DENVER — Response times to 911 calls have been a growing concern for Denver residents.
Denver City Councilmember Amanda Sawyer (District 5) said she's heard repeated concerns from her constituents. During a recent community survey, constituents said it's taken minutes to hours to get through to a dispatcher during an emergency.
Sawyer read some responses to her survey during a committee meeting this week, which included, "Please hire more police and improve 911 responsiveness. It takes up to 10 minutes to get into 911, and maybe an officer will show up. Crime and safety need to be addressed. We need to be able to call 911 without getting a message machine.”
In that same meeting, Denver 911 asked to raise the emergency communications surcharge, which is paid through your phone bill, from $1.20 to $2.12.
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Denver7 takes viewer's concerns to Denver 911 about 30-minute hold
Denver 911 Director Andrew Dameron said the current surcharge rates are among the lowest in the state, with the last fee increase happening in 2019. The department would use the additional funds to increase staffing and bring on new technology to improve response times.
“Right now, we have our phone system. Then we have our Text-to-911 system, which is completely separate. We have our mapping for 911 callers that's completely separate, and then we have basically no text translation tools,” he told Denver7. “With this new phone system, all of that will be wrapped up together. We will have the ability to text to 911, receive texts in a multitude of languages, respond in English, and have the original caller or texter receive that message in their native language. It will have mapping embedded all of these additional tools that our residents tend to expect 911 to have.”
The City and County of Denver conducted an audit of Denver 911's response times last year. According to the audit, out of about half a million calls between May 2023 and 2024, just 71 percent of emergency calls were answered within 15 seconds.
Denver 911's goal is to answer 90 percent of calls within 15 seconds.
"In reality, yes, we need more people, but we also need better and more modern technology that's going to help us serve the residents of Denver without just having to staff, you know, 1,000 people at any given time," said Dameron.
While the proposed increase raised some alarm among council members, the department said it's needed to keep Denverites safe.
"It's 92 cents, but for a family where you have kids with iPhones and iPads with separate numbers, that could get pretty expensive," said Councilmember Kevin Flynn (District 2) during the committee meeting.
The fee increase is anticipated to provide an additional $4.4 million in 2025 and $9 million in 2026 for improving emergency response times and services.
"Unfortunately, it is a necessary step for us today in order to continue to fund Denver 911 and allow us to move into sort of this future state that we're working toward," said Dameron.
The proposal passed the committee meeting and now heads to the full Denver City Council on March 17. If approved, the fee hike would take effect on June 1.
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