Report: Berkeley 911 Communications Center Is Understaffed, Overworked

BERKELEY (KPIX 5) -- It is taking longer for Berkeley dispatchers to answer 911 calls because the communications center doesn't have enough of them, according to the Berkeley city auditor.

The city of Berkeley budgets for 28 dispatchers, but for years, they've only had 23. They field tens of thousands of 911 calls, 24/7. The audit says call volume has only gone up.

The report found that understaffing forced the city to spend nearly $1 million in 2017 on overtime. The city is also not meeting the state requirement of answering 95% of 911 calls within 15 seconds. Data shows that dispatchers only answered 89% of calls within that time frame.

Staffing troubles have taken a toll on dispatchers, too.

"They found that morale was low. A lot of it has to do with understaffing, that's the underpinning root cause of what's going on," said Berkeley City Auditor Jenny Wong. Wong says dispatchers have little to no time in their workday to complete ongoing training requirements, or build a healthy workplace culture.

"Seems like one of those basic services that government's supposed to provide... emergency, help," said Berkeley resident Michael Singsen.

The city says dispatcher salaries run between $64,000 and $96,000, and full medical benefits are offered.

"It is a challenge to retain some dispatchers because of their current recruitment and training model, so we've talked with the department about how to improve that," said Wong.

The audit recommends for the department to conduct a thorough staffing analysis, increase recruitment and develop a comprehensive stress management program for dispatchers.

The auditor says the police department has agreed to the recommendations and has committed to addressing them as soon as possible.