Bilingual 911 call-takers still needed

TULSA - Tulsa's 911 Call Center is still in need of five bilingual call-takers.

2NEWS first told you about this story, in February.

Since then, just one position has been filled.

As it stands, if a Spanish-speaking person were to call 911, they would likely be transferred to a third-party service.

This could increase the emergency response time anywhere from 30 second to one minute.

"The need for bilingual call-takers is great," said Justin Porter, Employee Development and Training Coordinator for the 911 Call Center. "We really need more people to apply due to the fact that it really does cut down on the response time."

Porter says new hires would go through a training course that includes four weeks of classroom work and up to six weeks working beside an existing call-taker.

So far, Xiomara Wilson is the only bilingual call-taker to have been hired.

"The course, in general, is not that hard," she said. "If you have at least a high school education, you can do this job."

If you are interested in applying, click here for more information.