She said she was heading northbound on Dundas Street, near Dixie Road, when she witnessed a collision unfold between a motorcyclist and the driver of a car who was attempting to make a left turn.
“I mean we are all in shock of what’s happened and in a panic. We can’t do anything for this gentleman that is laying there and we are all trying to get through to 911,” Barros said.She said at the same time she received a call back from 911, about nine minutes later, she could hear fire trucks approaching.
Peel police said in 2022, there was a 27 per cent increase in 911 calls, marking the “most significant increase in call volumes to date.” Toronto police also said they have been dealing with an increase in 911 call wait times due to an increase in the number of calls to its emergency communications centre.
According to police, the service’s 911 call centre, which receives calls to both 911 and its non-emergency line, received about 6,500 calls per day in May, up from 5,200 in 2022. Police said nearly 70 per cent of those were calls to 911 and almost 50 per cent were accidental. As of Aug. 22, she said the service saw an average wait time of 1:14 seconds for the month, up from 43 seconds last August.
In a 2021 report by Toronto’s auditor general on 911 call centre operations, there was a recommendation to increase staffing and Toronto police have been working to boost the number of operators at its 911 communications centre. “It is very demanding. Our training is long and it is exhausting and there really isn’t a big margin of error because of the work that we do.”
“In agencies they work in teams of generally four of five people, which are called platoons, and during COVID, if one person in the platoon tested positive then the entire platoon had to isolate, which meant there was an extra burden placed on other staff.”“Agencies are struggling to fill those positions right now and they were understaffed before,” she added.
“The country is right now in the midst of switching that technology base which will allow us to add new tools to help.”“From a NENA perspective, we hear from agencies everyday about the challenges that we are facing with staffing, the challenges we are facing with retention and burnout, with trying to keep people in the industry,” Barkwell said.