Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk began the Public Safety Communications Center Board meeting Wednesday with a sense of urgency as the board addressed several matters concerning public safety and the responsibilities of the county’s 911 Center.
“Your role is to give the 911 director timely and good advice,” Falk said to the board. She added she is concerned for the public’s safety because of delays in action by the board.
A February 2009 audit by Matrix Consulting Group analyzed practices and technology within the 911 Center and made a series of recommendations as to how to best improve their practices, including the implementation of the automated attendant system.
After the audit, Falk voiced frustration over delays in the implementation of improvements to the 911 Center.
“We have a shared duty to make changes as recommended by the audit,” Falk said.
John Dejung, 911 director, said the automated attendant technology has done even better than expected.
The auto attendant, an automated phone service, was introduced to the 911 Center on Feb. 20 of this year. Since that day, the technology has diverted 21.4 percent of all calls away from 911 call takers, Dejung said.
The automated service diverts non-emergency calls away from the 911 Center, but callers have the option to touch tone into the 911 system multiple times.
“I’m elated that 21.4 percent [of non-emergency calls] were stripped away,” Dejung said, reflecting on his expectation of a 10 percent reduction.
Of the 12,625 calls placed to the 911 Center in the last month, 2,701 did not go to a live operator, Dejung said. By diverting non-emergency calls, operators were able to add an average of five seconds to every emergency call fielded, Dejung said.
He added he is happy with these numbers, and expressed interest in seeking continued improvement as well.
Dejung’s other major concern is implementing a protocol for his operators to follow regarding situations requiring the presence of law enforcement.
A law enforcement protocol would be followed by the 911 call-taker every time a call necessitating sworn officers was received by the center. The protocol would then outline a specific set of questions for the operator to ask, and information from the answers would be provided to responding officers in order to best address the situation.
Madison Police Department Lt. Carl Strasburg, chair of the Operating Practices Board, was weary of the May implementation deadline proposed by Dejung. He said the department needs more time to investigate system options and draft a recommendation.
EMS and Fire Department protocols are already in place for 911 call-takers. Strasburg noted law enforcement procedure is not nearly as well-defined as these departments and would require more time in order to best develop and implement the protocol. A motion siding with Strasburg’s request for implementation no later than October passed by a vote of 8 to 4.
