911 call takers 54% below target but new tech helping with ‘no answer’ calls in Mississauga and Brampton, police say

Dispatchers answering 911 calls in Mississauga and Brampton are well below their ideal timing targets but new technology is helping busy operators deal with time-consuming hang-ups and callbacks.

Peel Regional Police say blatant 911 misuse has been trending in the wrong direction for years with more and more Mississauga and Brampton residents making emergency calls for non-emergency incidents like getting their coffee order wrong or having to use the bathroom.

Peel police said in June that more than 1,000 calls a day were deemed “inappropriate,” up 13 per cent from 2022. Now the stats show a more than 51 per cent spike from 2022 to 2023 from 124,897 negligent calls to 189,787, an increase of more than 64,000.

Data on emergency calls presented to Peel Regional Council this month showed 906,124 calls made to 911 in Mississauga and Brampton in 2023 with just over 57 per cent of calls (516,617) for actual emergencies.

The National Emergency Number Association has set a target for emergency services to answer 90 per cent of all 911 calls within 10 seconds, and 95 per cent within 20 seconds. The report shows 911 in Peel is well below with just 36 per cent of all calls answered in 10 seconds and 43 per cent picked up within 20 seconds.

Some 177,730 were no-answer calls, which Peel police say are now being handled by an automated system after upgrading to next-generation 911 technology, known as NG911, earlier this year.

The new automated system is helping call takers deal with thousands of hang-ups and what are called “no answer calls,” which police say can tie up dispatchers and add strain to an already taxed emergency system.

Letting the system deal with potential misdials frees up dispatchers to work with callers who are already on the line, just one benefit of the NG911 upgrades that are aimed at “significantly decreasing wait times in emergency situations,” police said.

Of the more than 900,000 calls made to 911 in Mississauga and Brampton there were a total of 198,718 “hang ups” in 2023. Another 1,002 were “test calls.”

Despite the upgrade to NG911, dispatchers still aren’t answering calls quickly enough when compared to the National Emergency Number Association standard. Dozens of new 911 dispatchers were also hired this year, and the report says any “benefits and efficiencies” of the new hires won’t be seen until 2024.

Work has also begun on the new Peel Regional Police (PRP) Operational Support Facility in Brampton which will be the future home of a new NG911 call centre handling all fire, police and medical calls for Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon.

The approximately 200,000-square-foot facility is expected to be complete in 2027 and will also be the home base for the PRP traffic and road safety team along with the police information technology, records and analytics bureaus.

Here are some tips to ensure you only call 911 when it’s appropriate:

• only call 911 when someone needs immediate help from paramedics, police or fire: that means someone’s health or property is in immediate danger.
• call 311, 211 or non-emergency phone numbers for access to non-emergency help.
• remember to dial 011 codes before calling internationally.
• lock your cell phone and do not program 911 into your phone.
• teach your children how to recognize an emergency and how use 911 correctly.