Consultant report recommends keeping 911 call taking within APD

AUSTIN, Texas - After Austin City Council voted to create a standalone 911 call taker center — instead of it being housed under the Austin Police Department — a consultant report found a standalone center "does not inherently" improve performance. 

The report also found ways the current structure could be better. 

Austin's Joint Emergency Communications department

The backstory:

In August, City Council approved creating a Joint Emergency Communications department. The initial idea was it could improve response times, especially for mental health calls. 

Council Member Krista Laine (District 6) says another issue is being connected to the right agency. Much of her district is in Williamson County. 

"What happens over and over again to my constituents is they dial 9-1-1, they're connected to the incorrect agency, they're transferred back and forth," she said. 

What did the report say?

By the numbers:

A consultant report from Mission Critical Partners, which Council requested last year, recommends keeping 911 call taking within APD, because having a separate department "does not inherently improve call-taking performance, specialized expertise, technology, training, or customer experience and would introduce greater implementation complexity, cost, and transition risk."

The report recommended having a civilian supervisor position to supplement sworn leadership. 

It says 97 percent of calls are answered within 15 seconds. 

The report also found ways 911 call taking could improve, like reducing duplicate call transfers. Transferring to AFD, EMS, TCSO, or Integral Care could be faster. 911 and 311 coordination could be improved, as well as measuring performance.

The report says a standalone department could cost about $12 million just for the first year.

Council also recently approved nine new positions and $1.4 million to create a standalone department.

• Emergency Communications Executive (1 FTE)
• Emergency Communications Assistant Executive (1 FTE)
• Executive Assistant (1FTE)
• Operations Manager (2 FTE)
• Quality Assurance Unit and Software (4 FTE)
• Project Management Costs

Austin City Council members speak about the report

What they're saying:

Laine says this is an opportunity to make improvements and reevaluate later on.

"The hire of the executive leadership should be made. The quality assurance unit and the related hires and the software upgrades, all of those steps should be taken. From looking at the phasing, it looks like that's maybe six months. That would be a more appropriate moment to learn what our new internal skilled and professional leadership thinks is the right course," she said.

Council Member Mike Siegel released the following statement: 

"This report emphasizes what we’ve long suspected: that there are gaps in our 911 system that can only be effectively addressed by introducing a professional civilian leadership structure and through technological and operational enhancements. Without Council’s 2025 resolution, these improvements wouldn’t have been identified, and without our budget amendment this year, we wouldn’t have had the funding for them. I look forward to working with the new civilian leadership on further improvements that were not explored in the report, including to mental health diversion."

The other side:

The city manager and mayor were opposed to the standalone call center. The Austin Police Association was also opposed.

"[The report] confirmed that while improvements can be made, which is always going to be the case and is what Chief [Lisa] Davis said, it was not recommended that they do a standalone entity because it undermines a lot of the progress that's already happened," Michael Bullock, president of the Austin Police Association, said. "Whatever problem they are trying to solving could probably already be solved within existing resources and within the existing system."

The City of Austin says: "Mission Critical Partners (MCP) will provide a briefing on its findings for the Joint Emergency Call Center (JEC) to City Council at the September 22 work session. MCP's recommendations require review from Austin City Council and there is no further comment we can make at this time."

AustinAustin City Council