Durham 911 center stops routing calls to Raleigh after months-long staffing shortages

Durham’s 911 center will no longer send unanswered calls to Raleigh, after recent staffing shortages saw nearly 1 in 10 calls routed to the neighboring city.

The Durham Emergency Communications Center has 26 vacancies out of 60 positions, according to Beverly Thompson, a spokeswoman for the city.

That’s the same number of open positions the city said existed last month, but Thompson said the transition of three trainees into full-time call-takers last week let the center end its reliance on Raleigh.

The city stopped routing calls through the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center on Tuesday, she said.

The announcement comes after The News & Observer and other media outlets reported that staffing shortages at the center were causing delays and mistakes in responding to emergency calls.

The Durham Fire Department created a form in January to track dispatching errors, according to Bill Towner, a spokesman for the Professional Fire Fighters of Durham Local 668 and former captain in the department.

Towner previously told The N&O that firefighters had seen the number of errors rise as the city routed calls through Raleigh.

A total of 46 errors or concerns were reported through the form between January and May, according to documents obtained by The N&O.

Alternate-routing of calls through Raleigh began in December. Since then, about 9% of all 911 calls made in Durham have been answered in Raleigh, the city has said.

Calls would ring for 30 seconds before automatically transferring to Raleigh’s center.

The city has hired seven new full-time employees since December, Thompson said.

Four part-time staffers have been hired since January, Thompson said. The department employs a total of nine part-time employees.

The N&O previously reported that Raleigh would stop taking Durham’s calls at the end of June.