The offices of the Allegheny County Controller and Pittsburgh City Controller plan to audit police, fire, emergency medical services (EMS), and 911 call center performance. The joint effort will result in a combined report on the state of local public safety services.
City and county “act interdependent only when it comes to emergency response,” said city Controller Rachael Heisler. Operators at the county’s 911 call center connect callers to county, city, or municipal emergency services, depending on the location of the situation. Because of the overlap, it makes sense to combine the audits, she said. “We'll look to give a complete picture of how we're doing, how well the city and the county are working together, how we can improve and how we can support our first responders.”
The city and county have collaborated on audits in the past, but this marks the first time the two will take on a joint public safety review.
Heisler’s office will assess response times for the city’s police, fire, and EMS, as well as working conditions, staffing and support services. The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police has struggled to hire and retain officers; it currently employs 763 out of a budgeted 850.
Those staffing shortages “are a concern right now,” she said.
City Council recently gave preliminary approval to a contract with a consulting firm meant to teach bureau officials recruitment and retention strategies, though that will not be in effect during the audit period.
County Controller Corey O’Connor’s office, meanwhile, will examine the working conditions, workload, training and technology resources at the 911 call center.
Staffing shortages at the center have long been a concern. O’Connor said that though staffing levels have been improving, the county needs to focus on keeping those workers.
“It is a very difficult … stressful job,” he said. “Retention is always a conversation with these jobs.”
And with a new 911 communications system set to go into effect, he said, now is the time to examine how other technology is working, and which areas might be improved.
The center should be “as efficient as [it] possibly can be,” O’Connor said. “We want our residents to know what the call times are, how the responses are going, where we need to do better, where we're where we're doing well, where we're not.”
It makes sense to do the audit with Pittsburgh, the largest municipality in the county, Heisler and O’Connor said, because the systems are already intertwined.
“Public safety, staffing is just a significant concern. And that's true in Pittsburgh, it's true in the county, it's true in all cities and counties across the country,” Heisler said.
“That's a good thing that we are comparing notes working together,” O’Connor said. “This is an area where we obviously want to invest because public safety is one of the main concerns for everybody in this region.”
Audit results are expected next year.
