McOsker Looks To Address 911 Wait Time Delays, Training

LOS ANGELES — City Councilmember Tim McOsker March 3 introduced a motion to address the time delay for a dispatch worker to answer a 911 call. The motion looks to understand the root causes of 911’s delayed response time including staffing levels and hurdles to hiring.

McOsker also co-presented a motion today with Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez on the hiring and training practices for unarmed crisis response related service calls.

There are growing concerns about the wait times when calls are made to 911. From vetting to diverting to other dispatch systems, callers can experience a delay of 20-30 seconds in response time.

“20 seconds doesn’t sound like a lot of time, but when you’re experiencing a crisis, every second counts,” Councilmember McOsker. “In the middle of a life-or-death situation, being on hold is the last thing that should happen. We have a worker shortage throughout the city and the 911 dispatch workers connecting us to the help we need should be the utmost priority in hiring.”

All 911 calls are routed through the Los Angeles Police Department dispatch system. These calls are vetted and, if needed, redirected to the Los Angeles Fire Department dispatch system which results in a delay of 20 to 30 seconds in response time.

LAPD has implemented a guideline for answering 95% of radio calls for service within 15 seconds of the call coming in. Last year the department averaged 17 seconds, but with staffing shortages they now average 20 seconds.

911 dispatch staff and 988 call center counselors must be trained to identify callers’ needs and seamlessly refer callers to the most appropriate service. 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifelines route calls to the nearest crisis center using the caller’s area code.

911 dispatchers are civilian employees who dispatch resources after they receive and analyze 911 telephone calls using a voice radio and digital computer terminal. There are currently 131 vacancies which have impacted response times for emergency and non-emergency related services.

Both motions request that LAPD and the personnel department report back to council on staffing numbers and the details of the hiring process. The McOsker motion will next go to the Public Safety Committee and the Hernandez-McOsker motion will next go to Personnel, Audits, & Hiring Committee as well as the Public Safety Committee.