![]() ![]() "But we know there's more work to do," he said. "But there's lots of people we'll need to talk to in order to have effective conversations on this."Īlderman Michael Browning, whose ward covers the Grove, said he hoped that the across-the-board raises for city employees that the board approved Friday would help bolster hiring and retention in the short-staffed dispatcher corps. "We're going to be moving expediently," said Alderman Bret Narayan, the public safety committee chair. "As City leaders have emphasized, optimizing our 911 system will take both time and hard work," he said.Īldermen in charge of the board's budget and public safety committees said they're planning hearings to see what they can do, though it could take a while. From 3 p.m.-5 p.m., he said, it received 1,076 phone communications, or about 9 calls per minute.Ĭhambers also pointed out that the Jones administration has made progress with increasing some dispatchers' pay and gathering money for a new dispatch center. Department spokesman Monte Chambers wrote in an email that the department is still investigating the incident in the Grove, but noted that dispatch was inundated with phone traffic Saturday afternoon. But police department data show service has remained well below national standards, and Saturday's incident thrust the issue back into the spotlight.Ī spokesman for the mayor's office referred questions about Saturday's incident and reform efforts to the city's Department of Public Safety. Jones, have offered pay raises, made administrative changes and announced plans to reshape the system as a whole. City officials, including Mayor Tishaura O. For years, departing dispatchers and media reports have been raising the alarm about a balkanized, understaffed operation. Montes' account marked the latest addition to a long series of complaints about the city's emergency dispatch system. "We need to change something about that," he said. He held out hope for an answer as he stood by the woman, unconscious but breathing, telling her that help was coming. Sebastian Montes, owner of Mexican restaurant La Calle, said he and others called 911 dozens of times after a tree fell on the woman's car during the storms Saturday afternoon. LOUIS - A man who struggled for more than an hour to summon emergency services for a dying woman in the Grove this weekend pleaded Monday for something to be done about the city's long-struggling 911 system. ![]()
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