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EDITORIAL: Dangerous delay
Nov 20, 2009 (The Salt Lake Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
You see a crime in progress, a fight occurring, a drunk on the highway, a drug deal going down. Or worse, a stranger is trying to break into your home. You call 911.
The last thing you expect is the runaround, to tell your story to one 911 operator, then be transferred to another and forced to tell your tale again. But that's exactly what happens when the 294,000 residents served by the patrol division of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office summon the police.
The call is received by the Salt Lake Valley Emergency Communications Center, and a series of questions are asked. Then, the call is forwarded to the sheriff's communications division, where questions that have already been asked and answered are asked once again before, finally, the green light is given to a dispatcher to send an officer to the scene.
The system, according to a performance audit conducted by the Utah Legislative Auditor General, is not only redundant, it's "inherently inefficient." That's being kind.
When seconds count, a full minute is wasted transferring the call and repeating the interview. It's only a matter of time until the delay results in a tragedy, if it hasn't already.
Auditors studied 40 transferred police emergency calls, surveying all 40 callers. They found only three cases -- 8 percent of the calls -- where the delay may have increased the risk to innocent citizens. But, with 29,900 emergency calls relayed to the county in 2008, 8 percent
adds up.
The audit recommends that VECC and the sheriff's office eliminate the duplication in the call-taking process. The sheriff's office, at some expense, could become a primary Public Safety Answering Point and handle police emergency calls directly. Or, it could let VECC be the sole point of contact, an option made easy by a new $1 million communications bridge that allows data to be instantly transferred between the agencies' computer-assisted dispatch systems, enabling the immediate dispatch of sheriff's deputies based on information gathered by VECC.
Either option would be an improvement, eliminating the duplication of calls. But why go to the expense of establishing a primary call-taking center at the sheriff's office, especially when Salt Lake City's emergency calling center already backs up VECC and vice versa.
Auditors suggest that the state's 911 Committee study the options. But the choice is already clear and there isn't a minute to waste, especially if a burglar is trying to climb through your window. The sheriff's office should allow VECC, and VECC alone, to answer the phones.
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