Carmel council hears limits of emergency dispatch data after presentation on 911 transfer delays

Mayor Byrne called a special Carmel-by-the-Sea City Council meeting to discuss response-time reporting on March 30. City staff and the fire chief explained that the city's call-processing method adds time before Monterey County dispatch sends emergency units, and both council members and members of the public urged better, synchronized timing data and clearer addressing to reduce delays.

The city's fire chief, Paul (last name not specified in the meeting materials), described the city's 2012 contract with Monterey County and the council's performance expectation: "95 percentile of all of our calls being under 5 minutes because that was the that's what we thought we could achieve." He explained the two-step process used in Carmel: the city's local 911 center first takes police, fire and medical calls, determines a more precise location and then transfers the call to Monterey County dispatch, which in turn alerts county fire and ambulance resources.

That two-step flow means the reports the council typically sees reflect only Monterey…