Recent comments in /f/jerseycity

EyesOnImprovement t1_j9ft9ys wrote

Reply to 284 calls to 911 in 50 minutes? by expertinbirdlaw99

Weird that we haven't heard anything since, you'd think it's be easy in this day and age to find footage and a plate number. Also weird that Fulop obviously knew right away but hasn't addressed it, but at least that's consistent with his "let the legal process play out" policy.

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AmputatorBot t1_j9frh32 wrote

Reply to comment by IC3POs in 284 calls to 911 in 50 minutes? by expertinbirdlaw99

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IC3POs t1_j9frfoq wrote

Reply to 284 calls to 911 in 50 minutes? by expertinbirdlaw99

As mentioned in my previous comment on the overall “issues” of JC 911 - it appears the city is trying to have shit roll down hill, blaming employees before upper management. I reached back out to my dispatcher friend on this issue and again, he reiterated that staffing is very low, most 911 employees still aren’t being paid properly. My friend stated that going on 2+ years, the city has refused to promote within 911, leaving entire shifts with no supervision. On top of all that; the city is in the works to privatize the entire 911 center, killing union jobs & most likely costing us tax payers even more money to outsource something of this magnitude to the corporation, IXP, mentioned in OP’s linked article. Seen here, the company was sued in 2018 for an incident that took place in Danbury, CT, one of their privatized 911 centers. Police officers in Danbury filed over 400 complaints against IXP after a police officer was dispatched to his own assault. Back to Taqueria, 284 calls in 50 minutes between 4-5 operators seems like an insane call volume to me. Reform might be needed, but as my friend said it shouldn’t all fall on the employees working multiple 16 hour shifts per week not knowing if they’ll be paid correctly.

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cmc t1_j9fo7tr wrote

Reply to comment by Bravelittleroaster in 284 calls to 911 in 50 minutes? by expertinbirdlaw99

> At the November meeting, department employees told the council the 911 center is understaffed. Some workers, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Jersey Journal this week that the city has set up the 911 call-takers to fail because they have wanted to privatize the call center operations for years.

I believe this. Create a problem that can be solved by paying a private company more of our tax money instead of reforming the 911 system and hiring more people.

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Bravelittleroaster t1_j9fifze wrote

Reply to 284 calls to 911 in 50 minutes? by expertinbirdlaw99

Unanswered emergency call sparks demand for ‘reform’ at Jersey City 911 center, but who’s to blame?

By Ron Zeitlinger | The Jersey Journal

A video posted online of a call to the Jersey City 911 call center going unanswered after a hit-and-run crash last weekend has the city administration fuming and may speed up the city’s consideration of privatizing the call center.

“We need to get to the bottom of this, you can see in the email the mayor is really upset with the 911 not being answered!! I want a full investigation and a detailed report ASAP!!!!!” Robert Baker, the Jersey City Department of Public Safety’s director of the public safety communications center and information technology, said in an email Sunday morning, less than 12 hours after the incident at the popular Taqueria restaurant on Grove Street Downtown.

A portion of the hit-and-run incident, in which a vehicle struck two people and slammed into the restaurant, was caught on video by a neighbor. As one person records the incident, another is heard calling police, but grows frustrated when no one picks up.

Baker’s directive was in response to an email sent by Mayor Steve Fulop earlier that morning to Public Safety Director James Shea, some city councilmembers and Business Administrator John Metro — “We really should move forward with this on the next agenda and start to take the steps we discussed to change the culture and improve performance here.”

Baker followed it with another email six minutes later: “I want to know how the 911 call-takers were, who were on and who was off Intrado at the time of the call, what call volume was at the time! We were receiving calls on this from other callers.”

The emails were obtained by The Jersey Journal.

The “here” Fulop referred to is the public safety department’s 911 call center, the subject of numerous complaints that calls go unanswered. In November, the city council rejected a resolution to hire a company for $213,000 to study and solve the city’s troubling 911 system.

The company, IXP, performed reviews in 2015 and 2018. At the November meeting, Councilman Yousef Saleh noted “we haven’t even adopted the recommendations from the 2018 report.”

Downtown Councilman James Solomon said Friday “It is 100% clear that the 911 system and center is in desperate need of reform. That is 100% clear and it has been clear now for a long time.”

At the November meeting, department employees told the council the 911 center is understaffed. Some workers, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Jersey Journal this week that the city has set up the 911 call-takers to fail because they have wanted to privatize the call center operations for years.

In the case of the Feb. 11 crash at Taqueria, call center records show the incident was reported at 10:59 p.m. and passed along to the East District two minutes later. A dispatcher, who also works in the call center on Bishop Street, dispatched the call to a police officer at 11:08, seven minutes later. Records show that two officers responded to the restaurant at 11:14 p.m., 15 minutes after it was first reported.

In another email obtained by The Jersey Journal, Roseann Manto, supervisor at the 911 call center, explained that there should have been five call-takers on the midnight tour that started at 10:50 p.m., and that “between incoming, outgoing and abandoned calls, we had 284 calls” between 10:50 and 11:40 p.m.

Manto said in the email that during the same time period, “besides the usual non-emergency calls, we were receiving calls for a car fire, three (other) motor vehicle accidents, domestic disputes, a street fight and an assault.”

She noted in the email that two call-takers were logged in at 10:50 p.m. since they had worked the previous shift, one did not log in until 10:56 p.m., and another was not ready to take calls until 11:11. A fifth call-taker, who was described as “chronically late,” did not log into until after midnight.

“Is the root cause ... a culture among employees, is it poor management, is it both? That is what needs to be investigated,” said Solomon, who added that he heard from multiple people who said no one answered their calls after the Downtown crash. “So I respect the mayor’s kind of hypothesis or theory here, but I’m not going to immediately buy in until me and the council get the evidence to back it up.”

Jersey City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said the city is investigating claims stemming from the Taqueria incident “to ensure any potential weak points are immediately addressed. We had a closed session with the City Council two weeks ago on this issue and we will continue to look for ways to improve.”

Whether the city moves to privatize the call center or reform it, Solomon said city officials should keep one thing in mind — “The only thing is that the people deserve a quick solution to the problem.”

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