Long Beach 911 system mismanaged and understaffed, coordinator says in grand jury filing

More past problems coming up after batts leaves. This has been going on for some time and about time it comes up. Feel sorry for Mawn as they most likely will try to blame him. Hire an outside chief to clean up this mess.

Maybe Mawn should file a lawsuit against the City. Seems to be the way LBPD operates theses days. Mawn needs to understand that in these economic tiimes we are all are doing more with less. Maybe if he was a more effective supervisor he could handle the calls as recommend by the State.

Mawn is alleging mismanagement, but isn't he the supervisor? Since when can city employees sue when they don't get everything they want? What's next, trash workers sueing because the trash is smelly, pothole crews sueing because there are too many potholes? Government needs to fund the best services possible with the tax revenues we give them, and find a way to manage with what they have.

One of the major problems is the public and not the dispatch center. The vast majority of the 911 call takers do an excellent job.
The public on the other hand thinks that it is OK to dial 911 for ANY problem. Your neighbor is parked legally in front of your house, they call 911. You don't like the attitude of the cop who pulled you over, they call 911 to complain. You have an issue with a fast food restaurant and you are in the drive through lane, they call 911.
911 is for emergencies and in progress crimes, not for petty stuff which seems to be a sizeable percentage of 911 calls.

part of the problem along with limited trained persons onboard due to furloughs are the huge numbers of calls of loud parties, loud music, loud persons talking, These call take up precious time from emergency dispatchers and field cops. The other is now that cities are taking some of the wireless 911 calls instead of receiving two or three calls on an incident (CHP filtered the rest) now dispatch may get 10's of calls reporting the same incident. But of course the city of Long Beach decided that furlough 911 Dispatchers made good policy...but not furloughing the cops or fire fighters. Who do you think gives them the bulk of their calls and information once on a call?

Mawn has it all worng. The comments are dead on about the need to look at the call volume at the 911 Center. Instead of just call answer times, which if you apply them to a national index are excellent, look at total calls received vs. total calls dispatched... then the waste of time and energy by unnecessary callers will become more than obvious. If Mawn was at all competent as a Dispatch Supervisor he long ago would have devised a way to manage his call volumes with the staff he has, both police and fire... starting with ending the practice of encouraging every man, woman and child to call 911 if they feel remotely bothered. This Grand Jury filing and call for even more resources is just a death throe from someone who has long ago retired on the job.

It is sad that people write in about things they know nothing about, without researching he facts. Allowing the public to call 911 for any and all needss in Long Beach is not the fault of Mawn or any past 911 staff member. It is the fault of the Long Beach City Management who ENCOURAGE the public to call 911 for anything and have since the day 911 was started. All 911 calls in Long Beach are answered by POLICE dispatchers who have been working mandatroy overtime for 20+ years beacause the city has refused to allow the hiring of personnel needed for this first responder position. In fact the City has cut and unfunded positions to balance the Police Department budget even though the budget was not created by these Civilian employees. Do not critizie Mawn for being a "whistle blower" I bet he went all the way to the top with this issue before it became necessary to make it public in order to save lives.

Know Your Facts wrote:

Allowing the public to call 911 for any and all needss in Long Beach is not the fault of Mawn or any past 911 staff member. It is the fault of the Long Beach City Management who ENCOURAGE the public to call 911 for anything and have since the day 911 was started. All 911 calls in Long Beach are answered by POLICE dispatchers who have been working mandatroy overtime for 20+ years. Do not critizie Mawn for being a "whistle blower" I bet he went all the way to the top with this issue before it became necessary to make it public in order to save lives.

Know Your Facts, you are missing the point. Mawn isn't a whistle blower at all. There is no crisis, as response times are back over State-recommended levels again. He simply isn't doing his job to better manage the call volumes. Performance will improve even more if the Police and Fire dispatchers work more efficiently together, and Mawn is at the center of that effort. Improve the service with current available staff, don't just complain about needing more staff to preserve an outdated service delivery model. The situation requires evolution, and Mawn's cries for help are like a lamp oil salesman's complaints about electricity hurting his business. Get someone in there who can do the job.

A good way of keeping the crime rate down is for the police to be too overloaded to answer the phone.

There would be no crime in Long Beach if nobody answered the phone because crime is defined by the number of police reports filed, not the actual crimes that occurred. If the police don't receive the phone call for assistance, then a police report is not filled out, hence there was no crime in the eyes of city hall.

Ever try calling these clowns?

Its your neighborhood wrote:

Ever try calling these clowns?

When you say clowns, do you mean you and your friends?

I thought there was a Lt., Commander in charge of Communications. Why arn't they part of the problem. Communications is understaffed always, people leave and new ones constant need to train (inexperienced employees), and many are forced to work many hours overtime and must be tired as can be. If the calls are delayed due to understaffing then response time gets better. Once it is dispatched the clock starts ticking. If the caller is on hold it does not hurt response time. The bottom line is they are understaffed and overworked. I think the supervisor is saying the public is in danger. Since they are non-sworn, no one cares if the run them into the ground. If the system breaks they will just blame the non-sworn. They should make 3 or 4 dispatchers sworn positions and lets see how they get more staff.

This is a problem that will worsen for all 911 answering points. It happened in Sacramento county when their dispatchers were furloughed, it happened with the Highway Patrol 911 and several other cities so what is happening in LB is no surprise. Idiot politicians making decisions with no thought whatsoever as to how it will affect the lives of all of us. Safety personnel should never be furloughed- it costs more than it saves.

