Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn welcomed in 34 new emergency communications operators Monday morning.

Flynn says the recruits will help fill staffing shortfall that the city has had for a while.

The Milwaukee Police and Fire Commission say there were more than 700 applications for one of the vacant positions.

There new operators will go through 12 weeks of training, 8 weeks in the class room and 4 weeks of on the job training at dispatch centers.

Milwaukee has seen a shortfall of employees and high turnover rates over the past few years

The Milwaukee Police and Fire Commission re-organized the telecommunications division to help fix that. 

“It's good base pay, it’s terrific city benefits, and it's a career that they can take pride in. So, we are hoping we can keep that message going as we go forward, so we don't find ourselves in a position that was quite so dire that we needed to hire so many people at once," said Chief Flynn.

Chief Flynn says having more operators should improve service and response times. 

The new operators should complete training to begin work by summer.