re still not where we need to be, where we want to be. We want to be at 10 seconds or less.”

“As we get more people in, we’ll be able to reduce the number of cases,” Sellas told News 8.

Sellas said filling vacant dispatch positions will be difficult without a larger budget. The agency has lost 35 people, and to be fully staffed, Sellas would need about 175 dispatchers in total.

“We’ve started to move in the direction of having a steady stream of new staff, but the job of a telecommunications officer is very difficult.”

Sellas says the starting annual salary for a Marion County dispatcher in 2025 will be $54,000.

MESA dispatchers recently formed a union. Sellas says the union will work on a collective bargaining agreement for 2026.