Austin residents on hold when calling 911; not enough operators, APD says

AUSTIN, Texas - Some Austin residents are frustrated after being placed on hold when calling 911. Austin police blame staffing shortages for the issue.

When you call 911, you expect to hear a person on the other line to help you with your emergency, but what if you were put on hold? That is what is happening in Austin.

On July 14, around 5 a.m., Austin resident Vincent said he heard six gunshots right outside his house.

"Immediately I call 911, no one answered, a recording was on a loop in Spanish and English saying wait for the next operator. Well after two minutes, I'm like, hello?" Vincent said.

He said he ended up just hanging up.

"Normally, if you call 911 and hang up immediately, I know this from experience, they will call you back immediately and say, 'what's up?' To this day they haven't called back," Vincent said.

Austin Police Department Lt. Ken Murphy said that’s not the service they want to provide or what Austin residents deserve.

"I was just flabbergasted, but I was furious," Vincent said.

"Right now we cannot guarantee that someone will always answer immediately when someone calls 911," Murphy said.

Lt. Murphy said they receive more than 1 million 911 calls a year. A center running at about 50 percent staffing is taking all those calls. 

"The national standard for answering 911 calls is 90 percent within 15 seconds or less," Murphy said. "Not last week but the week before, our answer rate was 73 percent."

Currently, they have 44 911 operator and 21 dispatcher vacancies.

"We will be as low on night shift as at times we've run with five 911 operators," Murphy said.

Lt. Murphy said it’s been this way for about a year and a half, but they can’t seem to catch up.

"The answer is just trying to find more people, but that's a real challenge," Murphy said.

In order to become a 911 operator or dispatcher, they must have a Texas Commission on Law Enforcement License which includes an extensive background check, drug test, psychological examination and skills test.

"Our hiring rate is about 1 to 2 percent of all applicants," Murphy said.

He said their pay rate isn’t competitive enough either.

"They can go somewhere and work for $6 more and not have to work as hard," Murphy said.

Lt. Murphy said his telecommunicators are first responders and essential.

"If they're not here, there's no emergency response," Murphy said.

Lt. Murphy said he hopes city council is working on increasing wages because more calls and more resignations could turn into a disaster.