REGINA – In the Queen City, only two people are responsible for answering all of the 911 calls at times. The same goes for Saskatoon and Prince Albert.
When staff are busy, emergency calls can wait, on hold, without speaking to a live person for as long as 90 seconds.
While calls wait in that queue, they are not being recorded. If you only had seconds to yell out your address or emergency, it might not be heard.
An emergency systems expert from the United States, Paul Linnee, said that’s a relatively easy fix.
“There is 911 answering equipment at dispatch centres that can be configured to record audio on an inbound call even though that call has not been answered,” he said.
As it stands, in Saskatchewan, the system works like this..
“For instance, somebody is dialing because they feel threatened in their home. They dial the number but their assailant manages to disconnect the line. In those cases we will have recorded the number,” explained Duane McKay, the emergency management commissioner.
Then they will call the number back. If nobody answers multiple times, police will go investigate.
But how is the call tracked? Landlines are easy, while cell phones add another wrinkle. Triangulating cell phones won’t give dispatchers an exact location.
It’s something the province is looking to improve.
“That’s what we’re working on now, with “Next Generation 911″ is to get location information so we could go back to where we were 30 years ago and know where every telephone is located,” McKay said.
Phone systems will also be upgraded, allowing for better tracking of statistics, including just how long people wait in the queue.
Linnee thinks Saskatchewan’s 911 service is performing fairly well, even with calls regularly going into the queue.
He said it’s impossible to staff for every emergency – “One would ideally like them not to go into the queue at all, but that would mean having an adequate number of 9-1-1 operators on duty in entity x, at moment y, when incident z takes place.”
At the end of the day, it comes down to what residents expect from 911 and just how long they’re willing – or able, to wait in an emergency.
PART 1: 911 on hold: When the dispatchers are busy
PART 2: 911 on hold: How other provinces answer emergency calls
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