1. E911 Communications Center Performance Audit
Association of Local Government Auditors
Tuesday May 6, 2014
Stephanie Jackson, JD, CGAP
Performance Audit Manager
City of Atlanta
Christopher Armstead, JD, CIA
Senior IT and Compliance Auditor
City of Atlanta

2. Overview Reason for audit Impact of staffing on call processing time
Methodology for analyses

3. E911 Processing Time Above Benchmark
Source: EMBRS data, calendar years 2008 through 2010

4. Audit Objectives
How long does E911 take to answer and dispatch emergency calls?
Does E911 have enough staff to cover current workload?

5. Overview of E911 Center
Center answered over 1 million 911 calls and dispatched public safety personnel to 223,080 police incidents and 49,721 fire incidents
Center spent $1.1 million on overtime in fiscal year 2012, about 8% of its overall budget

6. Performance Standards
Call Answer Time: 90% of Calls Answered Within 10 Seconds
Time to Process Fire Calls: 90% Processed Within 60 Seconds
National Emergency Number Association (NENA)
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard 1710

7. What We Found Overall staffing level is sufficient
Center should better align staffing with workload

8. Recommendations
Develop shift schedules that align staff with call workload
Require staff to record status in the Positron system
Implementation should reduce overtime
Purchase scheduling software to develop shift schedules that optimize staff resources

9. Staffing and Workload Analyses
Tools (SQL, R [statistical software package], Excel)
The Center captures call and staffing data using Positron, an emergency communications management system
Positron Records:
Call data
Staff logins
Call taker status

10. What Do Incoming Calls Look Like?

11. Challenge
Timesheets are handwritten and would require significant amount of effort for data entry
Challenge: Availability and completeness of staffing data

12. Solution
Positron records call taker login and status activity as events
Ran script to count how many call takers are logged in every half-hour

13. Staffing Levels Did Not Match Workload Throughout the Day

14. Call Takers’ Activities
Call takers spent the same amount of time on call as they spent ready to take next call
Positron tracks status of call takers logged into the system
Positron does not route calls to call takers with an unavailable status
“Not ready” was called “Idle time” in Positron
Source: Positron records July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2012.

15. Call Taker Activity by Time of Day

16. Median Performance and Ready Time
Analysis of 90% NENA standard
We selected 33% as our optimal ready time

17. Shifting Staff Could Improve Performance and Reduce Overtime

18. Potential Overtime Savings
Optimizing call taker staff could reduce overtime
Total Median Weekly Actual Hours
2282
Total Median Weekly Model Hours
2157
1977
1740
Difference
125
305
542
Ready Time % Goal
35%
33%
30%
Potential Overtime Savings
155,921
381,349
678,163

19. Questions?