Investigation: The Charleston County consolidated dispatch center fails to meet national standards

Errors and inadequate staffing at the Charleston County Consolidated Dispatch Center means added seconds taxed on your call to 911. If you ask any first responder, they will tell you every second counts in an emergency situation.  

The center is behind national standards in taking your call when you need help the most.  On the day our crew visited the Charleston County Consolidated Dispatch Center, Jim Lake, Director, said he was down 25% of his staff. To operate on that day in January, he needed 20 call takers and dispatchers. Instead, he only had 15.

“We know how many people we need, it’s a matter of achieving that,” Lake said.

Since the time the county started consolidating fire, police, and AMS services, Lake said the center has been under staffed.

“In 2010, we took on the city of Charleston Fire Department.  Of their 13 authorized positions, we were supposed to get, we got three.  From the City of North Charleston, of the 21 dispatchers we were supposed to get, we got 12,” Lake said.

The problem, Lake said is no one wants to do the high stress job of 12 hour shifts year round, and he can’t train the call takers and dispatchers quick enough to replace vacant seats.

“If we’re shorthanded, I still need people to answer the calls,” Lake said. “I’m causing people to work more overtime. That burns them out. In most cases, I can’t get people in the door and trained to give relief, so they end up leaving. “

The shortage of staff means calls aren’t being answered in a timely manner.  Right now the center is falling behind every national standard in answering calls within 15 seconds.  There is a national effort to change these standards across the board.  Experts don't expect changes for several months.

Lake admitted being short staffed isn’t the only issue. He said newer dispatchers aren’t always familiar with the region, and in the case of a July 2010 fire on James Island, a dispatcher sent the wrong fire department more than doubling the time it took firefighters to get there.

“I didn’t have a watch, but I waited for what seems like an eternity,” one neighbor remembered.

Charleston Fire Chief Tom Carr said the call should have only taken four minutes. It took eleven before crews arrived.

In data News 2 pulled from a year of calls to the center, more than a million calls came into the center.  Of the complaints filed against the center, Lakes said 84 were founded.  In 15 reported cases last year, the wrong agency was dispatched, never sent or not notified. In 20 reported incidents, calls weren’t answered at the center or there was a sustained report of delay in answering a call. In 19 cases, dispatchers were cited for being unprofessional or giving back information to first responders.

After joining the center, officials on Folly Beach pulled out.  

“For instance, if a resident calls 911, and said, ‘I’m at Bert’s and it’s on fire’, when we had our guys here we had a personal level of service. They would be here quickly. When we called North Charleston they weren’t familiar with the land marks,” Eddie Ellis said.

Folly Beach councilman Eddie Ellis said it’s a precarious situation in which leaders in the sleepy ocean town don’t want to be involved. The town is in transition from the consolidated center back to their own dispatch service.  

“Once we consolidate all the agencies, it makes all our work much easier,” Lake said of the issues.

Here’s why.

Because the center is in transition right now, if you make a call in Mount Pleasant, the call taker there would be tied up transferring to the consolidated center, tying up a second call taker. Once the call taker in the county gets the information, that dispatcher sends emergency crews.  Then, that same county call takeer has to call Mount Pleasant back to confirm the crew was actually sent.

“By putting it all under one roof, it does cut down on time and redundancy,” Lake said.

A board still needs to determine acceptable time standards and policies on how to do that.  Right now, the center operates under national standards. The board started forming their local standards in November, but there’s no timeline when the standards will be finalized and implemented.  

The center shines in other areas. Once a taker answers your call, data shows they excel in gathering information, communicating between multiple agencies, and getting first responders out the door faster. In North Charleston, the center cut response time by more than two minutes in 2011 compared to 2009.

With more municipalities coming on board in the next two years, there are still challenges ahead. Lake said he’s training extra staff and back filling positions in case any others quit. He also says the county has issued training videos to help local fire, police, and EMS understand how calls are being dispatched and to unify how that’s done.

Charleston County Council declined a comment on our story.