(KRON) — Almost a third of 9-1-1 calls in Oakland are answered after 60 seconds. These response times of the Oakland Police Department have received growing concern from residents and businesses. A recent report by Michael C. Houston, the Oakland Auditor, found that the city has slow police emergency response times due to insufficient staffing levels, lack of bilingual staff and trouble filling dispatcher vacancies.
The report discusses the details of the slow response time, going on to state that, “in 2024, Oakland answered 54 percent of calls within 15 seconds and 57 percent of calls within 20 seconds, with nearly a third of calls waiting more than 60 seconds to be answered.” The performance goal for a sufficient response time, mandated by the state, is 90 percent of calls are answered in 15 seconds and 95 percent in 20 seconds.
The audit noted that the city of Oakland did not meet state timeliness standards for 9-1-1 calls for 10 out of the 11 years they reviewed the police department. Houston went on to state that, “slow response times increase the risk of harm to residents” and outlines several recommendations to the Oakland Police Department to improve their debacle:
- Change staffing in the communications department proportionate to call volume
- Let callers know when they have been transferred to dispatch
- Add more bilingual dispatchers
- Oakland PD should update their language accessibility policies to streamline calls from bilingual people who do not always speak English
- Oakland PD should report their progress to the appropriate oversight committee
- The non-emergency line should be translated into multiple languages
- Oakland PD should set goals for their response times and report their progress
- Oakland PD should update their beat boundaries to reflect call volumes from the community’s various neighborhoods
- Oakland PD should activate GPS in their patrols to allow dispatch to send the nearest officer to minimize response times
