In a span of one year, 911 calls in Rockford went up by more than 22,000 calls, according to the Rockford Fire Department.
13 News sat in on the Rockstat meeting Thursday, February 11, where the Rockford Fire Chief spoke about last year's big jump and what he thinks caused it at today's Rockstat meeting.
More than 137,000 people called 911 last year in Rockford. That's 22,000 more than 2014. Rockford Fire Chief Derek Bergsten isn't 100% sure why.
Bergsten says, "We have not been able to attribute that high increase of calls."
What he is sure about, is that there were more calls in 2015 for lift assistance, which is when someone needs help being picked up. Last year those calls went up by 200 from 2014 to 2015.
"A lot of those are in commercial facilities when we talked to the management they instruct their staff to not lift that patient and to call 911 to come out," Bergsten continues, "and our issue is that is deferring that liability to our firefighters."
That liability, he says, is that his 3 to 4 firefighters answering the call could be responsible if that patient gets hurt, not the workers at the facility.
Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey states, "Generally these are hundreds of calls every year that take personnel off of other calls so it's an area I need to work on."
This Rockstat meeting Bergsten decided to do something different. He played dispatcher recordings from last February in 2016. In less than six hours firefighters delt with four tough calls. Three people within those four calls.
The recordings included dispatchers saying, "Whitman street bridge car in the river," "2nd Avenue and 4th street house fire," and "County is on scene extrication is needed."