These Photos Allegedly Show Miami Beach Emergency Dispatchers Sleeping On The Job (VIDEO)

They reportedly handle 170,000 incidents a year for police and fire fighters, but Miami Beach emergency dispatch supervisors have allegedly been sleeping on the job.

Photos sent to Local10 appear to show several employees slumbering at their desks in November, eyes closed and heads lolling to the side. A retired dispatcher told the station that while forced overtime is the norm, sleeping on the job is "very unacceptable. You never know when something is going to go down. This job can go from zero to 60 in a matter of seconds. You need to be awake and alert. Someone could miss a call for assistance."

Check out the photos in the video below, and read the department's response at local10.com:

Last year, a Miami Beach dispatcher was placed on leave after a Venetian Islands man died waiting more than 30 minutes for first responders to reach his home. Damien Janee blamed a brain tumor for the 14-minute delay between receiving a 911 call from the man's wife and dispatching fire rescue; records obtained by ABC News show he had been disciplined twice previously for accidentally leaving the 911 call line blocked while browsing the Internet.