Toronto officials have launched a new public awareness campaign in an effort to reduce the high number of non-emergency calls coming into the police 911 communications center and reduce long wait times.

Nicknamed the ‘Make the right call“, posters in transit stations and social media posts will be shared on channels and public spaces across the City of Toronto.

Using examples like access to social and mental supports, loud parties, dead animals, there are requests to refer issues to services like 311, 211, 811 or the Toronto Police non-emergency number.

The Toronto Police Communications Center is the first point of contact for anyone in the city who calls 911, including people calling about medical, fire or crime-related emergencies.

“Seconds count,” Deputy Police Chief Lauren Pogue said at a news conference Monday morning.

“We want to give the public information that ensures everyone gets the right help when they need it, especially in an emergency. »

Mayor Olivia Chow said non-emergency calls, or calls that could be redirected to other staffed departments, account for about three in 10 calls to 911. She added that there has been a slight reduction in calls to 911 since 211 began responding to mental health and substance abuse crisis calls.

“By making the right call, we are helping other Torontonians who desperately need a quick response to that 911 call and we owe it to each other to make the right call,” she said.

Hang-ups and pocket numbers added by Pogue can slow response times because operators must follow up with callers.

“When you’re calling 911 and you’re on hold, stay on the line … and it also saves you valuable time on those emergency calls,” she said.

“In one particular case, people had called and hung up multiple times and when the operator finally got through, they discovered that another operator was actually on the phone with them.”

Asked about the campaign’s launch Monday, newly elected Toronto Police Association (TPA) president Clayton Campbell said it’s a familiar approach, but it doesn’t address underlying issues. underlying.

“It’s essentially the same thing over and over again…a poster campaign to call the right numbers. We agree with that, but the reality is that it does not solve the real problems,” he said.

“The real health and safety issues in the building where these members work, and a huge retention issue where our members are going to other departments, where they’re getting paid more for less work, less burnout.

As CityNews recently reportedwait times at the Toronto police 911 communications center were just under 11 minutes and 45 seconds on October 17.

Campbell, who previously confirmed hearing similar reports from association members, described the situation as “truly atrocious”. He said he has learned of other recent cases of people waiting eight to nine minutes to reach 911.

Since the story was published, Campbell said he has heard from employees and residents.

“They are exhausted there… and to speak of it, they are happy about it. Members of the public, again, were out in force reaching out to us and our other members on the street to let them know that they experienced the same thing,” he said.

A representative from the Toronto Police Service was not available for an on-camera interview when CityNews initially asked about the incident and other long wait times. A spokesperson said in statements that he did not have specific information about October 17. They said that as of Oct. 21, the average response time to 911 calls in October was one minute and seven seconds.

The department and union cited recruitment and retention issues as well as call volumes as factors contributing to occasional significant delays in calling 911.

Kerry-Anne Murray-Bates, director of the Toronto police communications center, said she recognizes that staffing is an issue, noting that call volume and wait times “are linked and constitute a complex question.

“When it comes to call volume, what happens is major events can contribute to that to the extent that you get multiple calls at the same time,” she said.

“When I say multiple, one accident or collision on the Gardiner or DVP can cause 50 to 100 calls at the same time, so all of those calls have to be answered and our operators are working diligently to clear the queue as much as possible. quickly possible, but it fluctuates daily as call volume fluctuates.

At Monday’s press conference, CityNews asked about what data is kept to track 911 wait times and whether the service would share more so delays can be better understood.

“The data is available. I mean we keep the data based on 15-minute increments, so our data is actually robust and we use that data to make decisions going forward,” Murray-Bates said.

In a letter to the Toronto Police Services Board on Monday, the TPA called for ending the “cycle of inaction” on staffing by addressing issues such as pay, training and retention, as well as than continuing with plans to upgrade the communications center so that employees can have a dedicated break space rather than using common areas.

CityNews asked Pogue about personnel issues raised by the TPA and its members.

“We’re working very hard on recruitment and retention, certainly looking to leverage technology to make things easier for everyone as well as a number of environmental things within the installation,” he said. she said, adding that there were plans to hire 90 additional operators.

Toronto’s auditor general reached similar conclusions in 2022 when the office reviewed 911 operations, resulting in 26 recommendations in several areas.

After analyzing data between 2018 and 2021, the Auditor General’s office found that the Toronto Police Service was not meeting requirements on average. National Emergency Number Association (NENA)The standard is to answer 90 percent of 911 calls within 15 seconds and 95 percent of calls within 20 seconds. They said call volume and staffing levels were the two most important factors. They also noted that many other jurisdictions were also struggling.

The report said the average response time over the three-year period was 28 seconds and peak times were between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. However, in the years since, this average has increased.

The service receives about 1.8 million calls a year, the vast majority of which are to 911 rather than the non-emergency number.