At 10:45 p.m. Tuesday, July 2, 2024, the Oakland Police Department released a media statement saying the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) is now collaborating with OPD after learning the department will not meet the upcoming July 26 deadline to improve its 911 response times.
In a new June 28 letter, Cal OES told OPD it "...will take no further action. In the event the answer times standard does not improve, Oakland PD may be subject to referral to the Attorney General for further action."
Updated information about how the state is responding to Oakland’s struggling 911 calling system came to light after NBC Bay Area’s follow-up investigation on Oakland PD Tuesday. Our team revealed OPD has made progress but that its 911 center is far from meeting the state’s standard of answering 90% of all calls within 15 seconds. Last May, Oakland answered 47% of its calls within the standard, according to Mayor Sheng Thao’s staff at the time. That percentage was up from 37% last year.
Oakland had one year to comply with Cal OES standards. The state agency sent the city a warning letter on July 26, 2023, after NBC Bay Area started asking questions about Oakland’s long 911 response times in June 2023.
Our news organization also asked about Cal OES’ lack of oversight of the city’s system as well as other 911 systems across the state. As of May 2024, Cal OES has not completed any of its financial and operation reviews of the approximately 440 911 centers across California. It completed 22 reviews last year. The agency cited staffing issues during its last State 911 Advisory Board meeting. Staff said they have completed some hiring.
NBC Bay Area recently reached out to Cal OES asking what the agency plans to do after learning Oakland will not meet its July 26 deadline. On a phone call with us, Cal OES spokesperson Amy Palmer said, “We stand by our [7/26/23] letter and its substance…The letter speaks for itself.”
According to the 2023 letter, if Oakland can’t comply by July 26, “Oakland Police Department will no longer be eligible for SETNA [State Emergency Telephone Account] funding and will reroute 911 calls to another PSAP.” A PSAP is a public safety answering point, also known as a 911 calling center.
Cal OES has since changed its tone with OPD. In the June 28 letter sent to the city agency, Cal OES’ CA 911 Branch said it “recognized the significant efforts that Oakland has taken to improve staffing levels in a short period of time…noticeable improvement has been made.”
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"It is a bit of a relief, but we also acknowledge that we have a lot of work to do," said Oakland PD Deputy Director Kiona Suttle. "The biggest challenge faced by Oakland, and most 911 centers, is staffing...that's why we have continuous recruitment open until all of our vacant positions are filled."
Once all of our vacancies are filled and all of our dispatchers are trained, we anticipate meeting the state standard by fall, winter 2025.
Deputy Director Kiona Suttle, Oakland Police Dept.
Last September, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao announced a $2.5 million investment into the city’s 911 center. Suttle told NBC Bay Area 71 of their 76 authorized OPD dispatched positions are currently filled. That's compared to the 61 out of 76 positions filled last July.
"Once all of our vacancies are filled and all of our dispatchers are trained, we anticipate meeting the state standard by fall, winter 2025," she said.
According to Cal OES' recent letter, the state recognized that Oakland PD is still not meeting the standard and “In the event the answer time standard does not improve, Oakland PD may be subject to referral to the Attorney General for further action.”
Suttle does not expect that to happen.
"Our dispatch center is one of the hardest working dispatch center, if not, in the country," she said.
When asked if Cal OES gave Oakland PD specific benchmarks to reach in their latest update to the city, Suttle said the state did not. NBC Bay Area reached out to Cal OES for comment. The state agency has not responded.
Catch up on all of the Investigative Unit’s reporting on Oakland’s 9-1-1 system: nbcbayarea.com/911
