2017 Report Finds Room for Improvement with Oakland's 911 System

A project manager for RGP in Walnut Creek, California, Brenda Roberts previously served as the City Auditor for the City of Oakland. During her tenure, Brenda Roberts authored a November 2017 report showing the City's police and fire department often did not respond to emergency calls within time limits established by regional and national guidelines.

In part, these delayed response times were because the City of Oakland had not fully converted to cell phone or wireless 911 calls. That is, if a caller within the city limits of Oakland used his/her cell phone and dialed 911 to report an emergency, the call would be routed to the California Highway Patrol’s offices in Vallejo, nearly 30 miles away. The time elapsed to identify the emergency need from the Highway Patrol dispatchers and then route the call back to the first responders in Oakland resulted long delays in response times.

The national standard for call answering times is set by the National Emergency Number Association (NENA). These standards require 90% of all emergency calls should be answered within 10 seconds during the peak call hour, and 95% should be answered within 20 seconds at all other times. But the average wait time for Oakland emergency dispatch was 27 seconds. Using a cell phone delayed the response times up to 3 minutes.

The report also noted persistent problems with hiring and turnover, pay gaps between uniformed and civilian personnel, and inconsistent performance evaluations. Even though extra resources were given to the City, staffing remained below optimum levels. Management also could not explain why 4 dispatch operators were on duty but unavailable for calls up to 58 percent of their assigned work time.

The audit recommended changes in hiring, retention, promotion of flex time, training, and timely employee evaluations. The City Administrator accepted the proposed remedies, noting that several of the recommendations had been acknowledged and put into effect.