911 centers in crime-ridden San Francisco answered just 72 percent of calls within 15 seconds in October, alarming new statistics show.
The song, released by the Emergency Departmentis the lowest of any month in the past six years, and below the department's target of 95 percent.
Emergency workers blamed the dip Tuesday on a decline in the number of full-time dispatchers since the COVID-19 pandemic, and a simultaneous increase in calls.
“It's absolutely horrible here, and it's not getting any better,” veteran coordinator Valerie Tucker said. The San Francisco Chronicle in an interview this Tuesday.
The department currently receives almost 2,000 calls per day, a number that averages 81 calls per hour.
Francisco an Francisco emergency centers answered only 72 percent of calls within 15 seconds in October, alarming new statistics show
The department currently receives almost 2,000 calls per day, a number that averages 81 calls per hour.
Emergency responders on Tuesday blamed a decline in the number of full-time dispatchers since the COVID-19 pandemic began, as well as a simultaneous increase in calls.
Outlets like the Chronicle have previously reported on the city's acute staff shortages and strategies that are still being considered, such as giving dispatchers the same distinction as first responders like police, given their city status.
Dispatchers have long been asking for additional staff. The current flood of calls has forced many of them to work mandatory overtime — often for months, some told the Chronicle.
“Within 15 seconds, I can start giving CPR instructions, have NARCAN administered, give choking instructions to a new mother or father,” Tucker said of the declining response rate.
“I can prevent a suicidal person from harming themselves because I say their name and they don't feel so alone anymore.”
However, her boss at the city-run DEM, Mary Ellen Carroll, sang a different tune.
She said she was “optimistic” that business would improve in the new year due to recent department changes, such as the addition of an internal recruiter and increases in employee base pay to $104,000.
Additionally, the position only requires a high school diploma and comes complete with union benefits.
Further sweetening the pot, she said, is an effort to speed up the background checks dispatchers face, which is already in the works.
“There is nothing more important to me right now, as director of this organization, than working on this issue,” said Carrol, who was named executive director in the summer of 2018.
At the time of her appointment, the workforce in her department was approximately 280 – more than double the number of full-time coordinators today.
The number, released by the Department of Emergency Management, is the lowest of any month in the past six years, and below the department's target of 95 percent.
From March 2020 to December 2022, staff numbers fell from 155 to 123 – almost 40 short of the target of 160 fully trained employees.
In her interview Tuesday, Carroll said the number has since risen to 126, along with 14 interns – “gradual progress,” she said.
However, Tucker said she and others are feeling the pain of the seemingly endless stream of calls, which plummeted in 2020 and 2021 but have since returned to pre-pandemic levels.
As the number of calls increases, response times have only gotten slower, the statistics show. Tucker told the Chronicle that after months of working longer hours and taking fewer breaks, she and her fellow coordinators are on the brink of burnout.
“Most of us in the room are starting to wonder: Is this worth it?” Tucker said, as the city continues to grapple with an ongoing, now years-long wave of crime.
Tucker added that she fears the inability to keep up with the flow of people represents a new status quo — one created by the pandemic that, like San Francisco's crime situation, is now the norm.
San Francisco Coordinators Union President Burt Wilson, a current coordinator, also spoke to the publication and he said detailed plans are currently in the works to address the city's hiring timeline.
Outlets like the Chronicle have previously reported on the city's acute staffing shortages and strategies that are still being considered, such as giving dispatchers the same distinction as first responders like police, given their status as a city.
From March 2020 to December 2022, the workforce fell from 155 to 123 – almost 40 short of the target of 160 fully trained employees
While this is happening, crime remains a problem in what was once the crown jewel of the Bay Area
Wilson said a pending bill that would reclassify dispatchers as public safety workers could help alleviate the dispatcher shortage.
San Francisco's hiring process currently takes an average of 255 days to recruit a coordinator — a timeline further hampered by the time it takes to train them, which officials say takes about a year.
What's worse is that staff isn't coming in fast enough to replace retired or tired employees, prompting Carroll to tell the newspaper that she will support “anything that will bring people to the field and support the really good people we have , will keep. '
When The Chronicle contacted Mayor London Breed's office, it did not say why it has not reclassified 911 responders as emergency responders — a designation held by police and firefighters that leads to better benefits and a generous pension.
Regarding the understaffing problem, spokesman Jeff Cretan said: “It's not just a local problem. This is a national issue.
He then reportedly reiterated that his boss remains “focused” on improving response time issues.
While this is happening, crime remains a problem in what was once the crown jewel of the Bay Area.
According to statistics covering the entire year up to last Sunday, the number of robberies increased by 14.2 percent compared to last year, and the number of rapes increased by 15.6 percent.
The number of homicides also remains unchanged from last year at 53, eerily close to the number of homicides reported at the end of both 2022 and 2021 – a total of 55.
That followed a 56-year low recorded in 2019, when 41 people were killed in the city, a number that, like many other crime figures, appears to be a thing of the past after the pandemic.
Somewhat pessimistically, Wilson said of city officials, “They know it's a problem.
“But until someone important is killed or injured, they don't address it.”