Joint 911 service coming to North Fulton cities

By APRIL HUNT
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Emergency response is about to go local in Sandy Springs and Johns Creek.
The cities are building a joint $3.5 million 911 center that will come online Sept. 1.

“The expectation in these two communities is extraordinarily high, and we will deliver on them,” said Noah Reiter, the assistant city manager in Sandy Springs who oversaw the project. “We expect crews dispatched within 60 seconds of a call, arriving in minutes.”

That hadn’t been happening for years when the north Fulton County cities began talking about starting their own 911 network about two years ago.

Residents in both communities complained of delays in getting emergency services to a scene and of delays in getting dispatchers to the phone.

Lack of training for dispatchers and problems with retention came to light after a tragedy a year ago. Darlene Dukes, 39, called an ambulance from her Johns Creek home, but the dispatcher sent the crew to an address in Atlanta 28 miles away. Dukes later died.

“The level of service we’re getting was just not acceptable, and that was before the Dukes incident,” Johns Creek City Manager John Kachmar said. “We wanted to do better.”

The new 911 center will help dispatchers map the best routes, calculate response times and track emergency crews. Just as important, there will be 54 full-time dispatchers. By comparison, Fulton’s 911 call center authorizes 109 but typically has about 75 to 80 people on staff, according to a 2008 report.

City officials pushed back plans to launch the new call center on Aug. 1 to give the new hires more training, including police ride-alongs to acquaint them with the layout of the cities.
In keeping with policies to outsource services, the cities have a joint contract with iXP Corp. to set up and run the 911 network. Sandy Springs paid $2.5 million for the work, with Johns Creek paying $1 million, based on population.

The iXP contract contains penalties for bad service, such as speed in answering calls and getting crews to accident scenes.

“We all have a vested interest in ensuring success,” Reiter said.