Out of the 450 911 call centers across California, CHP Golden Gate Division had the longest averaging answering time in the state in 2023, according to California Office of Emergency Services’ data analyzed by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit.
Located in Vallejo, CHP Golden Gate Division receives tens of thousands of 911 calls every month from callers driving on freeways and highways across all nine Bay Area counties.
Currently, if you call this division, you will be on hold for an average of 56.8 seconds before talking to a live dispatcher, according to state data. Oakland Police Department was not far behind with an average answering time of 54 seconds.
Before the pandemic, CHP Golden Gate Division's answering times fell within California's mandated standard of 90% of 911 calls within 15 seconds.
But the division’s answering times began increasing sharply during the pandemic.
After our report revealing these numbers earlier this month, CHP Golden Gate Division sat down with the Investigative Unit and provided a tour of its call center. Captain Gerardo Serrato explained what led to the increase.
“One of the biggest challenges that we are facing right now would be staffing,” he said. “We were faced, here specifically in Golden Gate, with some retirements. Then the pandemic came in and our ability to be able to go out there and recruit and speak to the public and bring awareness to the profession was limited.”
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“And I don't think that that's isolated to just California Highway Patrol,” Captain Serrato added.
Or just California, according to a new national survey.
A staggering 82% of [911] centers reported being understaffed…
NENA & Carbyne
On Tuesday, the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) and Carbyne, an emergency communication software company, released their new Pulse of 9-1-1: State of the Industry Survey. The report consisted of a random sample of 841 Emergency Communications Center personnel across Northern California.
The national survey showed “a staggering 82% of centers reported being understaffed and struggling with hiring and retention, with responders citing stress and low pay as the top obstacles to attracting and sustaining staff.”
The data also showed “outdated technology is a recurring issue, with 60% of participants nothing their centers regularly experiencing outages…”
The outages described are similar to Oakland’s 911 system’s multi-day failure earlier in the month that dispatchers called “catastrophic.” For about 30 hours total, Oakland 911 calls had to be routed through another agency, or Oakland dispatchers had to take down emergency calls with pen and paper.
911 misuse also delaying answering times
In Vallejo, Captain Serrato toured the Investigative Unit around CHP Golden Gate Division’s call center where we witnessed another major contributor to delayed answering times – calls that are not real emergencies.
“[People calling] to know the temperature, want to know if a roadway is closed,” he said.
Jill James is a CHP dispatch manager. She said those calls can take up a third of a dispatcher’s time.
“Oh, we get all kinds of calls. People stuck in traffic; they call 911 just to say that they’re stuck in traffic,” she said. “It’s not appropriate.”
CHP’s solutions: hiring, 911 proper use and dispatcher profession awareness
Captain Serrato said he is confident his division's answering times will go down with the following solutions.
Dispatcher recruitment and hiring:
CHP Golden Gate Division is actively hiring and recruiting. The division is hosting a hiring seminar on Wednesday, August 30 at 6:30 p.m. at its headquarters at 1551 Benicia Road in Vallejo.
Public education of proper use of 911:
911 should be reserved for callers who believe there are experiencing or witnessing real emergencies. If a caller intentionally misuses 911, the person may be charged a fine of up to $10,000 and/or face jail time.
If you misuse 911, for instance asking for directions or the weather, you can face an infraction and be fined up to $250.
Public awareness of dispatcher positions:
Captain Serrato and James said dispatchers are often the forgotten voices of law enforcement, and that has also been a contributing factor to staffing issues. They believe more effort needs to be made to help the public understand dispatchers are the first point of contact in an emergency response.
“It is such a phenomenal career. We get to be a piece of somebody's story, someone’s journey when they're at maybe their lowest,” said James.
