911 Call Center staffing is a very high priority

9-1-1 is the public’s literal life-line, and I take our responsibility to respond to and manage that life-line very seriously. The call-takers and dispatchers of the KCPD take calls and dispatch not just for police, but also for EMS, the Fire Department and Animal Health and Safety. The women and men sitting in our call center are the first first responders to every life and safety need in this city, and they are seriously over-worked.

Due to staffing issues that existed before I came into the Chief’s position, all of our call-takers and dispatchers are working mandatory overtime. From the beginning of the year to Sept. 15, about 70 people have worked 11,360 hours of overtime. They’re missing family events, aren’t able to pick up their children from school and are burning out. That amount of additional work in a job that is already high-stress is causing substantial turn-over, creating more of a staffing crisis.

What that means for the public is that you can be put on hold when you call 911. For the month of July 2017, the average hold time was 24 seconds. No one is satisfied with wait times for 911. We want that response to be without delay all of the time. That is the community’s expectation, and it is ours, too. And we are working toward that.

The recent Matrix staffing study recommended we hire seven more Communications Unit staff – that is add seven more positions. We have 14 vacant positions at present, so that would be 21 more people than we have now. (I’ll periodically be highlighting here how we’re acting on the other recommendations of the Matrix study.) Based on recommendations from national public safety telecommunications organizations, we believe that number should be higher than what Matrix recommended.

We’ve been out in the community recruiting and have conducted dozens and dozens of interviews with potential candidates. If you are interested in this very important and interesting work, please check out the job description and where you can apply! We welcome any inquiries.

But if we hire 100 people tomorrow, it would still be some time before the Communications Unit is fully staffed. A call-taker must undergo 13 weeks of training before being able to operate independently. To become a dispatcher, call-takers must undergo an additional 16 weeks of training.

So in the short-term, we are doing a number of things to reduce 911 hold times and mandatory overtime. We are working to bring in experienced part-time and contract call-takers and dispatchers. There also are several members on our department who used to work in the Communications Unit but have moved onto other jobs. We have offered them refresher training and courses on our new computer-aided dispatching (CAD) system so they can do voluntary overtime. I really appreciate those department members stepping up. Some of them haven’t been in the call center for more than 20 years, but they still had the skillset, saw a need, and they volunteered to meet it.

In 2016, our Communications Unit answered 1,202,589 calls. While we also have a great need for more officers, getting the Communications Unit adequately staffed is one of my highest priorities right now, and the Board of Police Commissioners have indicated it’s theirs, as well.

If you or someone you know has ever thought about having an exciting, rewarding career that directly serves others, please consider being a communications professional with the state’s largest law enforcement agency. Again, here’s how to apply.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org. 

We're prepared for upcoming rallies

Police are aware of and prepared for a rally set for Washington Square Park on Saturday, Sept. 9. It is slated to involve numerous groups and hundreds of people from across the political and ideological spectrum. We also are prepared that some of those people will have differing viewpoints and may not get along. Our only duty will be to ensure that everyone is safe as they exercise their constitutional right to free speech, as I outlined in my previous blog. We are there as a neutral party. The event isn’t about us, and we will remain as uninvolved as possible. But we will have the resources ready should more involvement be needed to maintain safety. 

We don’t know every group or person slated to attend. But as is our practice, we have reached out to organizers of groups who we know will be there so we can work together to ensure everyone’s safety. I want to be clear in stating that we never invite anyone to a demonstration or ask attendees to assist us with enforcement activities in any way.

Based on our conversations with organizers and other information, we created an operations plan. We do this for every rally/protest/demonstration in the city and have extensive experience in keeping these events peaceful and non-violent. We appreciate the thousands of people who have come out to make their voice heard on a number of issues in a peaceful manner. That’s one of the great things about Kansas City: the quality of its people.

To accommodate the demonstration, be aware that Grand Boulevard will be closed Saturday morning and afternoon from Pershing to about 25th Street. Emergency no-parking signs will be placed around Washington Square Park, so if you park on the street in that area, please move your vehicle by Friday night to prevent it from being towed. If you are going to Crown Center, you can still access their parking garage from the south entrance. Just be aware there could be traffic delays and/or trouble finding a parking spot around the park. We also are notifying businesses in the area of the planned demonstration.

The public can expect to see high police visibility in and around the park during the event. Keep in mind these all are officers on special assignment. None have been pulled from patrol in other areas.

There was a similar demonstration at Washington Square Park in June with about the same amount of people as are expected this weekend, and everything went well. And on Tuesday night, there was a large demonstration in support of “Dreamers” which was very peaceful. In those cases, we also communicated with organizers beforehand, and everyone was able to share their views while following the law.

The Kansas City Missouri Police Department wants a peaceful demonstration Saturday and at all future events, and our goal is to facilitate that.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org.