After mix-up before mass shooting, City Council looks to improve Philly's 911 response

After the high profile mishandling of a 911 call hours before a mass shooting in Philadelphia's Kingsessing neighborhood, City Council's Committee on Public Safety held a hearing on Tuesday intended to look at problems and possible solutions to issues in the city's 911 dispatch system.

While opening the meeting, councilmember Jamie Gauthier (D-3rd district) detailed the events of July 3 when Kimbrady Carriker, 40, allegedly wandered the streets of Kingsessing, killing five people, seemingly at random.

Gauthier noted that the day before that incident, 911 officials received a call concerning a shooting at a home on the 1600 block of South 56th Street, the same block where the shooting rampage would take place about 44 hours later.

But, instead of sending officers there, they were dispatched to the 1600 block of North 56th Street -- about three miles away.

"When the city fails to successfully respond to an emergency, neighbors lose faith in the city's ability to keep them safe, making it harder for us to combat gun violence and eroding the progress we've made to rebuild the essential bond between the community and the police," Gauthier said.

Gauthier said they didn't intend to shame dispatchers or police through the day's hearing, but instead hoped to find ways that council could provide dispatchers and first responders with the resources they need to ensure 911 calls are responded to accurately and quickly.

In order to determine the scope of the issue, council invited members of the public to detail issues with the 911 system.

One woman, Maria Rodriguez, said that if dispatchers would have answered her father's calls, he might not have suffered severe brain damage.

She said that in January, over the course of three days, her father, Roberto Rodriguez, called 911 at least 28 times when he had a stroke.

Though, she noted, her father couldn't communicate or speak when he suffered his medical issue, Rodriguez argued dispatchers could have done more to help him.

"There was never a call back or at least a wellness check. By the grace of God and a miracle, we still have him here with us," she told councilmembers. "It's so stressful thinking and knowing that he's calling and asking for help, living in this house alone and not getting no response... Anything would have helped if he would have gotten medical attention on time."

Yet, Gordon Zimmitt, the president of the union that represents dispatchers, AFSCME Local 1637, argued that dispatchers are faced with significant issues that can impact how quickly and accurately information is shared between dispatchers and police.

He called the job "one of, if not the most, stressful as well as one of, if not most, thankless jobs in the City of Philadelphia."

He talked about issues with employee retention and training. He also introduced dispatchers who detailed some of the ongoing challenges they face, like the ever-growing volume of calls, having to determine the severity of each situation and working to manage teams of first responders on the street at any given time.

Michelle Jordan, a dispatcher, also said that morale for those who do the job is low and they often feel unappreciated.

Jordan said she was working on Oct. 13 when Officer Richard Mendez was killed in a parking garage at the Philadelphia International Airport.

"I was that voice. I was on the air for five hours straight," she said. "And you know what I got? I got nothing. I got a Wawa have a shorti and a soda on us the next day. I never got appreciated. I never got told 'you did a great job, I know you're tired, maybe you should stay home today.'"

As for the police's response to concerns, John M. Stanford, Jr., interim Police Commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department, discussed some of what they learned from the issue on July 3.

He said one immediate reaction was to ensure that all staff are trained properly and said they have managers to make sure callbacks are being made and recorded.

Stanford also said dispatchers are now required to ask "very specifically for is there an an address or directional indicator" in order to keep issues like what happened before that Kingsessing massacre from happening again.

"Hopefully, having that now implemented will be very direct in terms of when people are calling, being able to ascertain that information as quickly as possible and as accurately as possible," Stanford said.

He told members of council that police are working to hire more dispatchers, as well.

The next general meeting of City Council set to be held on Thursday.