The City of Fort Bragg first contracted with the Ukiah Police Department for dispatch services in 2009. Since then, the initial five-year contract has been renewed three times, most recently in July 2024.
Officials say the contract saves the city money and makes good economic sense. But over the past year, citizens have questioned whether performance safeguards are strong enough, citing delays in officer notification and dispatcher conduct.
Marla Swan, a communications and records manager for the Ukiah Police Department, defended the Ukiah dispatchers to the Fort Bragg Public Safety committee at its most recent meeting on December 17, noting that close to 100% of all calls were handled within 15 seconds or better, based on the most recent numbers submitted to the state of California by the Ukiah Police Department This exceeds a state requirement that 90% of 911 calls be handled within 15 seconds and 95% within 20 seconds, she said.
“We were well above answering 90% of 911 calls in 10 seconds,” she said. “So that’s pretty amazing.”
Swan told the committee that dispatchers are “passionate” about their performance, and she pointed out that a failure to meet state standards could result in lost funding or city fines.
The meeting turned tense during public comment when citizens shared personal experiences and described frightening failures of the dispatch system.
Jenny Shattuck recounted a June incident involving an armed suspect who had jumped bail and was facing a felony warrant. She said that when she called to report the suspect’s location, the dispatcher asked, “Is this a joke?”
The dispatcher did not dispatch officers, Shattuck said. While Shattuck was waiting, a Fort Bragg Police Officer David Franco drove by. Shattuck flagged him down.
“I asked Franco, ‘Did you get dispatched out?’ And he said, “No.” According to Shattuck, Franco asked her to call again. “There’s somebody still at the station. They can dispatch this out right now.’
“So I called her,” Shattuck continued. She recalled the conversation: “I have an officer here. He’s asking me to call you to please dispatch somebody out.” According to the Shattuck, the dispatcher said: “I don’t believe you.”
Shattuck went on to cite several additional examples. “The issue hasn’t been not answering the phone. The issue has been sometimes our officers are not dispatched,” she said.
The owner of the Headlands Cafe reported a frightening delay after an employee called 911 regarding a threat made by an anonymous caller to “shoot the place up” in September. He stated that his staff was “freaked out” and had to call multiple times before an officer arrived.
Swan addressed the complaints directly, explaining that in the case of the “joke” comment, the dispatcher was struggling to understand a unique name. She said the dispatcher had actually entered the call for service within one minute. Regarding the threat to the Headlands Cafe, Swan said officers were dispatched within 17 minutes. She said that while the delay may have felt long to the callers, the call was prioritized based on whether the threat was “in progress” or if someone was in “physical peril.”
“It might feel like it took a long time, but they actually were on scene within 20, 25 minutes,” Swan said.
To address ongoing community concerns, Swan invited residents to participate in “sit-alongs” at the Ukiah dispatch center.
Fort Bragg resident Eric Schmidt urged residents to take Swan up on her invitation. He also invited anyone with questions or concerns about dispatch to bring them forward.
The committee also received an update on the implementation of a new computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system, which launched in September. Swan said the system significantly improves officer safety and increases transparency by allowing officers to view call details on mobile data terminals in their vehicles. The system also enables dispatchers to map the real-time location of police vehicles.
“Before this, we couldn’t map our Fort Bragg units,” Swan said. “If an officer requested Code 3 cover from another unit, we had to rely on verbal communication to determine their location. If an officer was unable to speak and activated their emergency alert, we had no way to map where they were.”
The briefing on the new CAD system underscored the broader public safety concerns that were the focus of the meeting: how information moves from callers to dispatchers to officers in the field, the need for professional, unbiased handling and the difference that updated training and equipment can make.
(Mendolocal.news)
Where are the recordings of the dispatch conversations?