everal Baltimore City Council members voiced concerns Monday about wait times constituents have experienced when calling 911, saying residents have relayed stories of being placed on hold while homes were burglarized and houses burned.

“At minimum, our citizens deserve for their calls to be picked up,” said City Councilman Zeke Cohen, who read aloud complaints from residents during a Public Safety Committee hearing on the city’s 911 operation. “I think we on the council are feeling that there is a systemic problem happening.”

Baltimore Fire Chief Niles Ford testified that the average wait time for the city’s 911 is only six seconds, and said he has only about two dozen complaints on record about long wait times.

But Ford acknowledged longer wait times do occur during major incidents — such as a fire during which dozens of people call at the same time. The city also is experiencing higher rates of calls because of the increasing rate of violent crime, he said.

Ford said the 911 call center’s staffing has declined over the years. Before 2009, the city assigned 35 operators to the 911 call center for each shift. Today, staffing is between 12 and 18 per shift, he said.

Former Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake transferred control of the call center to the fire and police departments in 2015. Before then, oversight of the 911 system had been under Mayor’s Office of Information Technology.

Ford encouraged council members to send him the specific complaints they’ve received, saying: “We want to make sure we continue to improve. We’d love to look into each one of the complaints that you’ve discussed.”

Baltimore City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young and council members Ryan Dorsey and Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer echoed Cohen’s concerns, saying they’ve received complaints from constituents about long wait times.

“I get complaints all the time,” Schleifer said...Read more at Baltimore Sun