CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings presented updates about the newly formed citizen accident response team.
In a presentation held before the scheduled regular City Council meeting, Jennings spoke on the future of the program. So far, the team has responded to nearly 500 calls since it was launched a month ago.
Jennings also says more civilians can be used to direct traffic during events in the Queen City. He did note that sworn officers would always respond to the street takeovers and any related incidents.
He also discussed 911 center staffing and what’s being done to ensure calls for help are answered as quickly as possible.
“We also memented the process to where if the phone is not answered within a certain period of time into 911, it goes over to fire dispatch,” he explained. “If fire dipatch doesn answer withina certina period, it goes over to Medic dispatch. … It’s not necessarily on hold, so we try to answer that in so many seconds. To make sure pople don’t hang up, we want to make sure they know their call is being answered.”
The chief says right now around 80 percent of 911 calls of being answered within 10 seconds. The department wants to increase that amount to 90 percent.
On Thursday CMPD officials are expected to release their 2024 end-of-year Public Safety Report.
