Association of Local Government Auditors Tuesday May 6, 2014 Stephanie Jackson, JD, CGAP Performance Audit Manager City of Atlanta Christopher Armstead, JD, CIA Senior IT and Compliance Auditor City of Atlanta

Overview

 Reason for audit  Impact of staffing on call processing time  Methodology for analyses 2

E911 Processing Time Above Benchmark

Source:

EMBRS data, calendar years 2008 through 2010 3

Audit Objectives

 How long does E911 take to answer and dispatch emergency calls?

 Does E911 have enough staff to cover current workload?

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Overview of E911 Center

 Center answered over 1 million 911 calls and dispatched public safety personnel to 223,080 police incidents and 49,721 fire incidents  Center spent $1.1 million on overtime in fiscal year 2012, about 8% of its overall budget 5

Performance Standards

 Call Answer Time: 90% of Calls Answered Within 10 Seconds  Time to Process Fire Calls: 90% Processed Within 60 Seconds 6

What We Found

 Overall staffing level is sufficient  Center should better align staffing with workload 7

Recommendations

 Develop shift schedules that align staff with call workload  Require staff to record status in the Positron system  Implementation should reduce overtime 8

Staffing and Workload Analyses

 Tools (SQL, R [statistical software package], Excel)  The Center captures call and staffing data using Positron, an emergency communications management system  Positron Records:  Call data  Staff logins  Call taker status 9

What Do Incoming Calls Look Like?

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Challenge

 Timesheets are handwritten and would require significant amount of effort for data entry 11

Solution

 Positron records call taker login and status activity as events  Ran script to count how many call takers are logged in every half-hour 12

Staffing Levels Did Not Match Workload Throughout the Day 13

Call Takers’ Activities

 Call takers spent the same amount of time on call as they spent ready to take next call  Positron tracks status of call takers logged into the system  Positron does not route calls to call takers with an unavailable status

Source:

Positron records July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2012.

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Call Taker Activity by Time of Day 15

Median Performance and Ready Time  Analysis of 90% NENA standard  We selected 33% as our optimal ready time 16

Shifting Staff Could Improve Performance and Reduce Overtime 17

Potential Overtime Savings

 Optimizing call taker staff could reduce overtime Total Median Weekly Actual Hours Total Median Weekly Model Hours Difference 2282 2157 125 2282 1977 305 2282 1740 542 Ready Time % Goal Potential Overtime Savings 35% 33% 30% 155,921 381,349 678,163 18

Questions?

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