Kern County 911 Emergency Communications Center, Still Under Fire

A follow up investigation finds that the Kern County Emergency Communication Center responsible for answering calls to the County 911 system is still falling short of federal guidelines.

The County answers about 1,400 calls per day but during the investigation it was found that 581 calls took one to two minutes to be answered far longer than the 10 seconds required under federal guidelines.

While the County is taking steps to address the staffing issue they attribute to the problem, it looks as if the County Sheriffs Department may not even recognize that a problem exists.

Consider these statements made buy RoseMary Wahl, the Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy:

"Those are federal guidelines. We're not breaking any laws or anything by not getting to them in 10 seconds though we do strive for those."

"We're doing a good job. We're not getting a lot of complaints so that tells me we're responding to the communities needs."

However the grand jury committee doesn't feel the same. It said the Communication Center has "A perceived unwillingness to improve" its problems which could "affect officer and public safety."