TUESDAY MAY 7, 2024 A3 DITOR Wyatt Haupt Jr. 808-245-0457 HONOLULU When Ken- neth Jacob, a 75-year-old Waikiki resident, was at- tacked by a man on the Ala Moana bridge over the Ala Wai Canal, he yelled, automated phone assistant Siri called immedi- ately. Jacob expected a 911 call-taker would promptly send police to deal with his attacker, who began beating him when he told him that he have a cigarette. He said that he also wanted first responders to come quickly to address the lump on his temple and three bro- ken ribs. Instead, Jacob got an au- tomated message indicating that no one was available to take his call, which came in at approximately 9:51 a.m.
March 23. was a shocking thing to he said. was fearful because I knew no- body was coming right away. If you call the cops, you want them there right away. You need 911 person- which HPD personnel have nel to get them there.
Sec- onds HPD Capt. Matthew Kuri- hara, who leads com- munications division, said HPD track how often workers, so it is focused on the 911 system gets over- whelmed enough to play an mating its abandoned automated message. How- ever, Kurihara acknowl- edged that there are times when all of emer- gency response operators are assisting callers. is especially true if a major event, such as a multivehicle Kurihara said. all de- pends on timing.
We predict when (the call vol- ume) is In case, Kurihara said, he calls into 911, if getting that re- cording, because our emergency response opera- after the man who had at- tors (EROs), the first line tacked him had already left. ume, it takes a while to go they are the ones that route the call they are all officer saying that he was on why we want this au- HPD Maj. Calvin Sung of the communications divi- sion said if the system is busy, callers should keep calling back. If the system answers, they should re- main on the line, Sung said. location data can be collected (if a call comes in and a person gets an auto- serve on the Waikiki Neigh- mated message).
But the system does not have an au- for answers. tomatic callback he said. longer a caller stays on the line, the more information that we can chelle Yu said no one has If callers who are waiting hang up, Kurihara said they case is still under investiga- nected 911 calls are posing still makes contact with go into a queue of calls, to manually call back, and that sometimes takes a while. Kurihara said the division needs another 40 or so recruiting as well as auto- (dropped or missed) calls to hair, wearing a green hoodie, gency callers. reduce the workload.
He said the staffing shortages tend to affect the nonemer- gency calls, that can to work with the vendor for abandoned callback feature system annually. He said wait. Now basically your wait is longer, because we are always going to (put) emergency Jacob said he is hopeful that the division will find a way to increase personnel and that adding an auto- matic callback function to the 911 system will improve which he said is short about the release said, the system caller hangs up, the call goes which means that she an- response. In his case, he said, an officer showed up have a memory of the a different Jacob said. He added that police still arrested his at- tacker, whom he believes was living in a tent at the side of the bridge near the entrance to the Ala Wai promenade.
Jacob and his son, Dan Jacob, who both borhood Board, are pushing tually do need help and are Suspect HPD spokesperson Mi- been arrested and that the tion. She said HPD is asking a significant challenge to for the help and has 911 emergency response in- longer manually make the posted video on Na Maka page, 808ne.ws/3UL- GFFo. Yu said the suspect is de- some other cities already scribed as a Polynesian male, medium build, 30s, 5-foot-8, 200 pounds, brown sponse time and allow 911 complexion, black curly shorts and slippers. Sung said commu- nications division continues ing an automated its 911 system to add an au- in March. Its callback sys- tomated callback feature.
Kurihara said he did not have a firm timeline for when the upgrade would be before a call-taker could an- complete, but said a pri- swer, according to a news ority. Abandoned calls exac- release from the depart- erbate the workload for the ment. Once the automated communications division, 34 percent of its desired staffing level. such a huge vol- to dial 911 and need assis- through every single one, so cident. Baltimore and tomated assistance.
Hope- fully, it can help weed out all mated abandoned callback the ones where somebody misdialed, or a kid was play- through hang-up calls to the getting the help that you ing on the phone, or some- body was jogging and had their phone unlocked and it had this to say about the accidentally Kurihara Now we can abandoned 911 calls focus on all the ones that ac- are unintentional, and in in those situations where they talk, or they stay on the line, but abandoned calls are from they still need Honolulu is not alone. Abandoned or discon- frastructure around the na- tion. Automated abandoned our ability to answer 911 callback is a feature that have stood up or are imple- menting to optimize re- personnel to focus on emer- Kurihara said abandoned The Kansas City, Po- lice Department started us- tem will automatically re- turn the phone call to people who have hung up callback reaches the caller, now will prompt them to de- into the pile of calls that HPD swers the 911 calls that are termine whether they meant must return, he said. tance or if the call was an ac- Portland, also are among the cities using auto- HPD calls to check on a to more quickly work 911 system. The Portland.gov website you, they might have to public safety technology: many cases are caused by a nonemergency callers to re- lice Department, so this job pocket dial from a cell phone.
However, some callers urgently in need of emergency help. By using the software, our call center gency issues, like parking each caller, but calltakers no less issues and requests for them she said. calls. The software improves March, when it announced a calls quickly by reducing the However, that new program workload on our does not apply to the com- thought that a similar munications division, where system could make a differ- ence in Honolulu, where calls make up about 20 per- cent of bimonthly call volume. He said about 1 mil- Kurihara said, adding lion calls come into the 911 some 80 percent to 85 per- cent of those calls are di- rected to the police, and the age stress.
remainder go to fire or EMS. Kurihara said if a caller ac- that it is rewarding, said Es- cidentally calls 911, please stay on the line and let the emergency response officer to take a job as a police close out the case. If the Kurihara said why important to answer if dropped 911 call as job Cardoza said. is to make sure that you are is a beautiful city, and need. If they reach send a patrol or street offi- cer, and they have many other tasks to Sung also encouraged duce the 911 call volume by will always be using Honolulu 311, the offi- cial mobile application for the City and County of Ho- nolulu to report nonemer- complaints, potholes, home- man on the other line to get city-related services.
He said some nonemergency situa- tions also may be reported online at 808ne.ws/3Uk- Ky2w. Sung added that the pub- lic is encouraged to create an HNL.info account, which offers emergency messages, traffic situations and weather advisories. He said this site provides real-time information that could re- duce nonemergency calls to the 911 system. Kurihara said adding the automated callback feature in Honolulu also would reduce the work- load for call- takers, allowing them to focus on emergen- cies. It also provides a bet- ter response to callers who may not be able to stay on the line.
why we want to implement this automated he said. have openings and are always looking to hire more EROs and police communications officers (radio dispatch- The city has seen Hono- lulu Police Department ap- plications go up since $25,000 hiring incentive. pay begins at $50,388 per year, plus incentive pay of $2 per hour when working. division is looking at possible (new) incentives as that the division also has been using quiet rooms, peer support and therapy dogs to help workers man- The best perk of the job is sie Cardoza, who moved from Las Vegas to Honolulu communications officer 1, routed to HPD by emer- gency response operators. would say this would be a fantastic job if you never want to be bored and if you want to feel emotionally re- to be part of something that is trying to make it better and safer for everyday peo- ple is unspeakably reward- ing.
Beyond that, obviously, got a lot of job security. People always need the Po- Cardoza said technology is enhancing the job, but she does not believe it will re- place it. just need that hu- Staff shortages plague 911 system Allison Schaefers STAR-ADVERTISER GEORGE F. LEE STAR-ADVERTISER Assault victim Kenneth Jacob, a Waikiki Neighborhood Board member retraced his routine on Ala Moana Blvd at thew Ala Wai Bridge on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, where he was previously injured by a homeless man. He is standing on the spot of his assault..
