Improving emergency response

One of the biggest delays in the emergency response process for fire and police is the call taking and dispatch.

The process generically goes as follows.

1. COMPlainant becomes aware of emergency (this can take several minutes to realize)

2. COMP makes decision to act (again can take awhile)

3. COMP decides to call 911

4. Call taker begins communicating with COMP, initiates call in the system.

5. Call taker has to extract information from COMP, which can be very challenging due to COMP's circumstances. Call taker has to categorize what type and priority of call. Call taker has to determine if the call is from their jurisdiction or if transferring to a different 911 center is appropriate. Call taker has to determine if this is a police/fire/ems response.

6. Dispatcher receives call on their screen

7. Dispatcher then read and interprets how important it is in comparison to the other calls

8. Dispatcher decides which emergency units to send and has to call them on the radio. Sometimes units jump calls by assigning before the dispatcher sends us.

9. Units copy call and start making an emergency response plan, while heading to the location.

10. Units arrive on scene.

This is a very time intensive process to get things right. I think we need to improve and streamline the 911 call taking process to reduce that critical response time.

My suggestion is to allow units (especially police) to live stream incoming calls and the units hear the information as it comes in before it's even typed up.

On several occasions I have listened to call taker recordings, only to hear "I can't hear you", "Can you repeat that?" when it was clear to me etc

Call takers supposedly have certain protocols for the order and what information is taken initially.

It's not always the best protocol because the responders usually don't have direct input on what information should be taken first.

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Improving emergency response