Fresno\u2019s police and sheriff\u2019s dispatch centers have long struggled to meet California\u2019s standard of answering 90% of 911 calls within 15 seconds. Staffing shortages, low pay and the mental toll of the job continue to impact progress, but recent pay raises and policy changes are showing improved results.<\/p>\n
FULL STORY: Are 911 calls answered fast enough in Fresno? Vacancies, low pay, stress can slow progress<\/a><\/p>\n Here are key takeaways:<\/p>\n Fresno police answered just 63% of 911 calls within 15 seconds in 2022, but that figure climbed above 75% in 2025. Police Chief Mindy Casto said roughly 85% of calls have been answered within 15 seconds so far in 2026, the closest the department has come to the state standard.Fresno PD has 99 of 114 budgeted dispatch positions filled, with more recruits in training or background checks, according to Jaime Fahlsing, the department\u2019s emergency service dispatch manager. The Fresno County Sheriff\u2019s Office has 12 vacancies out of 49 budgeted dispatcher positions.Matt Mendes, the sheriff\u2019s office dispatcher supervisor, said pay is a factor in the shortage. Entry-level county dispatchers earn a base salary of $53,300, ranging up to about $75,500 with rank and experience. He said dispatchers deserve better pay and retirement given the long hours, mandatory overtime and difficult calls.A 14% average pay raise adopted by the Fresno City Council in 2023 has coincided with steady annual improvements in police dispatch answer times, Deputy Police Chief Burke Farrah told The Bee.A new $16.9 million, bond-funded 911 communications center broke ground in July 2025 at El Dorado and G Street. The 12,000-square-foot facility is expected to open in early 2027, replacing the aging basement dispatch center at police headquarters.Fresno PD\u2019s dispatch center handles more than 1,000 emergency calls a day, averaging over 375,000 a year. The sheriff\u2019s office, which covers unincorporated areas and seven cities including Kerman, Sanger and Kingsburg, fields about 275 emergency calls a day.<\/p>\n This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence based on our own originally reported, written and published content. Before publishing, journalists reviewed this content in compliance with McClatchy Media\u2019s AI policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresno\u2019s police and sheriff\u2019s dispatch centers have long struggled to meet California\u2019s standard of answering 90% of 911…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-414264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}