Durham Reports Quicker Response Times for 911 Calls, But Falls Short of Expectations

Emergency service departments across the country are under incredible stress to make sure citizens are taken care of in times of crisis. However, labor shortages brought on by the pandemic have made contact center operations much more difficult to manage.

This has become a significant issue in Durham, North Carolina, which is why the city recently initiated a new plan to recruit new 911 call center agents to manage high call volumes. However, it appears that this recruitment effort is not enough to meet the needs of citizens throughout the region. North Carolina’s statewide standard is 90% of calls must be taken in 10 seconds or less, but new data shows that Durham's Emergency Communication Center only managed 82% of those calls in September. It should be noted that the rate for August was at 74%, but an improvement of only 8% is simply not enough.

"We are not where we need to be.”  commented ECC director Randy Beeman during a city council meeting in September. “We are taking appropriate steps to get us to an acceptable standard of call answer times and to meet the expectations of our residents,"

The situation has already caused major problems for victims in the area. Last week, a report by ABC 11 discussed how Durham resident Edward Vick was forced to wait 45 minutes for emergency responders after a bicycle accident had him critically injured. If Durham’s emergency contact center intends to keep citizens safe, recruitment efforts will need to be seriously overhauled in order to me the expected standard of care.

Edited by Maurice Nagle

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