Durham investigating why 911 calls were shifted to Raleigh

Deputy City manager Bo Ferguson said the local 911 center "has been coping with lingering staffing issues" that were made worse during the pandemic. But officials are working to "wind down" Durham's reliance on assistance from the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center, he said.

"It is not an approved practice of the city or the 911 leadership to route all incoming 911 calls to the Raleigh-Wake center," Ferguson said in a video statement. "We understand that Durham residents want and expect their calls to be answered by our call-takers, and we must provide adequate staffing to meet these expectations."

Jimie Wright, president of the union that represents Durham firefighters, said Monday that staffing at the 911 center has been a problem for months, and officials haven't addressed it.

"Any time you deal with emergency services, people’s lives are always at risk If you do anything that delays that and we’re not working towards improving that immediately, then, yes, people’s lives are definitely at risk," Wright said.

Routing calls through Raleigh has led to delays in response times and sometimes incorrect or inadequate information being passed along to responders, he said.

"It’s important that we know exactly where you’re at when we call 911, but Raleigh does not have all of our roads in our system," Wright said, adding that the Raleigh center also uses a different program, so Durham dispatchers have to re-enter all information, slowing down the process.

"On Saturday evening, we had a call where we didn’t get updated information, [and] the response was incorrect," he said. "We had a real medical emergency going on that, luckily, we were able to handle quickly."

Durham resident Ashton Kajcienski called the shortage of 911 operators "terrifying."

"If you have an emergency, it’s literally life and death, a matter of seconds," Kajcienski said. "If there’s not a 911 operator available, you could lose someone very close to you, or you could die yourself."

None of five nearby counties contacted by WRAL News on Monday – Granville, Orange, Vance, Wake and Wayne – said they had problems staffing their 911 centers.

Kadijia Smith said she doesn't understand why Durham is short-staffed. She said she's been applying for open positions at the 911 center for three years but has never been contacted.

"I don’t think it’s the lack of people applying," said Smith, who has a master's degree in criminal justice. "It may be something else because I have colleagues who have graduated with me as well [who] have been consistently applying and haven’t received anything back."

"It does get frustrating at times when you see that they need the help and you’ve been consistently applying," she added. "You’re wondering if it’s their process picking applicants – if you are underqualified or overqualified because you don’t receive any information or feedback regarding your application."