How location services and the organizational structure of a 911 call center can impact response times in a crisis

****MANDATORY DISCLAIMER: **EDS. NOTE: THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN DIGITALLY ALTERED TO BLUR SENSITIVE AND PROTECTED TEXT DISPLAYED ON MONITORS, BOTH IN TEXT AND DISPLAYED ON MAPS IN THE 911 COMMUNICATIONS CENTER.**** Dispatchers and call takers work at their stations in the 911 Communications Center at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office in Ocala, Fla. on Friday, April 5, 2024. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2024.

Editor’s note: For information about how this reporting came to fruition, read the backstory here. 

There are big screens in both the Ocala and Marion County 911 call centers. The screens reflect the number of incoming emergency calls and the number of available call takers. Everyone can see if no one is available and if any calls are waiting in the queue.

Both centers have certified 911 call takers and dispatchers who get law and fire headed toward the call.

At the county’s center, all 911 call takers have floor supervisors who monitor calls, look for trends, troubleshoot, and support the call takers. That supervisor does nothing else. The dispatchers also have floor supervisors supporting them.

At Ocala’s 911 center, the floor manager is also expected to dispatch law or fire calls. Multitasking oversight with primary dispatch duties comes with limitations.

In the case of the Dec. 23, 2023 fatal shooting inside the Paddock Mall, the Ocala Police Department told the “Gazette” that their first call for service to the incident came in at 3:40:18.

OPD officials said the call came from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office notifying them from the county’s 911 center. MCSO spokesperson Paul Bloom wrote to the “Gazette” “that the first call for service within our communications center hit the phone system at 15:39:46. The first call for service was dropped into the pending queue, making it viewable for others (after verification of address and call type) at 15:40:04. Our first assigned unit was at 15:41 with notification of the watch commander. Our first unit marked as arriving on scene was at 15:47:04.”

I was inside the mall at that moment and saw the alleged shooter. I called 911 after seeing the second shot at 3:38 p.m. My cellphone rang the OPD 911 center because someone at that center called me back.

I needed to remain silent because the shooter was still nearby. I remember that even the sounds of the 911 call taker asking for the nature of my call alarmed those I was with hiding behind nothing but a fabric tablecloth, mere feet away from the man who had been shot. They looked at me imploringly not to draw attention to our hiding place.

The shooter is said to have been targeting one man, not all of us there. But we didn’t know that then while the shots rang out for almost 40 seconds.

I wouldn’t be surprised if others reacted the same way. Instinctually, they dial 911 and then hang up understanding silence could be crucial to survival.

A big event like the incident at the Paddock Mall, where a 911 call center floor supervisor is watching unusual calls pop up near each other— may serve as an early indicator that something big is happening  because it would be uncommon for several people in the same vicinity to call for help and then hang up or not even speak.

However, the OPD call center does not have that extra level of oversight for incoming calls. The readiness and watchfulness of the 911 call center floor supervisor would likely be the first person to detect a trend.

Instead, my first call landed at the OPD call center, while another person’s call went to the county’s call center. The agency with the closest units found out about the threat second-hand.

There is no practical way for law enforcement to follow up on all the disparate hangups 911 call centers get. But in cases like the Paddock Mall, where there could have been many from one location at a time, having someone overseeing the operation who could spot trending calls could save lives.