Oakland’s 911 answer times remain worst in California – NBC Bay Area

Exactly one year after Oakland leaders announced a $2.5 million investment to save the city’s failing 911 Emergency Call Center, average answer times remain the worst in California by a wide margin.

State data shows, with an average answer time of 50 seconds, Oakland PD is more than triple the state standard of 15 seconds.

But city leaders point out that’s progress.

Exactly one year after Oakland leaders announced a $2.5 million investment to save the city’s failing 911 Emergency Call Center, average answer times remain the worst in California by a wide margin. Raj Mathai spoke with Investigative reporter Candice Nguyen to understand the latest details.

Last summer, it was answering 36% of its 911 calls within the 15 seconds standard. This month, that increased to 51%. Oakland needs to be at 90%, according to the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES).

The agency first sent the city a notice of non-compliance in mid-2023, weeks after the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit broke the story of Oakland having the worst 911 response out of any city in the state.

The $2.5 million investment announced in September 2023 was slated to stretch over two years. The city’s spending plan shows about half of the money is earmarked for more dispatchers and additional staff, including a 911 supervisor and therapists. Some of the other targets include modernizing their 911 dispatch technology, hiring more operators to field non-emergency calls, hiring a consultant and hosting job fairs.

At a recent press conference, Mayor Thao highlighted the city’s efforts.

“We’re doing ongoing hiring and ongoing testing. That was not happening previously. We are providing more mental health support for dispatchers. That wasn’t happening previously,” she said.

But dramatic and much-needed improvements to emergency call answer times could still be another year away.

Mayor Thao laid out a ten to 12 month timeline for new operators to get trained. She said the program ties a seasoned operator to a new one, causing a temporary slowdown in the call center’s efficiency because both of those operators are focusing on a single call. As those operators become fully trained, both the trainer and the trainee are then able to field more emergency calls.

As the city works to meet state guidelines for answering times, CalOES recently increased monitoring of the call center with monthly meetings. The change came weeks after Oakland missed the state’s deadline to answer 90% of calls within 15 seconds.

Oakland’s deputy director of services told NBC Bay Area that 911 answer times should be in compliance by the end of next year.

Still hanging on the line

For victims of crime in Oakland who have faced extended wait times as they seek aid in an emergency, long training timelines can be a point of frustration.

“Does it really need to take 10 months to train a 911 responder,” Oakland resident Jennifer Pahlka said.

Surveillance video from July shows a man breaking into her Oakland house. Pahlka said she was upstairs in a virtual meeting as he took her car and house keys and helped himself to food in the refrigerator.

“When I got off my call, I went into my bedroom and found a man standing there going through my things,” Pahlka said. 

She said she struggled to get through to the emergency line as she sought help on the ground.

“I ran out of my house and ran to my neighbor’s house. I dialed 911 that time. But I was on hold — and then I wasn’t. So I called again, and I think the third time I called, they did eventually pick up,” she said.

After she finally got through, she said it still took the police two days to show up. They only responded when neighbors called, saying the intruder came back and returned her car keys. Court documents show he has been charged with first degree burglary. 

Pahlka, who served as U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer for the Obama Administration, now believes the man was mentally unwell and did not mean to harm her. But in the moment, there was no way of knowing.

“I think I just really needed to connect with someone. I felt very alone,” she said.

She chose to share her experience on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Her post was viewed more than two million times. 

In an interview with the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit, Pahlka said there are a lot of things about Oakland’s 911 failure that are outrageous, but she’s done with outrage.  “If our only response is outrage, and not a kind of deeper inquiry that we’ve been able to engage in in the past, we’re not moving forward,” Pahlka said. “The lack of willingness to get into the weeds of how our government  operates is part of that holding us back. And I think that that really isn’t just on our elected leaders. It’s on all of us.”