{"id":406783,"date":"2026-07-21T17:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T17:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/406783\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T17:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T17:42:11","slug":"are-911-calls-in-fresno-being-answered-fast-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/406783\/","title":{"rendered":"Are 911 calls in Fresno being answered fast enough?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Fresno Police Department has historically failed to answer 911 calls quickly enough, but it has begun to make some progress in meeting a standard set by state law.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Fresno\u2019s dispatch center answered 63% of 911 calls in 15 seconds or less, falling short of the state-mandated 90%. With steady annual increases, that jumped to over 75% in 2025.<\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee analyzed data from the California Governor\u2019s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) reporting 911 call answer times from 2021 to 2025 for the state\u2019s 438 dispatch centers, also known as Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs).<\/p>\n

Despite the improvement, Fresno\u2019s department remains well below the nationwide gold standard for dispatch centers to answer 90% of 911 calls within 15 seconds<\/a>, which is mandated across the state by Cal OES. A spokesperson declined to answer questions on whether Cal OES has penalized Fresno PD for consistently failing to meet the standard and said the state agency will \u201ccontinue to monitor\u201d Fresno\u2019s call wait times.<\/p>\n

Fresno PD officials credit its improved call answer times to expanded staffing, primarily spurred by a recent pay raise for dispatchers, though some vacancies remain. An understaffed dispatch department can lead to back-to-back calls and longer wait times in the call takers\u2019 queue when multiple emergencies hit at once, or several people call to report the same incident at the same time.<\/p>\n

Fresno PD has 99 out of 114 budgeted dispatch positions filled. Four or five of those just started work in mid-July. An additional five are going through the background check process, and the department is actively interviewing candidates, Jaime Fahlsing, emergency service dispatch manager for Fresno PD, told The Bee.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to get those positions filled and dispatchers fully trained, I\u2019m confident we\u2019ll be able to reach those numbers,\u201d Fahlsing said of reaching the state standard.<\/p>\n

Training dispatchers is an extensive process that can take up to a year. Agencies across the country<\/a> have struggled to keep positions filled for the stressful job that often comes with low pay and difficult hours, impacting call answer times.<\/p>\n

The data shows that California failed to meet the standard by a slim margin in 2025. Fresno\u2019s city and county dispatch centers were two of 27 PSAPs that fell below the 90% mark, most serving large cities with high call volumes, such as the Los Angeles Police Department.<\/p>\n

Fresno PD\u2019s center answers all calls within city limits and typically receives over 1,000 911 calls a day, averaging over 375,000 emergency calls a year.<\/p>\n

The sheriff\u2019s office provides dispatch services for all unincorporated areas of Fresno County, plus the cities of Fowler, Kerman, Kingsburg, Mendota, Orange Cove, Sanger and San Joaquin.<\/p>\n

The department has hovered around answering 80% of 911 calls within 15 seconds over the past five years, according to CalOES data. It receives an average of 275 emergency calls a day, typically over 100,000 a year.<\/p>\n

\u2018… dispatchers should be paid more\u2019<\/p>\n

Like Fresno PD, issues with dispatch staffing have been the sheriff\u2019s office\u2019s biggest roadblock in meeting the state standard, Matt Mendes, Fresno County Sheriff\u2019s Office Dispatcher Supervisor, told The Bee.<\/p>\n

The sheriff\u2019s dispatch center has 12 vacancies and four trainees with a staff budgeted for 49 dispatchers. Mendes can\u2019t remember a time since he started at the county office in 2006 that the sheriff\u2019s center has been fully staffed.<\/p>\n

Mendes believes pay plays a role in the shortage of dispatchers. Entry-level dispatchers earn a base salary of $53,300 a year at the county.<\/a> That can range up to around $75,500 depending on rank and experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking the long hours, the mandatory overtime, hearing the calls that we do, I think that dispatchers should be paid more, and we should have a better retirement,\u201d Mendes said.<\/p>\n

Dispatchers in Fresno and the county take calls from residents experiencing everything from shootings to mental health crises, domestic violence and robberies. They also answer all non-emergency calls that come to each department, with 911s prioritized.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything you can think of, somebody in here has answered that call,\u201d Fahlsing, Fresno PD dispatch supervisor, said.<\/p>\n

Fahlsing worked as a dispatcher in Fresno for over 10 years before becoming a supervisor. She will never forget when a mother couldn\u2019t find her son and later called back to report he had committed suicide.<\/p>\n

