Copyright 2006 San Antonio Express-News
All Rights Reserved
By LAURA E. JESSE
San Antonio Express-News (Texas)
The city is working to correct a problem in its 9-1-1 communications center that would force police, fire and emergency medical service call-takers and dispatchers to coordinate emergency calls with pen and paper in the event of a computer breakdown.
A computer system’s lack of redundancy was identified in an internal audit that also criticized the center’s organizational structure. The audit, one of the last completed by former City Auditor Pat Major, recommended a more streamlined operation in which civilians replace uniformed police, fire and EMS dispatchers, saving $3.6 million.
Major’s audit also found that of 1.1 million 9-1-1 calls, 20 percent were abandoned — a much higher rate than either Houston or Austin.
An abandoned, or dropped, call is picked up by the system but the caller hangs up before it is answered. Police management said it is evaluating how to reduce the rate and will address staff levels in the next budget.
“If you asked me to design a poorer structure, I’d draw this one for you,” Councilman Kevin Wolff said of the existing operation. “I’ve spent my career in organizational structures and design. This one isn’t functional.”
The audit found the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) network is not adequately backed up by a system that would allow it to recover from a failure in a relatively short period of time.
If the system failed, the audit states, staff would operate manually, taking more time and possibly resulting in unanswered emergency calls.
“The 911 process is vulnerable to failure due to the malfunction or destruction of the CAD application, mainframe system and/or network,” the audit said. “Essentially, call-takers and dispatchers would dispatch emergency calls using paper and the radio system.”
In its management response, the city said the problem will be corrected in two phases — the first by a Web-based application for the CAD that is under way and should be completed by June 2007. The city’s information technology department will begin replacing the CAD system at the beginning of next year.
But the recommendation to streamline the organization with an all-civilian 911 dispatcher force under a single management structure got a cool reception.
When a 911 call is made, a call-taker answers the phone and, based on the nature of the emergency, directs the call to either police or fire/EMS call-takers, who then send the information to dispatchers.
Although the 212 civilian and uniformed employees are in the same location at police headquarters, the operations are divided so the police and fire/EMS have their own organizational structure, computers, hardware, software and resources.
Major suggested a streamlined structure that would implement a common set of policies and procedures, provide equivalent training for call-takers and dispatchers, and offer consistent pay for similar jobs.
Police management said it would civilianize dispatchers but not supervisors; the Fire Department said it wouldn’t civilianize any aspect of its operation.
Assistant City Manager Erik Walsh said replacing EMS dispatchers with civilians is out of the question because they are seasoned paramedics who draw on their practical experience to provide life-saving instructions over the phone before an ambulance even arrives at a scene.
But Wolff said civilians could be trained for EMS dispatcher jobs. “We need to take civilians and give them the training required to do the job,” he said. “We don’t need to train them to be paramedics. I want them doing what they were trained to do.”
Assistant Fire Chief Mario Guerra agreed that civilians could be trained, but he said the paramedics’ experience has worked well.
“We’ve been pretty happy that we have the Cadillac system that we have in San Antonio,” Guerra said, adding that the fire and EMS side of the operation has a less-than-1 percent abandoned call rate.
Auditors also found that a software program that allows dispatchers to locate police squad cars on a mapping screen was not being used because the computer hardware was inadequate. This was resolved during the audit, according to the management response.