Bartlett also announced Terry Baxter as interim director. Baxter currently works in the Management Review Office, but has also served as Senior Systems Analyst for the Tulsa Fire Department and was Technical Section Services Head for 911.

Currently, 911 operators and dispatchers are part of the city’s IT department.

Baxter told KRMG that it makes sense to separate them from IT; the move, he says, “renews the focus on public safety as a profession.”

911 call-takers and dispatchers currently overlap between the several agencies they serve, with some exceptions.

In the future, they will be able to choose their field of specialty, e.g. police, fire, or ambulance.

“Everyone thought that people should be able to work the career path that they felt called to,” he said. As it stands now, he added, “sometimes when you go to work you don’t even know what you’re gonna be, and in the middle of the day you might get moved.”

Baxter says in the short term, the economic impact of the new department will be minimal. His salary will remain the same as what he made at the MRO, he says, and new positions that will be created for the new department — quality assurance and training are two he named — will replace other city positions that are currently unfilled.

KRMG called and spoke with a dispatch supervisor, who did not wish to go on the record. However, she and other dispatchers have told KRMG that the main thing they need is more help.

Baxter says a new study which will begin in the next week or so should help.

“The new software package will be installed next week on our phone system so we’ll be able to get better statistics to do some analysis of staffing levels versus numbers of calls received.”

The 911 center has been criticized for long waiting times by callers. The city admits that the 911 center answers calls within National Emergency Number Association standards only about 51 percent of the time.

Those standards specify that 90 percent of calls to 911 should be answered with 10 seconds, and 95 percent of the calls within 20 seconds.

In a release issued Tuesday, the city says “going forward, the new 911 Public Safety Communications Department will be working hard to improve technology with national standards, address long-standing technology issues, employ best practices in emergency communications, including recruitment, hiring, training and retaining good employees so we can position Tulsa’s 911 Public Safety Communication to become a leader in emergency communications.

Read the story here.