Upon hearing that her friend planned to commit suicide, Pamela Butler dialed 911. And waited.
It was midday Tuesday, and Butler and her husband were rushing to the O'Reilly Auto Parts store at 8601 Colonel Glenn Road in Little Rock. It was from there that their friend had called, despondent.
But no one answered Butler's 911 call at 12:38 p.m., nor the second call she placed two minutes later.
She called back two more times and still had not spoken to a 911 dispatcher by the time she reached the auto-parts store, where she found her friend unconscious, she said.
Officials with Little Rock's Communication Department, which handles 911 calls, said a midday surge of calls Tuesday tied up employees and prevented Butler's call from being answered immediately. Although four call takers were working, the center received 108 calls between 12:35 and 12:55 p.m. Tuesday, officials said.
In a department authorized for 66 positions, there are 20 vacancies for 911 call takers, said Laura Martin, who oversees the department. Last summer, the department reported 18 job vacancies.
Typically, Martin said, the department has two or three call takers on duty. Optimally, she said, the department would have eight to 10 call takers on duty.
"Our goal is to answer our calls as rapidly as possible," Martin said.
But even with a full staff of call takers, Martin said, it would have been impossible to handle all of the calls received during Tuesday's midday surge.
For Butler, a 911 call could be a life or death situation, and not having the call answered immediately is far from reassuring.
"It's really upsetting to think how many lives could have been lost because 911 didn't answer," she said.
When she arrived at the auto-parts store, Butler said, she found her friend unconscious and not breathing.
"There was an extension cord wrapped around his neck," she said.
Her husband rushed into the store to get help while she performed CPR and eventually revived her friend, she said.
Butler said several other people were calling 911 about her friend, and one eventually got through to a call taker. That person had called 911 three times before the call was answered at 12:51 p.m. Police officers were dispatched at 1:01 p.m. and arrived five minutes later.
Emergency medical personnel took the man to a hospital, according to a police report.
Butler said that if she hadn't had some first-aid training and hadn't rushed to her friend's aid, her friend likely would be dead.
Martin said 911 calls have increased dramatically over the past five years because of the ubiquity of cellphones. About 89 percent of the 911 center's calls are from wireless phones nowadays, and one incident might produce nearly a dozen calls to 911, she said.
Also, because cellphone calls have to go through cell towers, the calls can take longer to reach the 911 center and delay the time employees answer them.
Martin urged people who call 911 to stay on the line until someone answers, instead of hanging up and calling back. Employees answer calls in the order they are received, so if a person hangs up and immediately calls back, the call is moved to the back of the line, she said.
She said it's difficult to predict the number of calls the center will receive at any given time, although weather can increase them. Generally rain produces an uptick in calls because more traffic accidents occur when it's raining, leading to more 911 calls, she said.
Butler said that while she understands the city's staffing situation, something needs to be done to fill the vacancies at the call center.
B.J. Wyrick, the city director for Ward 7 where Butler's friend was in peril, said some of her constituents have contacted her about the long 911-call waits. But, she said, those cases were not life-threatening situations.
"I have had some people make some of those comments to me," she said.
The city has struggled to recruit and retain 911 call takers, she said.
Martin said the department has focused on recruiting, and she personally has attended 13 job fairs since July. She said the department now has six trainees, and a new class coming in next month.
"We have worked extremely aggressively in our recruiting," Martin said.
"It's a challenge to be competitive," she said.
The department faces competition for qualified employees from other call centers in the Little Rock area, including from telephone companies that can offer better work hours and a less stressful working environment, she said.
Martin said her department will continue to respond to 911 calls "as quickly as humanly possible with the resources we have."
Metro on 01/26/2017