Another that has stayed with her is when a woman called to report her rapist as the sexual assault was taking place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is one dispatcher behind everything. The first, first responders is what we like to say,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Jaime Jaime Fahlsing, the Emergency Services Dispatch Manager for the Fresno Police Department’s 911 Communications Center, talks about the services they respond to from calls, Friday, June 26, 2026, in Fresno. Data shows the dispatch center is increasing its success in answering 911 calls within 15 seconds. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com \u2018We have to hear the screams\u2019<\/p>\n

The job can take a mental toll, Fahlsing and Mendes agree. For Mendes, instances of child drownings are some of the toughest calls to take after almost drowning himself as a child. Dispatchers rarely get closure after sending an officer to a scene, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to hear the screams and the cries for help. We have to make up the scenarios in our heads,\u201d Mendes said. \u201cI do think that we have it tough. We may not see the bodies, but we still have to hear it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2022, Fresno PD had a major drop in dispatch staffing, Deputy Police Chief Burke Farrah told The Bee. It\u2019s the same year the percentage of 911 calls answered in 15 seconds fell to the low sixties, over a 10% decrease from 2021.<\/p>\n

Impacts of COVID-19 may have contributed, Farrah said, but it was also found that Fresno\u2019s dispatchers were not compensated at the same level as other dispatchers across the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made it very difficult to be competitive when it came to hiring and with retention, too. It\u2019s not the easiest place to do dispatch work,\u201d Farrah said. \u201cWe\u2019re busy here, and it\u2019s important. So there were options for some of our folks to work not as hard and make more money.\u201d<\/p>\n

The City Council adopted an average 14% pay raise<\/a> for Fresno PD dispatchers in 2023, and the department\u2019s call answer times have improved each year since.<\/p>\n

\"Staff Staff are seen at the Fresno Police Department’s 911 Communications Center on Friday, June 26, 2026, in Fresno. Data shows the dispatch center is increasing its success in answering 911 calls within 15 seconds. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com Fresno PD closer than ever to meeting state standard in 2026<\/p>\n

Fresno PD\u2019s numbers for 2026 so far are on track to be the closest they have ever been to achieving the state standard, according to Fresno Police Chief Mindy Casto.<\/p>\n

Around 85% of calls have been answered within 15 seconds this year Casto said at a city budget hearing in June, a significant jump from 2025.<\/p>\n

Casto and Fahlsing believe the brand-new 911 communications center currently under construction will be key to Fresno eventually meeting the standard.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes we busy out on 911s, and it\u2019s terrifying for me on Fourth of July or New Year\u2019s Eve,\u201d Casto said while presenting the police department\u2019s FY 2027 budget requests to the City Council. \u201cWhen we move, the new system will not busy out ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

At $16.9 million, the bond-funded project broke ground in July 2025 at El Dorado and G Street, which has the capacity to house more dispatchers, advanced technology and an emergency operations center. The 12,000-square-foot facility will replace the aging, windowless dispatch center located in the basement of police headquarters.<\/p>\n

The department is on track to move to the new location in early 2027 once construction is complete. In the meantime, dispatch staff have filled a wall at the current center with photos tracking the new building\u2019s construction progress.<\/p>\n

\"The The Fresno Police Department’s 911 Communications Center staff respond to a wide variety of calls for different services, photographed Friday, June 26, 2026, in Fresno. Data shows the dispatch center is increasing its success in answering 911 calls within 15 seconds. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com Sheriff\u2019s Office numbers are up in first half of 2026<\/p>\n

The County Sheriff\u2019s dispatch center\u2019s 911 call answer times are also up for the first half of 2026.<\/p>\n

From the beginning of January to the end of June, 85.5% of calls were answered in 15 seconds or less, according to the department\u2019s internal data provided by Tony Botti, Fresno County Sheriff\u2019s Public Information Officer.<\/p>\n

Mendes believes the improved numbers could be thanks in part to a recent policy change. It used to be that if someone called 911 and hung up before the call was answered, dispatchers were required to call back twice if the first call back was not answered, leave a message and take notes. For the past few months, they have only been required to call back once.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people hang up, they call right back,\u201d Mendes said. \u201cWell, their call is still in the queue. We\u2019re trying to call them back, so it\u2019s like they\u2019re not knowingly delaying their own call for help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, a fully staffed dispatch center is needed for the Sheriff\u2019s Office to meet the state standard, Mendes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could see, yes, if we got more call takers, and that\u2019s something that we aim to do,\u201d Mendes said.<\/p>\n

\"The The Fresno Police Department’s 911 Communications Center is seen Friday, June 26, 2026 in Fresno. Data shows the dispatch center is increasing its success in answering 911 calls within 15 seconds. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com <\/p>\n

This story was originally published July 21, 2026 at 7:14 AM.<\/p>\n

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