A first responder raised concerns about staffing at the Durham 911 call center and CBS 17 continues to investigate.
The city, which runs the center, said the staffing shortage is due to a COVID-19 outbreak. But CBS 17 is learning there’s more to it than that.
Going into this week, director of the Durham Emergency Communications Center, Randy Beeman said they had 30 open positions or were at about 50% of its staff. “That’s unacceptable,” Jimie Wright, the President of the Firefighters Association said.
Wright said staffing shortages at the 911 call center are leading to delays in their response.
“There’s a call processing that has to go on whether it’s a fire or EMS call and a lot of questions are asked that dictate the response type and due to the short staffing, they’re not running through that entire process,” Wright said.
CBS 17 first started looking into this last month when the city began receiving help from Raleigh’s 911 call center.
After several calls and emails, CBS 17 finally got data on response times.