The Emergency Communication Centre (ECC) in Chatham-Kent had a four per cent jump in call volume in 2019 compared to the previous year.
A year-end report presented to the police services board showed calls went up by almost 6,600 from nearly 178,000 in 2018 to more than 184,000 last year. The report's author Emergency Communications Centre Manager Sheri Somerville said 51 per cent were for police, 19 per cent were 911 calls, and five per cent were fire calls.
Sommerville said emergency calls steadily declined from 2010 to 2106 but started rising again in 2017.
"Although the phone trend has steadily decreased over the years, the time ECO's [operators] spend on the phone has increased dealing with social disorder/mental health issues and 911 call back procedures requiring lengthy telephone conversations to satisfy policy/legislative requirements for certain calls for service," the report read.
The report showed the ECC maintained an average answer rate of eight seconds in 2019 for 911 calls. The quickest call was answered within two seconds while the longest took 107 seconds. The recognized guideline is about 12 seconds to answer a 911 call and the ECC has maintained an average answer rate of nine seconds or less since statistics started being tracked in 2002.
The traditional 911 network is being decommissioned by June 2023 in favour of an IP based network to support multi-media voice/data transactions.
"Currently 83% of Chatham-Kent's 911 call activity originates from cellular devices as opposed to the traditional landline service. The IP platform is conducive to the next generation of technology to support and grow with multi-media data options," the report stated.
The ECC said police and fire activity has increased significantly over the past decade. Fire events almost doubled from 4,100 to 7,800 since 2009 while police activity has steadily increased over the past six years, going from just over 36,000 events to more than 52,000 last year.
The Emergency Communication Centre said its dispatch workload has also increased with the managing and monitoring of nearly 75,000 Mobile Data Terminal events last year.
"Communications continues to be a complex role within the Service. When an ECO reports for duty, they are required to sign into 14 different software applications in order to function in their role as a communicator during their tour," Somerville said. "They must have a great deal of technical and cognitive knowledge in order to navigate flawlessly between all applications, often simultaneously in order to facilitate the functions of a call taker, fire dispatch or police dispatch."
The centre also continues to exceed the standard for fire dispatch performance. Fire dispatch services are measured based on the 90 seconds/90 per cent of the time standard. The report showed that the ECC in Chatham-Kent took an average of 42 seconds to answer a call and activate a voice page for fire response last year, which remains consistent with 2018.