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by: Erik RosalesPosted: Jul 11, 2019 / 05:31 PM PDT / Updated: Jul 11, 2019 / 06:18 PM PDT
A Fresno County grand jury report found Fresno’s 911 emergency center is under staffed and not about the keep up with the call demand. So CBS47 went out to investigate.
When we need help, we run to the phone and dial 911.
But what happens if you call and no one picks up in a timely manner?
Inside the Fresno Police 911 emergency center, dispatchers are struggling to meet a state mandate to answer 95 percent of 911 calls in 15 seconds or less.
Fresno Police Lieutenant David Ramsey is in charge of the 911 center.
He says right now 80 to 84 percent of 911 calls are answered in 15 seconds or less.
Last year it was around 70 to 75 percent.
In the summer months, the busiest time for crime, that rate has dropped to around 60 percent in the past.
California’s Office of Emergency Services tells CBS47, it conducts a fiscal and operational review of 911 centers through out the state.
State officials say each one receives funding to support their equipment and failure to work with the state to achieve the standards set in the operations manual could jeopardize those funds.
Ramsey says, “We are doing anything and everything we can to meet that standard for our public. Because we want to deliver it to our public, we just can’t do it yet. So I would hope that they at least see we are trying and doing everything we can, and they wouldn’t pull those funds. They have not so far.”
