ST. LOUIS – Despite dozens of vacancies inside the St. Louis 911 center, police and fire leaders say the future is bright.

“I believe the state of the 911 center is very good,” Major Eric Larson, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, said.

The departments recognize the speed bumps along the way, though. In recent years, people have complained about not being able to reach a 911 call takers.

Larson said that often happens when multiple people are calling about the same incident.

“If you call and you and everyone else is calling about a critical incident, we will have some challenges getting those calls answered,” Larson said.

An emergency call is answered in the order received, by the call taker. The information is then relayed to the dispatcher, who sends it to the first responder on the street.

The city’s 911 center has faced increased scrutiny in recent weeks after Kate Coen died when a tree fell on her car during a recent storm. People reported no one answering 911.

The FOX Files learned EMS eventually answered, but help did not arrive for another half-hour.

The Department of Public Safety is investigating if there were any failures on 911.

St. Louis Fire Department Captain Garon Mosby started in the Communications Center when he was 18.

“There’s some stress associated with this job,” Mosby said.

He said dispatchers save seconds and seconds save lives. Mosby believes what’s happening at the Communications Center has ripple-effects.

“Have the vacancies affected our entities? Absolutely,” he said.

There are 40 open positions at the 911 center, out of the total 98 positions. The city is in the process of hiring five people now.

“Realistically, we are limited in resources, right? Just like any other industry in the country – especially since COVID,” Mosby said.

Both commanders agree they are able to compete to fill vacancies after the city increased the starting salary.

Larson said even though they can fill spots, that may not stop other cities from stealing away good talent.

“Once you learn how to do it here in the City of St. Louis, you can do it anywhere. This is the best law enforcement agency in the region,” Larson said. “The City of St. Louis is the big leagues of first responders.”