ST. LOUIS — Correction: The City of St. Louis recently increased starting pay for police dispatcher trainees to $41,340 per year. A previous version of this story indicated the starting salary was $39,000.
Elizabeth Farace and her boyfriend were in his downtown St. Louis apartment when gunfire erupted late Sunday.
“We started hearing a bunch of gunfire, we thought maybe 30 to 40 rounds,” Farace recalled. “Then we heard screaming outside, so I started screaming at him to call 911.”
Their phone records show the couple called 911 at least twice, and they say no one ever answered.
But they did try to use the city’s automated system – which asks callers to push a number depending on the type of emergency service they need. It’s a stop-gap measure in place while the city scrambles to hire more dispatchers.
“I even pressed three and just waited for another good five minutes until I finally hung up and then eventually tried again,” said Farace’s boyfriend, who did not want to be named.
The couple experience is just the latest in a series of stories viewers have shared with 5 On Your Side about how the city’s dispatcher shortage has affected them during an emergency. At least three families have been on hold when someone has died.
Farace said police arrived between 15 to 20 minutes after she started calling 911. At one point, she said she called a family member who is a police officer in the city because she couldn’t get through to a dispatcher. Shortly after that, she said police started to arrive, and he told her others had been calling 911 about the same incident.
“No one should call 911 and get a voicemail saying someone will call you back,” St. Louis Alderman Rasheen Aldridge said. “No one should call and be on hold for five minutes, especially when it is life and death.
“So this is an urgent need that as an elected official, as a city, we need to figure out, and how do we make this happen just a little quicker because life is on the line when it comes to our 911 system.”
The shooting happened in Aldridge’s ward, along the 1500 block of Olive Street, at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday.
Police say two groups started arguing and several people opened fire.
Two people were shot; one man was shot in both legs and a woman was shot in both of her feet, according to police. Both survived and police have not made any arrests.
Farace and her boyfriend said they were scared for their own safety as well as they waited on hold, wondering whether the shooter could be in their building – which was one block away from the gunfire.
Aldridge said they experienced a trauma they’ll never forget.
“This is urgent need that as an elected official, as a city, we need to figure out,” Aldridge said.
There are about 40 vacancies among police dispatchers, and 10 vacancies among EMS dispatchers.
Starting pay – after recent raises – for St. Louis dispatchers is $41,340.
Aldermen like Aldridge make double that.
“I don't think anybody in public safety should be making less than $48,000, and I still think that's low,” Aldridge said. “I think our dispatches are worth just as much as our aldermen to pay because their job is just as critical.
“Every year we’ve given all city employees a 3% raise and we gave our public safety even more on top of that, but we’ve got to find the money because it's necessary.”
Farace’s boyfriend isn’t going to wait around for it to happen.
She helped him pack up his apartment Monday and he moved in with her.
“I definitely don't want to stick around here,” he said. “I’m definitely moving out of the greater St. Louis area and in a more safe place.”