911 callers to TPD often wait

Long hold times blamed on new system, short staff

By Enric Volante

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

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"It's a difficult job and it takes special people to do the job."

Capt. Kevin Mayhew, commander of police communications

HOW IT WORKS

When you dial 911 from a Tucson phone the call goes first to the city's overall 911 operators.

An operator briefly questions you to find out whether you need fire or police, then transfers your call.

The problem: When calls transfer to the police 911 center, chronic staff shortages and an issue with a new automated phone system add time to how long you wait to talk to someone.

A glitch with a new million-dollar phone system and chronic staff shortages mean some Tucson callers to 911 wait up to seven minutes for a police operator.

Most of the time police answer promptly — in 12 seconds on average.

But on June 7 a caller waited 5 1/2 minutes, computer records show. On April 24, police took six minutes and 34 seconds to answer the phone. And the maximum answer delay was seven minutes and 12 seconds on March 20.

When people fear for their safety, a wait of seconds can seem like hours, said Julie Johnston, development director of the Brewster Center, which runs domestic-violence shelters.

"It only takes a couple of seconds to kill someone," she said.

The small percentage of calls that police fail to answer before the caller hangs up has been growing.

So-called "abandoned" calls numbered 2,057 from February, when the new system started, through last month.

That's up from 1,445 abandoned calls for the same period last year.

Abandoned calls include those on which a caller hangs up or gets disconnected before police answer.

Some are domestic-violence calls, said Rick Jones, operations issues director for the private National Emergency Number Association. "The partner took the phone away or ripped the phone out of the wall, or the person got scared and hung up."

When operators take too long to answer, people hang up and keep calling back, adding to the burden of calls operators must answer, he said. Police call back all abandoned calls.

When you dial 911 from a Tucson phone the call goes first to the city's overall 911 operators. They briefly question you to find out whether you need fire or police, then transfer your call.

The Star found police service operators last year answered 66 percent of calls within 10 seconds — far short of the 90 percent standard advised by the national association.

Capt. Kevin Mayhew, who assumed command of police communications last fall, could not say what percentage of calls are answered within 10 seconds under the new system.

He produced a report showing 86 percent have been answered within 20 seconds.

That falls short of the national association's alternate standard of answering 95 percent of calls in 20 seconds.

There is no Tucson Police Department time standard other than to answer and handle all calls as expeditiously as possible, said Mayhew. Police operators are mindful that the next call might be a critical emergency, he said.

The 14 percent of calls outside the 20-second threshold ranged up to seven minutes and 12 seconds, records show.

Under the new phone system there's no reliable way to triage, or prioritize, some serious calls from less serious ones and to hand them off to another operator who is free, police said.

Police are working day by day with Qwest, which provides telephone service, to solve the unforeseen problem, but no one could say when it would be fixed.

"We are actively working to resolve this matter with local authorities and our software providers as quickly as possible," said Carolyn Tyler, a Qwest spokeswoman.

The estimated cost of the upgraded system is $1.1 million, but final payment won't be made until officials verify it works right, said Alan Ecker, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Administration, which funds local 911 systems.

To improve times, operators also need to stay on the phone no longer than necessary in order to be ready to take the next call, Mayhew said. He said they're working on getting that balance right.

Under the Police Department's old phone system, call-takers worked a 10-hour shift amid the noise of phones ringing.

One benefit of the new system: It's much more quiet and easier for workers to concentrate on their tasks. A tone in an earpiece signals a call.

But 911 workers are stretched thin because a third of the 88 jobs are vacant.

Only 33 of 48 operator positions were filled as of last week and only four applicants were in training.

Only 24 of 40 dispatcher positions were filled. Police had seven trainees.

Mayhew said the 911 center has been short-staffed for many years.

"It's a difficult job and it takes special people to do the job," he said.

"And it's shift work and so people need to really want to do this job. We have a long training period and one has to develop a very special set of skills to be both a dispatcher and a service operator, so I think that all contributes to it."

Anita Velasco, an administrator of the city's communications division, said staffing issues are the main problem she hears from call centers at public-safety agencies throughout Pima County.