Tucson's problematic 911 emergency call system will be examined Tuesday, as the City Council talks about the issue in both closed and open session.
The new 911 emergency system, installed in late May, has been hit with technical malfunctions and dropped calls in its first several weeks of operation and may have been a factor in the death of a 10-year-old girl.
The council will meet in closed session to talk about the potential liability from the girl's death. A memo from City Attorney Mike Rankin advised council members not to enter into any discussions about the death of the girl, saying any written responses "in connection to this tragic event will only confuse matters and create more issues to deal with."
Emergency dispatchers and other workers were also told not to respond to outside inquiries.
On June 1, a call came from an urgent-care center about a 10-year-old girl who arrived unconscious after an asthma attack. After a series of human and technical errors, a dispatcher routed emergency crews to the wrong address. The girl was later flown to a hospital, where she died.
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The 911 system's problems include screens that are supposed to show the address of incoming calls not working, an elevated number of dropped calls and a reduced ability to monitor calls for accuracy.
Councilman Steve Kozachik said he wants "to see tangible evidence that we are making progress."
Kozachik said he's heard from Tucson dispatchers and from those in other jurisdictions that there are still problems. They can't talk publicly because the city has put employees under a "gag order," he said.
Several other council members did not respond to calls for comment.
Assistant City Manager Sean McBride issued a memo late Friday saying most of the problems with the new system have been addressed. It says the number of calls dropped by the 911 service has been minimal, only one or two a day.
But the memo says the issue of automatic call distribution - making it hard for dispatchers to manage both telephone and radio dispatches and for dispatchers to prioritize responsibility in response to events - has yet to be solved.
Even with the problems in the new system, which went into service on May 25, there is no practical way to go back to the old system because the wiring and equipment have been dismantled. Kozachik said the system vendor, Qwest, told him there are ways to operate parts of the old system with the new one.
There's too much secrecy surrounding the problems, Kozachik said. "The taxpayers own the system, they depend on the system, and they deserve to know what's going on," he said.
The city's emergency call center also is wrestling with understaffing, high turnover and low morale.
Among public-safety dispatchers, there are 56 positions authorized in the budget, but only 42 are filled. And six of those dispatchers are in training, meaning they can't take phone calls independently without close supervision - sometimes for up to a year. That leaves 36 fully trained dispatchers.
There are five fewer 911 operators, who take the initial calls, than the 20 budgeted positions.
City officials in part blamed furloughs that help balance the city's budget, saying they are costing the department more money than they're saving. McBride's memo says the City Manager's Office now recommends that furloughs for 911 center employees be reduced from 40 hours this fiscal year to 10 hours.
Contact reporter Rob O'Dell at 573-4346 or rodell@azstarnet.com
