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Dispatcher Geoffrey Smith works the phones at the RCMP Southeast District 911 operations centre in Kelowna. (Photo Joe Fries)
Other than gigantic radio antenna out front, the building that houses the 911 call centre for 660,000 residents of the Southern Interior is absolutely nondescript.
Tucked away near the Kelowna International Airport, where neighbours include a lumber broker and industrial businesses, it’s probably designed that way on purpose, given that the dispatch centre shares space with RCMP drug and commercial crime units.
Inside, however, the RCMP Southeast District 911 Operations Communications Center is a beehive of activity, day or night, all year ’round. This is the place you phone when something goes wrong.
(Watch a video tour of the centre in action)
While calls that require a fire department or ambulance are farmed out to different centres, all the emergency calls for police, be it a domestic dispute or bank robbery in progress, are handled here.
Upwards of 220,000 emergency calls are directed to the centre annually, and are answered by the roughly 140 full-time and casual employees, who work 12-hour shifts on a four-on, four-off rotation. The centre covers a geographic area that stretches from 70 Mile House to Cranbrook and most points in between, including Kamloops and Kelowna.
About five years ago, 911 dispatch centres in Kelowna, Kamloops, Nelson and Cranbrook were consolidated under this one roof. It wasn’t an entirely smooth transition, and understaffing caused problems, which included employee burnout and calls that took too long to be answered.
“Over the course of the last three or four years, we’ve faced considerable adversity and criticism regarding some of the work or service we provided to the public,” said RCMP Staff Sgt. Troy Gross, who’s in charge of the centre. “So we recognized there’s ways we could improve our service.”
Today, the doors were thrown open to the members of the media, who were invited in for a tour of the place, as the RCMP trumpeted the results of a March 2009 survey that indicated the service had a 90-per-cent approval rating from the public. The sample was made up of 326 people who had previously called for service and said they were either satisfied or completely satisfied with the help they received.
Further, the centre is exceeding benchmarks for response times. The provincial government, which funds the centre to the tune of about $15-million a year, has a mandate that 90 per cent of all 911 calls must be answered within 10 seconds. In September, the Southeast District operation met the mark 94 per cent of the time.
All of which makes Gross happy, but he realizes there is room for improvement. Three areas of complaint arose in the survey: people wished the dispatchers had a better knowledge of local geography, callers wanted better response times, and they wanted more statistics on the types of calls and where they were coming from.
Gross insisted those areas will be the focus of strategic plans for the future.
“We value the input of the pubic and we appreciate their positive feedback and we listen to their criticism, because we look for the suggestions in there that can make us better,” he said.
While the survey results from the public were good, the results from local government officials weren’t so rosy. Only about 66 per cent of those 61 people surveyed indicated they were happy with the service. Gross can’t be certain, but he suspects the politicians likely hear from constituents more negative comments than good ones.
At any given time, about 20 people are on the floor of the centre. Today, dispatcher Geoffrey Smith was handling calls from the South Okanagan while keeping tabs on four computer monitors. The ability to multi-task is obviously important, said the eight-year veteran.
But also vital is the ability to maintain one’s composure. Even when chaos reigns at the other end of the line, “You keep a professional demeanour and remember that you’re the one who’s able to help, and that’s what we’re here for.”
Dispatchers also keep officers safe by monitoring their activities and making sure they check in when they’re supposed to.
“That’s always on our minds,” Smith said. “We’re here for the members, we’re here for the public…. We’re here for both sides.”
“If they need help, we’re going to send help.”
The 911 dispatch centre by the numbers:
* It’s the largest RCMP 911 operation in Canada by call volume and employee numbers
* 106 full-time employee and 30-40 casuals are assigned to four rotating watches, with approximately 21 people on shift at any time
* Roughly 700,000 calls come into the centre annually, only about 220,000 of which are emergencies
* The centre serves 660,000 residents in the region
* So far this year, the centre only missed its response time benchmark on four days in July because of an overload due to the wildfire situation
* From January to mid-October of 2009, the centre took a total of 179,569 911 calls that broke down as follows: 63,974 police calls; 24,629 fire calls; 50,780 ambulance calls; 37,610 hung-up or abandoned calls
joe@kelowna.com
250-575-4303
