Henderson, NLV handle own calls

Jen Lawson

Wednesday, June 11, 2003 | 11:22 a.m.

While the Metro Police communications center works to improve its handling of 911 calls from Las Vegas and unincorporated areas of Clark County, North Las Vegas and Henderson officials say their 911 centers are doing fine on their own.

The North Las Vegas Police Department handled about 50,400 calls on its 911 line in 2002, and 95 percent of the calls were answered within five seconds, Officer Justin Roberts said. The center's budget for 2002-2003 was $1.79 million.

The North Las Vegas communications center is not yet at full staff, however, Roberts said. The center has a total of five call-takers and 23 dispatchers and dispatch supervisors. The budget allows for six call-takers and 31 dispatchers and supervisors.

"We're trying to fill those as we speak, but the washout rate is high because it's a stressful job," Roberts said.

Most shifts have one call-taker and three or four dispatchers on duty, Roberts said.

Of the five call-takers, two speak Spanish, Roberts said, but the police department is hoping to hire more. If no Spanish speakers are on duty when a call comes in, they use a language translation service.

North Las Vegas' population is about 147,000, Roberts said.

In Henderson, where the estimated population is 210,200, that city's police department handled about 58,500 911 calls in 2002, Officer Shane Lewis said.

Henderson's budget for the 2002-2003 fiscal year was $3.3 million. The center has five call-takers and 20 dispatchers but the staffing table calls for six call-takers and 21 dispatchers.

Henderson has a "a few" Spanish-speaking call-takers, Lewis said. Like Metro, Henderson uses a language translation service if a bilingual call-taker is not on duty, Lewis said.

He said he was unable to provide statistics about how quickly calls to Henderson's 911 center are answered because Henderson's communications system doesn't track the waiting times the way Metro and North Las Vegas do.

"If the phone rings, a body picks it up," though it might take several rings before a call is answered, Lewis said.