September 14, 2011
Dear Members of the Public Safety
Committee:
In response to concerns you raised at the
September 7th Public Safety Committee workshop, the Department of
Public Safety Communication (DPSC) will be suspending the recent “expedited
report” change.
As you know, the DPSC has been working on
several changes designed to improve service and save costs. Our Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) is
facing a set of challenges common to most PSAPs across the country where an
increasing call volume is making it more difficult to handle both emergency and
non-emergency calls. Take one example to
illustrate the challenge: before cell phones became as common, a major motor
vehicle accident that might have generated one or two calls now might result in
a dozen 9-1-1 calls inundating the PSAP at the same time.
Above all else, the changes that the DPSC
is working on are intended to maximize the availability of PSAP operators to
answer incoming calls. Tasks that tie up
operators that can be automated or done a different way will free them to take
non-emergency calls, and it will also increase the ability to make sure that
the essential function of answering 9-1-1 calls is not compromised, which is
now still a very real concern despite a procedure that is in place to drop
non-essential tasks when 9-1-1 calls are waiting.
The DPSC is working on the following
changes:
Ø Cross-training.
Four years ago, the police and fire call centers were relocated to the
same place. Over the last two years, a
new civilian management has worked to combine these two operations and
cross-train all staff so that when a crunch hits the PSAP, there is a larger
pool of employees available to help out with answering 9-1-1 calls, dispatching
or doing whatever is most urgent. All
staff are now cross-trained in answering police, fire and medical calls, and
cross-training of dispatchers is progressing on track.
Ø Officer voicemail. A large amount of the operators’ time is
consumed taking messages for police officers.
As part of a new phone system that will save a significant amount of
money, we will soon have voicemail for all police officers. This system will come with a reminder system
that will prompt officers to check their voicemail when messages are waiting.
Ø Automated directory. The new phone system will also include an
automated directory on the non-emergency number. A significant number of calls to the PSAP are
people using the center as a directory for the police department. The new directory will start with the message
to hang up and dial 9-1-1 if the call is an emergency, and then allow the
caller to immediately reach an operator if they do not want to use the
directory. Callers who are not looking
for the directory will spend a very minimal amount of time before they speak
with a live operator.
Ø Street-sweeping tows. When cars are being towed from a
street-sweeping route, the PSAP is often inundated with calls. A change in procedure in 2008 reduced the
number of street-sweeping tows from over 10,000 annually to half that number by
improving noticing, but we are working to: 1) continue to improve noticing, and
2) review the system to make it easier to locate a towed car. This second set of changes is part of a
larger review of the tow ordinances and system that is currently underway.
The “expedited report” change that was
implemented ended the practice of PSAP operators taking dictation for reports
of lost, damaged or stolen property.
This change was made both to free up operator availability from the
4000+ such reports done annually (tying up operators for approximately 1000
hours), but also to improve the integrity of the reports. A large portion of these calls are made to
generate a police report and case number that can be submitted to an insurance
company for a claim. Because all that
was necessary to successfully get a case number was to call the non-emergency
number, the Police Department expressed concern that the practice easily
allowed for fraud or inaccurate reporting (for example: property lost in
another jurisdiction reported as lost in New Haven because it is easier to get
a case number).
The new procedure required individuals
who wanted a police report or case number to come to police headquarters in
person; fill out a form describing the lost, damaged or stolen property; sign
the form under penalty of false reporting; and show an ID (exceptions were
provided to those with a disability).
Originally all individuals reporting stolen property had to go to police
headquarters, but the policy was amended to allow those who did not need a police
report or case number to mail in a description of the theft. These written reports would then be entered
into the police computer system during the midnight shift by PSAP operators,
when call volume is lowest.
While concerns about tying up PSAP operator
resources and the integrity of the police reports remain, this change is being
suspended. In the absence of a perfect
solution, we had felt that the benefits of this change outweighed the negatives,
but the feedback we have received have proven us wrong. I will continue to work with the DPSC to
explore ways that we can achieve the goals behind this change without imposing
a further burden on recent victims of crime.
I thank you for your interest in our
City’s public safety, your support of changes that have improved the
effectiveness and efficiency of city services, and your help catching changes
that are not achieving those goals.
Very truly yours,
Robert Smuts
Chief Administrative Officer
