By Ryan Severance
The Pueblo Chieftain
PUEBLO, Colo. — Calls for service to the Pueblo Fire Department are expected to increase again this year. In that regard, the fire department has seen positive results in a program it’s testing that is designed to reduce service calls while providing those who overuse the 911 system the resources they need.
Fire department officials will discuss whether to implement Directing Others to Service on a larger scale at the beginning of 2017.
The DOTS program is aimed at helping those who call 911 numerous times during the course of the year find resources and services that address their core issues, which oftentimes have simple solutions that don’t require an ambulance ride or emergency room visit.
While it’s unclear exactly how many individuals overuse the 911 system on a yearly basis, Fire Chief Shawn Shelton said the number is significant.
Shelton said, “(The use of) 911 has become almost absurd, to the point where you stub your toe and you call 911. An emergency is something that is more life-threatening and not solvable by getting in your car and going to the doctor.”
During the testing phase of the DOTS program, which began in February, fire officials identified 10 individuals who frequently called 911 with non-emergency issues to voluntarily participate.
Shelton said some of those original 10 people have successfully completed the program and gotten the help and resources they need to address their problems in ways other than using the 911 system, As they have left, other people have been added to the program. The number of people participating in the program at any given time has stayed at 10.
“We have seen a pretty significant decrease in the amount of times that they’ve used 911 services during that time,” Shelton said of the DOTS program participants. “What we don’t know is the long-term effects yet. If two, three or four years down the road, if that behavior will continue to change or if we’ll be back in the same place we were before. Certainly, we’ve had some very positive results, though.”
The testing phase of the program comes at a time when the fire department has seen record numbers of calls for service in recent years. The department has gone from fewer than 12,000 calls for service in 2008 to more than 21,000 calls last year, according to Shelton.
This year the fire department’s calls for service are projected to increase even more, as Shelton said the department is on pace to field over 23,000 calls by the end of the year.
The fire department will discuss and decide whether to implement the DOTS program on a larger scale during the first quarter of 2017.
If the program is implemented on a larger scale, Shelton expects the results would be similar to what’s been seen so far in the much smaller testing phase and that calls for nonemergency service would decrease, making the department’s resources available for true emergency situations.
“We’ll look at it and make a decision based on what we’ve seen,” Shelton said.
Copyright 2016 The Pueblo Chieftain