Kansas City Council Business Session: 911 Update and Staffing Review - May 2, 2024
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Kansas City Council Business Session: 911 Update and Staffing Review - May 2, 2024
The Kansas City Council held a business session on May 2, 2024, beginning with approval of the minutes from April 18, 2024, and then receiving a detailed 911 system update from the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) and the Kansas City Missouri Police Department (KCPD). The discussion focused on new technologies, call answer times, staffing shortages, and regional coordination. A floor introduction was also made regarding additional elements for a detention plan.
Discussion Items
- Approval of Minutes: The minutes from the April 18, 2024 business session were approved by voice vote.
- 911 Technology Update: Greg Williams, KCPD Division Commander for Logistical Support, and Hassan Al Rube, MARC Technical Services Director, presented updates on 911 system features.
- Automated Abandoned Callback: Implemented April 7, 2024. The system calls back callers who hung up before reaching a call taker; 9,437 calls were made through April, with 1,516 callers pressing 1 to re-enter the queue. Previously, 116,000 manual callbacks were made in 2023.
- Queue and System Selector: An auto-attended solution (press 1 for police, 2 for fire/EMS) is available but not yet activated. System selector would allow PD and Fire to operate on the same system while maintaining redundancy; currently they are on separate systems to avoid a single point of failure.
- 911 Call Answer Time Performance: Mayor Pro Tem questioned the low answer times. For April 2024, only 48.69% of calls were answered within 15 seconds (national standard is 90% within 15 seconds, 95% within 30 seconds). Year-to-date average was 60.86%. Average wait times in early 2024 ranged from 22–34 seconds. The longest wait in March was 21 minutes 17 seconds.
- Staffing and Retention: KCPD has 65 filled dispatcher/call taker positions and 29 vacancies. A past study recommended 150 staff. Attrition has been high: 17 lost in 2022, 14 in 2023. Pay adjustments were made in March 2023, and a training revamp shows improved success rates (all 6 current trainees still active). The hiring process is continuous, with 30–90 day average. Causes of vacancies include pay, job stress, and shift schedules.
- Text-to-911: 1,593 texts received in 2024 (0.89% of call volume). Not seen as a relief tool; future capabilities for pictures/video may increase workload.
- Language Access: Language line provides translation for 200+ languages. Prompts are only in English; discussion about adding Spanish and other top languages.
- Transfer Times to Fire: Average transfer time from PD call taker to fire dispatch was 65.37 seconds in 2023.
- Regional Dispatch Study: MARC has initiated a review of a regional dispatch center, with a consultant report expected in May 2024. There are over 40 dispatch centers in the region, including 12 in Jackson County.
Key Outcomes
- Vote (Minutes): Motion to approve minutes passed by voice vote.
- Information Received: The council received the 911 update and will continue to monitor performance. Mayor Pro Tem requested that MARC and KCPD return with comprehensive data combining call answer and transfer times, and that the regional dispatch study recommendations be presented to the council.
- Floor Introduction: Councilwoman Robinson introduced a floor item to add two elements (housing and substance abuse treatment) to the detention plan. It will be referred to the Finance, Governance, and Public Safety Committee.
- Closed Session: A motion to enter closed session under RSMo 610.021 subsections 1, 2, and 3 (legal, real estate, personnel) was moved, seconded, and approved by roll call vote.
Meeting Transcript
Welcome to business session. Our first item is approval of minutes for business session of April 18, 2024. Sir, motion. So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor of approval of minutes say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed. Motion passes. We have from the Mid-America Regional Council and our public safety agencies who work with them on 911, a 911 update. And we will hear from you all. This update was provided to the Board of Police Commissioners as well. So look forward. Sir. Good afternoon. My name is Greg Williams. I'm with the Kansas Missouri Police Department. I'm the division commander for the logistical support division within KCPD. I manage fleet operations communication support, which encompasses the city's radio system, and also the communications unit, which is 911 and dispatch. With me today is Hassan Al Rube with the Mid America Regional Council, who will begin this presentation to provide a quick update with regard to some new technologies that we have implemented and some which are now available if we choose to do so. Thank you, sir. As the major said, I'm Hassan O'Rube, I'm the technical services director for the public safety program at Mark. We uh run the regional 911 system for the surrounding 11 counties. I'm just gonna give some uh updates on a few new features that are available in the 911 system. Uh I'm just here to talk about the technical aspects, any policy uh discussions will be handled by the major. Uh so the first solution is automated abandoned callback. And sir, I might say if you want to sit down and not have to hold that, it's your choice. Uh it's it's fine. Thank you though. Uh the first is automated abandoned callback. Uh so this feature would call back a caller that is hung up. So they were in queue, they hung up before a call taker was able to get to them. This feature calls them back, say, do you still need assistance? If so, press one. If no, press three. So that solution's been uh active since April 7th, and since then, well through the month of April, it made 9,437 calls. Uh so that's 9,437 calls that a human did not have to make. Uh so as we're able to get more data on that, we'll be able to have a better idea of what impact that's having on operations. But uh that's like I said, it's only been active now for about three and a half weeks. Uh the next couple items, uh queue and system selector. Uh last summer, at the request of the Board of Police Commissioners, the Mid-America Regional Council began researching uh an auto-attended solution as it was called by many to put a prompt on 911 to say press one if you need police two if you need fire EMS. So Mark began working with Motorola, who is our 911 service provider on it on that solution. Uh we met with Motorola in March. We'll work with Motorola since last summer on implementing the solution, but they were here in town on in March to go over all the configurations for that system. So Mark is in a position now to implement that solution if and when we're directed to do so by the Kansas City Police Department, Kansas City Missouri Police Department. Uh but we it has not been activated yet, uh, as we have not received that directive. Additionally, uh there's another feature called system selector. Uh for those who aren't aware, our 911 system is a system of systems.
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