Jefferson County’s population is growing — but demand for emergency services hasn’t followed suit.
Preliminary data provided to The Monitor by the county’s Department of Emergency Services (DES) shows that overall calls for emergency services — including those to fire departments, ambulance transport and the Sheriff’s Office — have stayed about the same in the last five years.
Last year, according to the DES statistics, dispatchers handled 12,097 total calls for service, up slightly from 11,954 in 2023. Emergency service calls totaled 13,065 in 2022, the highest recent total, and 10,967 in 2019, when the county installed its current call reporting system.
