DEPARTMENT: Police
DEPARTMENT HEAD: William P. McManus, Chief of Police
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City-wide
SUBJECT: 911 Dispatch Center Briefing
SUMMARY:
The San Antonio Police Department's Communications Center serves as the city's Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) and answers all emergency (911) and non-emergency (207-SAPD) calls in the city. Over the past five years, the number of emergency calls has more than doubled to 2.45 million calls (1.6M emergency, 853K non-emergency). During this time, the staffing levels in the PSAP have remained the same. Accordingly, answer times and abandoned rates have started to climb and the speed with which calls are answered has slowed. The SAPD has taken numerous steps to address this issue.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Responsibilities:
The Communications Center is responsible for answering all emergency and non-emergency calls in the city. In addition, this unit also oversees all SAPD communications related to radios, cell phones, and tablet PCs, and it manages the SAPDs Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) compliance, in concert with ITSD. The unit is responsible for entering information such as court mandated protective orders, responding to open records requests for audio, and ensuring all Communications staff are trained properly. This includes new hire training, training existing staff on new issues (open carry, Shot Spotter, body cameras, etc.), and ensuring completion of all required training hours according to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) standards.
Performance:
One of the most common ways to measure performance in a Communications Center is to look at the grade of service (GOS) as defined by the National Emergency Number Association (NENA). The NENA standard for GOS requires that 90 percent of incoming emergency calls are answered in 10 seconds or less, and 95 percent of all calls in 20 seconds or less. In 2015, the SAPD Communications Center...
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