In the world of 911 emergency calls, it’s the one statistic that matters most: the percentage that are answered within 10 seconds.
The industry standard is 90 percent, the nationally accepted target signaling a properly functioning call center. In early May, San Francisco dispatchers were answering just 75 percent of calls within 10 seconds, prompting Mayor Ed Lee to issue an executive order demanding major change.
On May 9, he stood outside his City Hall office and told reporters he was laser-focused on getting the call response rate up.
“The thing that I need most? I need that under-10-second turnaround ... so the public is reassured that we’ve got a 911 system that works not a year from now, but right now,” he said.
“I want that 10-second turnaround standard to be there right now,” he repeated.