Problems at 911 call dispatch center
Tuesday, KHOU-11 had a story on the concerns of Houston Emergency Center employees:
The 911 call takers say they are being forced to work overtime because there are too many vacant positions and colleagues who continuously call in sick.
"Sometimes we work 12 to 16 hours a day," says Thomas.
The public information officer for Houston's Emergency Center says it is working to fill those vacant positions. This isn't the first time there have been problems at the HEC.
"It's getting worse. The system is constantly going down," says Flint.
Since it opened its doors in fall 2003 there have been several incidents of trouble with the system. It suffered again a few weeks ago during a systems upgrade.
Flint and Thomas women [sic] say it happens more times than the callers know.
This morning the Chronicle is reporting that the dispatch system is down:
The computer-assisted dispatch system at the Houston Emergency Center has been disabled since early this morning, creating delays for those calling for help and slowing the dispatch of police and fire calls.
HEC spokesman Joe Laud said the problem occurred when workers shut the system down about 3 a.m. to install upgraded hardware.
When the system was brought back on line, Laud said the hardware was unable to interface with the CAD system.
Hewlett-Packard technicans are still there, because it's their hardware that was installed, Laud said. "They're still trying to see what's wrong."
In the meantime, Laud said dispatchers at the HEC have gone back to pen and paper to record and dispatch emergency calls for help.
That doesn't sound good.
UPDATE: The Chronicle link above now leads to an updated story where we learn the system came back online at about 4 p.m. today.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/01/04 09:35 AM | Print |
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