Prince George’s County 911 operators are taking an average of 17 seconds longer to answer calls than the state allows, putting at risk both the county’s residents and the $6.6 million the county receives each year for its emergency dispatch system, a report obtained by The Examiner shows.
According to a study by RCC Consultants Inc. that was commissioned by the county, it takes county 911 operators an average of 27 seconds to answer emergency calls. But Prince George’s Department of Homeland Security Director Vernon Herron said since the study, the average has dropped to 14 seconds.
That, however, is still four seconds more than the state mandate of 10 seconds, and it will take reorganizing shifts and hiring more operators to bring the county into compliance, Herron said.
Operators currently work on 12-hour shifts, but the study found that those shifts create overstaffing at lower call volume periods and understaffing at higher volume periods. To rectify the situation, the consultants recommended changing to a 10-hour shift and hiring an additional 73 operators.
In its last state audit of Prince George’s answering times, conducted in Spring 2007, the Maryland 911 Trust Fund found the county’s answering time fell within the mandate, and another audit won’t be done until next year, George Dean, the trust fund’s director, said.
If that audit finds the county in violation, “we could withhold their funding and then release it once they’re compliant. It’s a hammer we can use to get things in order,” Dean said, adding that no county has ever had its funds withheld.
“Even when a county is not compliant, the trust’s board of directors works with the county to correct the issue.”
The cash for the 911 Trust Fund comes from a 75-cent surcharge on phone bills – the highest a county is allowed to charge under state law.
