Audit: Palo Alto dispatch answers 9-1-1 quickly but dispatch-processing lags NFPA benchmark

Kate Murdock, the city auditor, presented the Office of the City Auditor—s dispatch center assessment to the Policy and Services Committee at the Sept. 9 meeting, describing staffing, call processing, emergency medical dispatch (EMD) coding, and training.

The report said Palo Alto—s public safety answering point (PSAP), run by the Palo Alto Police Department communications division, answered more than 99% of 9-1-1 calls within 10 seconds, exceeding National Emergency Number Association (NENA) goals. But the report found a shortfall on a National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) call-processing benchmark: the PSAP dispatched 68% of calls within 90 seconds in 2024 compared with the NFPA metric of 90%.

The nut graf: the assessment highlights strengths in call-answer speed and dispatcher training while flagging opportunities to improve end-to-end call-processing speed and general-call quality assurance. Committee members and staff discussed next steps, including prospective tracking against NFPA metrics, potential additional staffing to permit internal QA, and continuing third-party EMD review. The committee voted to forward the auditor—s presentation to the full City Council.

The report and committee discussion: Murdock told the committee the assessment was not a…