You are missing the point. 911 centers can't dictate who calls 911 and why and a sizeable percentage of those calls are NOT emergencies yet EVERY call must be answered and information gathered before it can be determined whether the call is a real emergency or not and that takes time, time that could be spent answering REAL emergency calls much faster.

Performance is in a direct relationship with the number of calls (both emergencies and non emergencies) and the personnel in place to answer ALL calls. I believe that LB is doing a good job. The problem is the public and their moronic attitude of calling 911 for EVERYTHING. Since I don't believe that the public will learn, or even want to learn, the only logical alternative is to add more personnel in the 911 center.

Fredo wrote:

<quoted text>
Know Your Facts, you are missing the point. Mawn isn't a whistle blower at all. There is no crisis, as response times are back over State-recommended levels again. He simply isn't doing his job to better manage the call volumes. Performance will improve even more if the Police and Fire dispatchers work more efficiently together, and Mawn is at the center of that effort. Improve the service with current available staff, don't just complain about needing more staff to preserve an outdated service delivery model. The situation requires evolution, and Mawn's cries for help are like a lamp oil salesman's complaints about electricity hurting his business. Get someone in there who can do the job.

People also clog the 911 phone lines by calling 911 when their power goes out. Or If there is an earthquake and they "just want to know if we had an earthquake". For those that think the call times are still good and answered in a timely manner..let me ask this. If you called 911 because you had a loved one having an emergency medical crisis or an actual police emergency and your call wasnt answered in the "state mandated time" and instead took another 30 to 60 seconds how would u feel? Most feel like 60 seconds is a lifetime when an emergency is in progress. What if the delay is caused by 20 calls coming in ahead of yours and the call takers are not able to screen because all the calls are about an multi injury car accident or a shooting resulting in a delay in helping you. what if the same loved one died and that 30 seconds or 60 seconds would have made a difference and having the proper staffing would have gotten your call answered quicker?How would u feel?

Mr. Mawn is doing the right thing by the public. He is trying to protect the citizens before any of the above happens. Kudos to him for having the guts to go thru with this. I doubt it was an easy decision for him. He is trying to prevent the above from happening. Do you want to gamble with your loved ones life? Maybe its a bit over dramatic however I wouldnt want to take that chance if I dialed 911.

Spike wrote:

So who we be supposed to call when I ax for the #4 meal fo me,#5 for rey rey wit no pickles, and 4 happy meals fo my keeds and when I git home rey rey find pickles on hes burger???? Well??? Dats just not right.

You can call me. I'll be happy to tell you where to stick that happy meal and the pickles.:)

Spike I think you need to hear the 9-1-1 call that was made by an Orange County woman at the drive thru of Burger King.. den you wud see who be calling 9-1-1- for b.s.
Fredo, it doesn't matter how well those that are working together work, staffing is the problem.
Furlough means over time to cover the person that is off work not getting paid. So more over time.
Yes the stats are still good compared to others nationwide, however it use to be a lot better. So, if the concern is not being the best you can be, then everything is fine.

bad summer wrote:

People also clog the 911 phone lines by calling 911 when their power goes out. Or If there is an earthquake and they "just want to know if we had an earthquake". For those that think the call times are still good and answered in a timely manner..let me ask this. If you called 911 because you had a loved one having an emergency medical crisis or an actual police emergency and your call wasnt answered in the "state mandated time" and instead took another 30 to 60 seconds how would u feel? Most feel like 60 seconds is a lifetime when an emergency is in progress. What if the delay is caused by 20 calls coming in ahead of yours and the call takers are not able to screen because all the calls are about an multi injury car accident or a shooting resulting in a delay in helping you. what if the same loved one died and that 30 seconds or 60 seconds would have made a difference and having the proper staffing would have gotten your call answered quicker?How would u feel?
Mr. Mawn is doing the right thing by the public. He is trying to protect the citizens before any of the above happens. Kudos to him for having the guts to go thru with this. I doubt it was an easy decision for him. He is trying to prevent the above from happening. Do you want to gamble with your loved ones life? Maybe its a bit over dramatic however I wouldnt want to take that chance if I dialed 911.

Kudos for him to have the guts to go through with this?#1 He would be much more effective if he communicated with ALL of his supervisory staff, which he doesn't.#2 I bet he couldn't even name the employee's in his own division.#3 I think most people in his division are even shocked that he even bothered saying anything about it.

LBResident1 wrote:

Maybe Mawn should file a lawsuit against the City. Seems to be the way LBPD operates theses days. Mawn needs to understand that in these economic tiimes we are all are doing more with less. Maybe if he was a more effective supervisor he could handle the calls as recommend by the State.

Have you ever run a call center? Do you have specific suggestions or just the old "they're city employees, therefore they are inefficient" mentality? Do you have access to any productivity reports that show poor performance as compared against an acceptable baseline?

I didn't think so. I suppose I should accept that this area is for venting; regardless of what may be truthful, we as readers can promote any perspective we want. Personally, I prefer to attempt and live with integrity.

Confused wrote:

Mawn is alleging mismanagement, but isn't he the supervisor? Since when can city employees sue when they don't get everything they want? What's next, trash workers sueing because the trash is smelly, pothole crews sueing because there are too many potholes? Government needs to fund the best services possible with the tax revenues we give them, and find a way to manage with what they have.

Dear Confused, consider that the service this staff supplies saves lives. What if the 'best service possible' left you vulnerable to an untimely death due to a lack of staffing on the phone... do you consider that a priority?

I question Mawn's approach but applaud the fact that he's an advocate for the citizens.