randym99 t1_isuf3j2 wrote on October 18, 2022 at 7:50 PM

>Consistent with national standards, PPD seeks to answer at least 90% of 911 calls within 10 seconds. Between 2017 and 2021, the percentage of 911 calls answered within 10 seconds dramatically decreased from 95% to just 68%. While the decline was most significant between 2020 and 2021, and it appears that some improvement was made in early 2022, PPD has not met this goal since 2018. Additionally, PPD’s time to respond to the highest priority 911 calls was longer than any other large city reviewed.

Why is Krasner/Kenney not letting them answer the phone or respond to 911 calls??

>From 2016 to 2020, Philadelphia had the lowest homicide clearance rate of the 10 largest cities in the U.S., significantly lower than the rates for cities of comparable size such as Phoenix and San Antonio.

Why aren't Krasner/Kenney letting PPD clear these homicides??

B0dega_Cat t1_isx6hdt wrote on October 19, 2022 at 10:57 AM

Ummmm... If the police don't investigate the homicide well and provide evidence, especially since so many are banned from going on the stand sure to a history of lying on the stand, then the DAO can't do much. You need evidence to convict someone and it's the PPD's job to collect it

randym99 t1_isxepno wrote on October 19, 2022 at 12:21 PM

lol yes, I agree with you, I was being sarcastic haha, mocking all the people blaming 100% of the crime on the DAO when PPD is doing a terrible job too. DAO can't do it's job without police first doing theirs, but idiots will ask "why should police make arrests when DA isn't prosecuting"

PhillyPanda t1_isy0ie3 wrote on October 19, 2022 at 3:07 PM

>Why is Krasner/Kenney not letting them answer the phone or respond to 911 calls??

Dispatchers are civilian employees employed by the city. Kenney could assist by making the hiring process less burdensome, removing residency requirements, increasing salary so we don’t have a dispatcher shortage

randym99 t1_isy6h7j wrote on October 19, 2022 at 3:47 PM

The city's FY2023 budget includes those types of comments, noting they are down 31 dispatchers (of 246 expected, not counting 39 spots for trainees):

>Currently, Police Radio is 31 positions below its authorized staffing levels. We continue to work to fill these vacancies. We are working with OHR to finalize a pay evaluation and to streamline the hiring process in an effort to fill our vacancies and retain our dispatchers, once hired.

- https://www.phila.gov/media/20220526172241/Philadelphia-Police-Department-Budget-Detail-FY2023.pdf pgs 20, 25

Meaning yeah I think they're working on it, that budget was passed so doesn't look like Kenney is blocking any of that, just takes time.

Re: the residency requirement, I'm not sure that a city of 1.6M people should need to look outside its own borders to hire 30 dispatchers. I don't disagree in general that hiring requirements only add barriers but this doesn't feel like the reason that they're understaffed. I'd guess it's more the interviewing / processing of candidates and the low pay ($46-51k, though I don't know what the expectation for that job ought to be, apparently higher). [update: that range looks normal based on quick googling of other city dispatcher salaries, cities much higher COL than Philly]

Further, I'll check back through prior budgets and see how the current staffing level compares and if the headcount numbers correlate with the reduced response times (something I'd guess the Controller's report would have included if they found anything interesting, surely they did this simple check) and report back, stay tuned.

Update: yeah that group took a staffing hit (like literally every other lower-pay industry) during COVID and is struggling to refill positions. The answer is almost certainly paying more, which ofc being a municipal government is a pain to address.

_token_black t1_isyety2 wrote on October 19, 2022 at 4:42 PM

Paying more and filling jobs within a reasonable amount of time. From anecdotes of people who have gone through the process, it takes months to go from application to decision, if you hear back at all.

Most people don't have the luxury of sitting around waiting for an answer. After a while, they'll go get a job somewhere else, probably in the private sector making more. I'm sure people want to work for the city, but when you couple low pay with a process that moves at a snail's pace, it's no surprise that vacancies seem to never get filled.

randym99 t1_isyfz4i wrote on October 19, 2022 at 4:49 PM

That makes sense - I wonder who is responsible for / who could improve that. Of course Kenney / our next Mayor who actually gives a shit could and should make that a priority but the mayor is not the one that would actually be implementing it. Surely there's some office of HR or something we should be directing our concerns to. Oh I guess that quote above actually specifies the OHR haha:

https://www.phila.gov/departments/office-of-human-resources/

I'll check the budget detail and see if they talk about hiring timeline targets, but I doubt it.

Update: yep, OHR has 32 full time employees and, unless I'm missing something, only 2 performance targets listed, related to producing civil service eligible lists, whatever those are. I was hoping to see something like # of positions unfilled and for how long.

https://www.phila.gov/media/20220901170313/Mayors-FY2023-Operating-Budget-Detail-Book-I-Adopted.pdf, pgs 1133-1135