Jacob Barker
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
(TNS)
ST. LOUIS — Construction on a new 911 dispatch call center, mulled by St. Louis leaders for nearly two decades, will finally begin next week, city officials said Wednesday.
The city issued a $28 million building permit last week for the site at 2741 Thomas Street, just west of the Fire Department headquarters on North Jefferson Avenue. Jamella Brown, a spokeswoman for the public safety department, confirmed that groundbreaking on the 17,000-square-foot facility is scheduled for Oct. 24.
Construction is scheduled to be complete on the new center, which officials are calling a “public safety access point,” in the fourth quarter of 2026.
A combined dispatch center to house police, fire and EMS dispatchers under one roof has been a goal of city leaders across mayoral administrations. The city’s disjointed 911 dispatch system has long been called out as inefficient — police dispatchers answer all calls and then must decide whether to route medical emergencies to EMS dispatchers or fires to fire dispatchers. And the different dispatchers have historically worked from different locations.
Combining the 911 dispatch functions was one of Mayor Tishaura O. Jones’ earliest initiatives, but it stalled amid issues with rigid civil service rules and differing union contracts and pay rates for fire, police and EMS dispatchers.
The system’s inefficiencies became impossible to ignore in July 2023, when severe storms caused a tree to fall on Katherine Coen, who later died as nearby witnesses tried without success to get through to a dispatcher on the city’s 911 system.
A new 911 dispatch center was one of the fixes Public Safety Director Charles Coyle and Jones have promised as they sought to improve one of the most basic functions of local government. And they have had some success after pushes to raise pay over the years and a concerted hiring spree last year to boost staffing from dismally low levels. The city said it hired 45 new dispatchers, 34 of them police, from July 2023 to June 2024.
The percentage of 911 calls answered within 10 seconds rose to 84% in April, the city reported in late June. While still shy of the national standard of 90% of 911 calls answered within 10 seconds, it’s a marked improvement from the meager 57% of 911 calls answered within 10 seconds the city recorded in July 2023.
Officials say they have $28 million of the $45 million estimated cost for the entire dispatch center project. The city plans to raise the remaining $16.8 million through a bond sale or reappropriating some unused federal pandemic aid, said Conner Kerrigan, a spokesman for the mayor.
Most of the project’s funding, $18.2 million, has already come from the city’s haul of nearly $500 million in federal pandemic aid. Another $10 million is coming from the state. Missouri lawmakers earmarked $20 million for the project in last year’s budget, but Gov. Mike Parson vetoed half of it.
The city still plans to build a day care center connected to the new 911 dispatch facility, a perk meant to to improve dispatcher recruitment. The child care center is estimated to cost about $5 million, Kerrigan said.
With one facility housing dispatchers, the city’s longer-term goal is to cross-train them. Jones’ efforts early in her term ran into problems with the two different unions that represent dispatchers — police and fire — and requests from each that changes in job duties be negotiated during contract bargaining. It is also unclear which union would represent a combined dispatcher position. Meanwhile, the public safety department was consumed with the immediate crisis of filling so many vacant police dispatch positions.
Still, the city seems to be laying the groundwork for a combined public safety dispatcher role. In its budget this year, it removed 36 unfilled police dispatch positions and requested 36 new “public safety dispatcher” positions. The city says it is currently training existing dispatchers for the role.
St. Louis’ 911 hold times continue to improve. They’re approaching national standards.
Answer times at the city’s 911 system continued improving last month after years of frustration and scrutiny for frequently putting callers on hold during emergencies.
Staffing is up, hold times down for St. Louis’ embattled 911 system
Last month, call-takers picked up 80% of emergency calls within 10 seconds or less, up from 56% in July.
St. Louis’ push to cross-train 911 dispatchers on hold while it scrambles to fill jobs
“We’re still pursuing that, but we wanted to make sure we can staff up first,” Mayor Tishaura O. Jones said.
Hope for St. Louis’ 911 system? Hiring is up after big pay raises
City officials say that since they gave dispatcher salaries a big boost in July, they’ve hired 26 new call-takers and welcomed back three who previously quit.
St. Louis officials defend 911 response for dying woman, say long-term fixes are coming
The response from city officials followed an outcry from people at Saturday’s scene who said they called 911 over and over as Coen was slipping away, but could not get through to a dispatcher.
‘You feel hopeless’: St. Louis man describes waiting for 911 as woman died Saturday
Montes’ account marked the latest addition to a long series of complaints about the city’s emergency dispatch system.
City, St. Louis County officials say 911 was ‘completely overwhelmed’ by storms
City and county officials said they received hundreds more calls than normal on Saturday afternoon as storms ripped through the region.
As merger of St. Louis 911 systems stalls, staffing shortage, hold times continue, officials say
Mayor Tishaura O. Jones’ administration aimed to have all city dispatchers under one roof by October. That still hasn’t happened.
St. Louis’ 911 delays have not improved this year. What can be done to fix it?
From February to May, the city placed about 36% of calls on holds of 10 seconds or more, a response rate far below industry standards.
St. Louis’ public safety director discusses improvements to 911 dispatching
Charles Coyle, St. Louis public safety director, speaks to a Board of Aldermen committee about improvements in hiring and retaining 911 dispatchers. Video provided by St. Louis; edited by Beth O’Malley
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