Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao on Monday announced the city would be investing an additional $2.5 million to its 911 response system over the next two years.
The change comes after multiple NBC Bay Area investigations and civil grand jury reports spotlighted the city's failing system.
Before Monday's announcement, Thao had avoided questions about Oakland’s 911 system for months. But with the new funds, she vowed to bring the city's 911 answering times down.
"Response times have been a long-standing issue for our city, and the current situation is unacceptable," Thao said. "While we are currently working on our responses to the Grand Jury report on 911, we are proposing today that these additional funds be used to implement the recommendations of that report and our next steps in improving the system. I look forward to working with the Council to ensure that we put these funds directly to use for all Oaklanders."
Thao was joined by the city administrator and city council members, all of whom agreed Oakland's long answering times are unacceptable and that they’ve been crippled by the city’s budget deficit.
On Sunday, NBC Bay Area's Investigative Unit revealed Oakland had more than 50,000 abandoned 911 calls last year, double from the year before. Those are emergency calls where someone just hung up after no one answered quickly enough.
NBC Bay Area also heard from people who got busy signals or were on hold for up to 10 minutes.
State data shows Oakland has the second worst 911 answering time in the state. At nearly a minute long, it's quadruple the state standard of 15 seconds or less.
At Monday's news conference, Council Member Nikki Fortunato Bas talked about what it took to get to this point.
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"When you're in crisis, you deserve a swift response," she said. "And today, our three branches of government are partnering to deliver those results. Our policy makers on the council, our executive leadership in the mayor's office and our administration, including our staff, are working in alignment to improve our 911 system."
Staffing/Recruiting
Oakland city officials said the primary contributing factor to long call answer times is lack of staffing. Currently, in Oakland Police Department's 911 call center, there are 16 vacancies.
The City said anyone interested in applying can learn more by visiting their website for job details and an application portal. Positions are listed as “Police Communications Dispatcher.”
Upgrades to Dispatch Systems
Oakland City Administrator said the City is also preparing a major upgrade to the computer-aided dispatch system, or CAD system. This is an essential tool for 911 dispatchers to get emergency responders to a scene of a call. He said the City anticipates an "accelerated six-month launch for the upgraded CAD system."
According to the a civil grand jury report released in June, Oakland officials have been promising to upgrade this system for the past five years.
When asked about this, City Administrator Jestin Johnson said he couldn't speak about the past.
"Our leadership team is working aggressively to ensure what we're doing now, we're taking it a day forward approach," Johnson said. "At present, we're going to keep moving aggressively to ensure the implementation of the schedule that we have in respect to commitment to these funds [and that] it happens expeditiously."
Catch up on the Investigative Unit's earlier 911 reports.
Part 1: ‘I don't dial 911 anymore': Oakland's worsening 911 crisis
Part 2: Oakland's 911 system was down 30 hour. It's part of a bigger issue
Part 3: CHP Bay Area responds to having longest 911 answering times in California
Part 4: Californians paid more than a $1B into 911 over the years as oversight falls behind
