Carbon County's 911 Communication Center is an active place.

Data shows that on any given day, dispatchers are handling hundreds of emergency calls from all parts of the county.To help the county prepare for emergencies, Gary Williams, director of the center, provides the county commissioners and area responders with an annual report, which includes the breakdown of all 911 calls that come through the center.Call volumesIn 2014, the number of calls handled by Carbon County dispatchers was 146,363, up 52 from 2013 and up 35,417 from a decade ago."The call volume keeps going up," Williams said, citing a growing population and booming tourist industry as reasons for the increases.Of those calls, 75,636 required either police, fire or EMS to be dispatched.According to the report, police calls had the most significant increase since 2013, up over 5,600 to 58,452 incidents that were dispatched through the center.That figure does not include calls that were made directly to police stations that required a response.Summit Hill Police Chief Joseph Fittos said the increase in calls handled by all police departments in Carbon County is "a sign of the times.""Our calls in general at every police department have increased," he said."I think most police would agree that the biggest problem plaguing our area are the crimes being committed that are drug driven."On the fire side, the number of incidents jumped 326, from 2,974 in 2013 to 3,300 in 2014."I believe several factors contribute to the increased call volume throughout the county," Nesquehoning Hose Company Fire Chief John McArdle said. "Motor vehicle accidents seem to be prevalent, second to automatic fire alarms. The county has several major routes passing through it. They also add to this factor."Emergency services, on the other hand, saw a slight decrease, from 13,981 calls in 2013 to 13,884 in 2014.Handling the callsWilliams said that times in the dispatching area have changed since he began as a dispatcher with the county in 1990.At that time, there were two dispatchers per shift, but as the call volumes steadily increased, so did the demand for additional staff.Now there are 11 full-time dispatchers and five part-timers manning the phones 24 hours a day, seven days a week.Williams said that on most shifts, three dispatchers are taking the calls."Our staff is a great group," he said. "Our county is in good hands with who we have."Dispatchers go through vigorous training to become certified to be the emergency's first response.Williams said that it takes five months for a potential dispatcher to be trained on the initial workings of the system.After that time, they then begin training on emergency medical dispatching, CPR, JNET and other programs and procedures to help a caller until fire, police or EMS arrive."It's not just answering phone calls," Williams said. "These people have to be very good at multitasking."