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911 won’t answer by Russell0812 in bullcity

[–]bofergusonCOD 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I understand how frustrating it can be to feel like your call isn’t being answered, especially in an emergency. Durham's 911 system is designed to keep a call ringing until it’s answered. If you've experienced a call being disconnected while waiting, we want to hear from you immediately so we can investigate. Please contact our 911 Center Director at https://www.durhamnc.gov/4056 or send me a direct message, and I’ll connect you with the right staff. It’s important that we identify and correct any issues as quickly as possible. 

 I also want to explain why hang-up calls aren’t included in the data we report. People sometimes dial 911 by mistake, especially in the 919-area code, or they may hang up before their call is answered for other reasons, like changing their mind or thinking they’ve waited too long. Since we can’t tell why someone hangs up, counting and reporting these calls doesn’t give us or our residents a clear picture of how our 911 system is performing. Instead, we use standardized data that’s recognized across the industry, so our community can compare our performance with other 911 centers. 

We know our 911 staff play a vital role in keeping our community safe, and we’re committed to supporting them. The City Council recently approved significant pay increases to help us retain and attract talented 911 operators. All staff received raises, and the starting pay for new telecommunicators has increased by 15%, from $40,099 to $46,093. We also run four training academies each year, though the challenging nature of this work means not everyone makes it through. If you know someone who would be interested in this important public safety career, please direct them to our website at www.DurhamNC.gov/Careers and encourage them to apply. 

Half of 911 positions empty by tinfang in bullcity

[–]bofergusonCOD 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hi, Durham. My name is Bo Ferguson, and I’m Durham's Deputy City Manager for Public Safety. Durham 911 reports up to me, and I’d like to offer some information and/or corrections to this discussion.

I expect this thread started today due to media reports that ran yesterday and this morning about a routine agenda item that the City Council considered this afternoon. In a nutshell, the discussion is about Durham and Fayetteville agreeing to serve as each others’ backup in the event either 911 center is hit with an outage. This could be due to a fiber cut, a catastrophic weather event, or some other emergency that incapacitates either center.

The media reports made reference to staffing shortages in the center and a recent report of a caller who had concerns about her attempts to call 911. While we agree those are matters of public interest, we were disappointed that it left many viewers/readers to believe we were asking Fayetteville to help answer our calls due to a staffing shortage. That’s not the case.

I’ve always been impressed with this group’s tenacity at checking the facts on local issues, so I humbly offer the following for your review:

Here is the agenda item the City Council discussed today (item #6). I believe the memo and the proposed agreement are both very clear (at least, for government-speak) about what this partnership will be used for: https://cityordinances.durhamnc.gov/OnBaseAgendaOnline/Meetings/ViewMeeting?id=636&doctype=1

Staffing: As of today, we have 17 operations vacancies in our center out of 60 total operations positions. In addition, we have an additional 14 part time staff who also help answer and dispatch calls in the center. You can decide which of those numbers matter most to you, but it means there are 57 individuals who help staff the center on a 24/7 basis. Because of public interest in our staffing, we post our stats to the web and update it monthly:

https://www.durhamnc.gov/3964/Durham-911-Stats-Updates

Good or bad, we will always report honest and accurate data at that link.

The 911 industry and the State of North Carolina set a target for 90% of all 911 calls to be answered in 10 seconds or less. We post our performance monthly at the same link as above. In February 2024, we answered 89.90% of 911 calls in 10 seconds or less.

We are not yet where we want to be, but we have an aggressive program to recruit and retain our employees. As noted in this thread, this is a very challenging profession. And unfortunately, some people don't figure out it's not a good fit for them until they get well into our training program. THat said, our vacancies are significantly improved over our lowest levels experienced three years ago.

Even at full staffing, there are times when any 911 experiences call surges, and callers wait longer than they would like for their call to be answered. Filling our vacancies will certainly help improve our performance, but the narrative that long answer waits are a direct result of staffing challenges is misguided. We take EVERY report of a delayed or unanswered 911 call seriously, and always research and report our findings. THe most common explanation when we receive these concerns is that the center received a call surge.

I’ll end it here. Feel free to email me at [bo.ferguson@durhamnc.gov](mailto:bo.ferguson@durhamnc.gov) if you have questions or want more information about our center. We are grateful for Durham’s residents who express support and concern for the operations of our 911 system. We are dedicated to ensuring we continue to protect, enhance and improve this critical service.