Most of the calls taken by Montgomery County’s staff members at the Emergency Communications Center aren’t emergencies. The sheer volume of calls to 911, coupled with a 16% overall staffing shortage, is adding to the increased time it takes for a human to pick up that 911 call.
The Montgomery County Council’s Public Safety Committee heard from county legislative analyst Susan Farag, along with police, ECC’s director Cassandra Onley and Montgomery County Fire Chief Corey Smedley on some of the challenges emergency response staff members face.
Assistant Chief of Police for Montgomery County Darren Francke told council members, “At least 60% of the calls that come into 911 shouldn’t go to 911.”
Many calls that the ECC gets range from complaints about barking dogs, parking issues or a need to replace recycling bins. Others would more appropriately go to the police nonemergency number at 240-773-8900, and still others dealing with mental health issues, should be directed to the county’s crisis line or 988, the suicide prevention number.
Montgomery County has had a public awareness campaign called “Make the Right Call” that illustrates which agencies can respond to a specific need in the community.
But, Francke said, each and every 911 call must be answered.
“If we’re getting a call about a dog barking on 911, we have to take that call and get it routed,” and that, Francke said, takes away from calls for true emergencies, like a call from a person “who has someone in front of them who just collapsed and needs CPR.”
‘Don’t hang up!’
Susan Farag, who walked the committee through a report on the challenges facing the 911 system in the county, told the council members that while the ECC does adhere to national standards for meeting a response window of 15 seconds from the time a call is made to the time a person answers the call, the time has increased.
In 2021, the response time was 4 seconds; and in 2023, it was 10 seconds from the time a call was made to the time a caller was connected to a responder.
“So it’s definitely well within the standard,” Farag said. “It is beginning to inch up a little bit.”
Francke and Farag said the county may want to launch a public service awareness campaign explaining how the system works, due to the high number of hang-ups that occur when people are faced with delays that may extend to 30-40 seconds. In those cases, said Francke, “Don’t hang up!”
Farag explained that when callers hang up and then try to call back, “They lose their place (in line) and it’s actually going to take longer to answer that call.”
Francke said some people who dial 911 and get an automated response, appear to be thrown off by the experience and hang up. The automated calls contain a taped message, and a series of tones that are especially confusing to some, said Francke.
He explained, “The tones are for our deaf community” that allow hard-of-hearing callers to connect with the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) system technology that allows them to get help.
Staffing shortages
The county has been working to boost recruitment of call takers and dispatchers to deal with the staff shortages. Those same shortages result in regular mandatory overtime, increasing the toll on staff and boosting the cost to the county.
Farag said the county is looking at increasing the fee that county residents pay toward 911 service in their phone bills, which is currently about .75 cents per month per phone line. Frederick County recently boosted its county fee to $2.25 per month per phone line.
Francke said he understood that no one wants to see their bills go up, but, “Of all the calls you want to have answered or to make, the 911 is the most critical. To me, it’s worth it.”
Noting that the ECC fields as many as 2,300 calls a day, Montgomery County Fire Chief Corey Smedley told the council committee, “I urge that we really make sure that the ECC is a primary mission,” echoing Francke’s earlier statement that the “real first responders” are the people who pick up the calls to 911 and get police, fire and emergency services to the places they’re needed when emergencies happen.
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