Henderson residents face 911 woes

Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2005 | 8:01 a.m.

A Closer Look

Henderson Police

Metro Police

North Las Vegas

If you have to call 911 for help in Henderson, you are likely to wait nearly twice as long for your call to be answered than in Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County, according to area police departments.

And Henderson's answer time is at least one-third longer than that of North Las Vegas, dispatch records show.

Henderson, which also places more responsibility on its 911 call-takers than do its counterparts in the the valley, reported that calls for police, fire and medical emergencies take nine seconds to answer, on average.

Many police departments around the nation say calls to 911 should be picked up in five seconds or less.

Metro Police, for example, report that 91 percent of the calls to its 911 center are picked up in five seconds or less. That statistic may be misleading, however, because Metro's system places a person on hold at five seconds until a call-taker becomes available. Metro doesn't track an overall average, spokesman Jose Montoya said.

Calls to 911 in North Las Vegas are answered, on average, within six seconds, North Las Vegas Police spokesman Tim Bedwell said. That average time, however, also factors in nonemergency calls placed on the department's 311 phone line. The answer time for emergency calls is likely less, Bedwell said.

The 911 issue in Henderson was highlighted last month when a 42-year-old homeowner was trying to summon police because his home was being broken into. The man dialed 911 two separate times trying to get an answer. He shot two men before police arrived.

The homeowner, who asked not to be identified, said that when he noticed a man about to enter his home through a bedroom window on the night of Sept. 19, he immediately called 911.

It rang six to nine times but no one answered, he said. Thinking he dialed the wrong number, he said he called again, and again the phone rang and rang.

Finally, 44 seconds after police said he placed the original call, he got through to the dispatcher to tell her that someone was outside his bedroom trying to get into the house. Moments later, a rock flew through his bedroom window and two men crawled through it, he said.

Although police contend that the delay in answering the 911 call did not affect the outcome, the timeline raises questions about that assertion.

The homeowner shot the two men about 7:44 p.m. on Sept. 19 while on the phone with the dispatcher, who had already sent officers at 7:43 p.m. The officers arrived at 7:46 p.m., Henderson Police spokesman Todd Rasmussen said.

However, dispatch records show that the homeowner first dialed 911 at 7:40 and 40 seconds. Given that it later took police about three minutes to arrive at the scene after being dispatched, a prompt answer to the 911 call could have had officers arriving at the home before the shooting at 7:44 p.m.

The frustrated homeowner said that if his first 911 call had been promptly answered, officers could have at least arrived in time to arrest the burglars before they fled.

They weren't arrested until they showed up at a hospital across the valley seeking treatment for their wounds.

Henderson Police said it was just bad luck that the homeowner phoned when the department's 911 dispatchers were handling other calls that Monday night.

Four call-takers/dispatchers were on duty when the man's calls came in. Those four people handled 18 calls to 911 between 7:40 and 7:50 p.m., Rasmussen said.

"Our main problem is manpower, and it definitely would be better with more people," Rasmussen said. "The chief (Alan Kerstein) said it is unacceptable, and we are going to work to fix the problem."

Despite the fact that Henderson has by far the highest starting salary for the job in the valley, it has had trouble retaining 911 call-takers and currently has four vacancies, police said.

Apparently as a result of the publicity about the homeowner's frustration with 911, the city has received about 100 applications in the past two weeks.

But officials also plan to follow through with plans to recruit nationally. Human resources staff will attend job fairs in which dispatchers will be hired on the spot, officials said.

Besides the pay, there are other key differences between Henderson and Metro's 911 systems.

Metro has one set of people to answer 911 calls from the public and a separate group of people who dispatch officers, firefighters and ambulance crews. Computers link the two sets of personnel at the communications center.

Henderson's 911 personnel, however, not only field the calls for help, they also dispatch firefighters, officers and ambulances. On top of that, they also handle nonemergency calls ranging from animal control to public works calls.

"It is a very demanding and grueling job," Rasmussen said.

Brian Wargo can be reached at 259-4011 or by e-mail at wargo@lasvegassun.com.