Constrained Gatekeepers of the Criminal Justice Footprint: A Systematic Social Observation Study of 9-1-1 Calltakers and Dispatchers

Figures & data

Table 1. Type of calls received by calltakers during observations (N = 511) and time spent on calls.

	Number of calls	% of total calls observed
Traffic	101	19.8
Non-crime, information or administrative	69	13.5
Service requests or follow-up	62	12.1
No response/number accidentally dialed	61	11.9
Alarm	55	10.8
Disorder (not specified as vice-related)	42	8.2
Medical^a	37	7.2
Property crime	28	5.5
Violence and interpersonal events	15	2.9
Domestic-related events	12	2.3
Suspicious person(s)/events	12	2.3
Mental Distress	10	2.0
Disorder (vice-related)	4	0.8
Missing person(s)	3	0.6

^aAny medical calls that appeared as a result of mental distress (e.g., attempted suicide) were labeled as mental distress calls.

Table 2. Percentage of various types of calls handled directly by calltakers.

	Total Calls (N = 511)	Resolved by calltaker (N = 255)	% resolved by calltaker
Non-crime, information or administrative	69	66	95.7
No response/number accidentally dialed	61	58	95.1
Service requests or follow-up	62	41	66.1
Alarm	55	33	60.0
Disorder (not vice-related)	42	15	35.7
Property crime	28	10	35.7
Missing person(s)	3	1	33.3
Disorder (vice-related)	4	1	25.0
Traffic	101	22	21.8
Violence and interpersonal events	15	3	20.0
Mental distress	10	2	20.0
Suspicious person(s)/events	12	1	8.3
Medical	37	2	5.4
Domestic-related events	12	0	0.0

Table 3. Number of dispatcher calls observed by event type (N = 596)*.

	Total (% of all dispatched calls)
Traffic issues	237 (39.8%)
Suspicious person/event	65 (10.9%)
Disorder (not specified as vice-related)	58 (9.7%)
Property crime	49 (8.2%)
Alarms	40 (6.7%)
Administrative, information, and non-crime	38 (6.4%)
Service requests and follow-up	20 (3.4%)
Violence and interpersonal crime	19 (3.2%)
Medical	19 (3.2%)
Domestic	17 (2.9%)
Mental distress (from what could be determined)	14 (2.3%)
Disorder (vice-related)	10 (1.7%)
Missing person(s)	10 (1.7%)

*For one event, the nature of the call could not be determined.