Cole County exceeds national standard in answering 911 calls

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Since switching to a new 911 dispatch system, Cole County has done better than the national standard at answering 911 calls in a timely manner.

St. Louis emergency response times are being called into question after residents say they waited 30 minutes to get into contact with first responders when a woman died after her car was crushed by a tree.

The National Fire Protection Agency's 2022 standard for answering 911 calls is to answer 90% of calls in 10 seconds and have 90% of calls processed in 60 seconds. The City of St. Louis said it aims to meet this goal, but blamed slow response times over the weekend on the volume of calls it received during severe weather.

Cole County EMS shared the numbers since the switch to a new 911 system earlier this year, showing it's exceeding the national standard by about 5%. The city and county both take advantage of this new dispatching system.

"Across the country, there is some stuff out there in metropolitan areas where you may call 911 and get an answering machine or be put on hold. We're very proud that,  you know, we're consistently answering those calls within 15 to 20 seconds of the phone ringing," Chief Eric Hoy, of Cole County EMS, said.

Cole and Boone counties work as backups for each other's 911 calls, answering for the other if one gets inundated with calls.

At last check, Boone County Joint Communications is not meeting that national standard. ABC 17 News did not receive a response Monday to requests for more information.

Boone County Joint Communications set a goal to answer 95% of 911 calls within 15 seconds.

• In 2019, 90% of 911 calls were answered within 15 seconds
• In 2020, 82% of 911 calls were answered within 15 seconds
• In 2021, 80% of 911 calls were answered within 15 seconds
• Preliminary data from 2022 showed 75% of 911 calls were answered within 15 seconds

Boone County Joint Communications' second goal is to answer 99% of 911 calls within 40 seconds.

• In 2019, 96% of 911 calls were answered within 40 seconds
• In 2020, 97% of 911 calls were answered within 40 seconds
• In 2021, 95% of 911 calls were answered within 40 seconds
• Preliminary data from 2022 showed 95% of 911 calls were answered within 40 seconds

The Boone County Joint Communications Center website said if you call 911 and your call is placed in a waiting queue, you will receive a recorded message "informing you that you have reached 911 but no emergency telecommunicator is available to take your call."

It's advised that if you experience this, you should not hang up unless you are in immediate danger.

The National Fire Protection Agency sets two standards for emergency response times for first responders after they're dispatched. The standard for career fire departments is for the first engine to arrive on scene within 4 minutes.

The standard for volunteer fire departments depends on staffing and population density of the area but is between 10-15 minutes for the first engine to arrive.

"Our goal from the time that we receive an emergency call notification from our dispatch center until the time the first resource arrives on the scene is 4 minutes. And right now we're not able to reach that goal in the southwest and the east part of the city," said Chief Clayton Farr Jr. with the Columbia Fire Department.

The Columbia Fire Department is building two new fire stations in the hopes of shortening its response times in the parts of the city that are growing.

On June 25, the Columbia Fire Department responded to a house fire in the Thornbrook neighborhood in about 7 minutes, but would have been able to do it in about three-and-a-half minutes if the new Fire Station 11 was open, said Farr.

"We would have been able to do a far better job of getting to that location sooner and potentially begin to limit the loss to the structure," Farr said.