Durham 911 calls being routed through Raleigh

The Durham Emergency Communications Center is routing calls through Raleigh, but officials say it isn't causing delays in response times.

In a statement, the DECC said it continues to use alternate routing to the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center so that all 911 calls in Durham are answered in a timely fashion.

The DECC was staffed with dispatchers throughout the evening on Saturday, May 8, but calls were initially answered by call-takers in the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center for seven hours due to unplanned absences in the DECC.

The DECC used alternate call-routing between the hours of 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. while dispatchers in the DECC remained on duty to dispatch calls for service.

The DECC says that this method of handling surge calls has been in place since December 2020, as Durham has dealt with staff shortages resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and industry-wide challenges in filling 911 vacancies.

As continues to be the case for all shifts, surge calls in excess of current staffing capacity are routed to the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center where call-takers enter the details of the call into computer-aided dispatch (CAD), and those calls are then dispatched by Durham staff.

As of April 30, only 9% of Durham’s 911 calls are being answered by the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center. The DECC continues to make progress filling the vacancies and expects to be able to end alternate-routing within two months.

Additional staff have been called in to backfill the quarantined and sick employees that negatively impacted last night’s staffing levels, and new personnel are being released to the call-taker positions in a few weeks. City management is reviewing the circumstances regarding Saturday night’s staffing.