New report recommends against City Council’s independent emergency call center decision

A consulting group hired by the Austin City Council proposed a new plan to improve 911 response times without the establishment of an independent communications facility in a Tuesday meeting. The report contrasts with a plan discussed in an August budget approval meeting.

The 911 call center is currently run by the Austin Police Department, and it is within their control to choose whether to transfer calls to emergency medical services, the fire department, mental health services or keep them in the police department. This August, the City Council decided to start planning for a new Office of Joint Emergency Communications for the 911 line managed by APD, but were waiting for a study from Mission Critical Partners, a public safety consulting firm, to be completed before following through.

In the new plan, the City Council was encouraged to hire more civilian leadership rather than invest in an entirely separate civilian facility.

Austin City Council approved the creation of a call center outside of APD due to a 2024 State of Public Safety presentation that claimed APD response times had been lengthening since 2022. However, Bonnie Maney, vice president of Emergency Communications Center Operations at the consulting firm, said APD is currently in the top 5% of the nation in fast response times.

Michael Bullock, president of the Austin Police Association, is concerned about the potential development of a new 911 center as he says it would add an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.

“I think in general, any time you add more layers of government between the person who is calling 911 and the people who are going to show up on the call, it’s naturally going to become more inefficient,” Bullock said.

Council Member Marc Duchen, who represents District 10, said there are other potential issues associated with a separate department, such as “significant disadvantages” with coordination, communication and custody of information.

“I just saw it as a more expensive way to (improve the call center),” Duchen said.

There are still advocates for a separate communications center. In the meeting, guest speakers brought up the risk of unnecessary police confrontation.

Rebecca Webber, an Austin lawyer who represented a nonprofit group called Equity Action at the recent council meeting, is currently in the process of suing the APD, alleging her deaf client was wrongly prosecuted for a DUI last year. In this case, a police officer was sent out when the 911 caller was originally asking for an ambulance for her client, Webber said.

“I see some real low-hanging liability fruit here that they could just fix by not sending cops to calls that don’t need cops,” Webber said.

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