The Director of the Lynchburg Department of Emergency Services, Melissa Foster, said they’re at a “critical state" with the amount of staff they have, operating with 15 fully-trained dispatchers. Foster said they should have 28.
"It’s stressful when we are expected to answer phone calls and dispatch the correct responders to those people quickly, it makes it hard if there is constantly other calls coming in and we don't have enough people to answer them,” an emergency services employee, who wants to remain anonymous, said. ABC13 asked Foster how many calls aren’t answered. According to data, from Jan. 2021 through June 2021, the department took 27,979 calls. 1,567 of those calls were “abandoned.” That’s 5.6 % -- or one out of every 20 calls.