911 Breakdown Brings More Non-Urgent Calls to System

Los Angeles’ 911 operators--the city’s first line of defense against crime and disaster--could have been mistaken recently for talk radio hosts, as Angelenos by the dozens called in simply to check on and chat about the emergency system’s temporary collapse.

Most wanted to be reassured that their lifeline to the authorities still was there, ready to be used--and abused--again. Some were frightened by the news that flashed across television screens and interrupted radio programs on the evening of Dec. 30 that the 911 system was down.

“Oh, you people are on,” said one caller.

“I was told the 911 system was down,” said another.

“I just wanted to be sure,” said a third.

Even after the system was restored after the 90-minute collapse in which calls were routed to the Los Angeles Police Department’s 18 stations, such calls and an even larger number of hang-ups continued.

The calls represent a civic culture that demands fast and easy access to emergency services in a city where nerves have been jolted by everything from earthquakes to riots.

“911 is so embedded in our brains,” said City Councilwoman Laura Chick, who oversees the council’s public safety committee. “It’s the first place people call.”

Even on a typical morning last week in the city’s central dispatch center, operators working in the one-time bomb shelter four floors underground at City Hall East dealt with a slew of nonemergency calls, while other callers--who may have been in the grip of real emergencies--remained on hold.

One woman phoned to get a school’s telephone number. A man called to report a gardener using a leaf blower near his home. An elderly woman complained that her telephone service had been shut off, although she had mailed a $93 check. Someone else called seeking a referral for a dentist.

The day after the recent system breakdown, 911 dispatcher Liliana Montenegro said, “I had people calling me to ask, ‘Is it working now? I was just calling to check.’ ”

A tape of the calls compiled by the LAPD during the 90-minute interruption of 911 service shows that most of the callers were simply interested in chatting, curious about the system’s difficulties and wondering if it was fully operational again.

“There’s something going across my television that says 911 is down,” said one woman.

“I bet that most of these people had never called 911 before in their lives,” said Lt. Larry Henness, the assistant commanding officer of the LAPD’s communications division. “But they just had to call that night.”

To city officials and to the LAPD, 911 abuse is a serious, potentially life-threatening problem. Of the 3.6 million calls to 911 in 1996, for example, 85% were non-emergencies. Moreover, about 27% of callers to 911 that year had to wait 10 seconds or more before they were answered, a response time below the national average.

After City Council members asked the LAPD to consider such options as a 311 system or even a seven-digit number for nonemergency calls, the department assigned a team of officers to study all possibilities.

It can’t come quickly enough for the department.

“For every person who called [on Dec. 30], there was a great possibility that somebody else with a real emergency was lost or kept on hold,” said Capt. Mike Downing, who oversees the LAPD’s communications system.

Lt. John Egan, who is assigned to look into the 911 abuse problems, put it more starkly: “When our operators are dealing with people asking these questions, it might be the difference between life and death.”

After the system breakdown, a woman initially hung up on the 911 operator, but then, probably realizing the dispatchers had her address, quickly called back. “Hi,” she said, “I just called 911 and I just hung up, so everything’s OK . . . there’s no problem.”

Another caller asked for an alternative number if the system collapsed again. She said her father had medical problems and that she wanted to have a telephone number for future reference.

“Does he need paramedics now, ma’am?” the operator asked.

“Oh no,” she said. “He’s fine.”

In between these calls, however, the LAPD responded to real emergencies, dispatching patrol units to residents reporting a break-in, and sending paramedics to car accidents.

The 911 dispatchers dealt quickly with the nonemergency callers. “This is an emergency line,” one said. “I’m going to have to disconnect you now.”

On a recent morning, Montenegro told a caller who sought a school number to call 411, then disconnected the call. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. A red light had appeared on her console indicating calls waiting. The next one: a woman screaming, yelling that a man had just hit her and then rammed into her car.

Then another, a mother gasping for breath, barely able to get out the words while a child wailed in the background: “My son, his finger is caught.”

At the dispatch center, officials speculate that perhaps the public just knows that, unlike most anywhere else, calls to 911 will get answered--24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The 911 failure was the result of a Pacific Bell device, the size of a paperback book, that failed to route calls to the dispatch center. As a result, the backup system kicked into place, routing callers to their local police stations.

The 911 system received about 140 calls during the 90-minute breakdown. “I think we got a gift that we weren’t busier,” Downing said.

“The bigger problem,” the captain said, “was all these people calling in, testing the system.”