Brentwood Officers Dispatched Calls at 2:36 Minutes in 2014, Antioch at 4:46 Minutes

With the City of Brentwood set to discuss moving to its own police dispatch center this evening, we reached out to the Antioch Police Department for information on dispatch times.

Under a Public Records Request, we wanted to see how quickly Antioch Police Officers were dispatched to calls versus how quickly Brentwood Police Officers were dispatched.

One common myth over the “dispatch debate” has been whether Antioch holds calls for its officers versus Brentwood Officers on Priority 1 calls.  The myth also in dispute was if Brentwood was receiving less service from dispatch than Antioch.

Antioch Police provided information on the last 3-years. The information highlights the time a call comes into dispatch until the call is dispatched to an officer to respond. This is the time the dispatcher collects, clarifies and confirms the information from the caller.

According to Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando, Brentwood has a much lower dispatch time because they have more officers available to send the call to when a call comes in. He says Antioch is continuing to build its staffing by hiring more officers. He says when they have more officers to assign calls, their times will be reduced as well.

When asked about the 2015 figures, Chief Cantando says he did not yet have the data.

During a November Brentwood City Council Meeting, the Council discussed a delay in service by the Antioch Dispatch Center.

Brentwood resident and ECCFPD Board Member Steve Smith said there was serious delays in picking up 9-1-1 calls because Antioch was the primary access point saying the initial delay is becoming intolerable.

Councilman Erick Stonebarger discussed quality control and a level of service they were not getting and wanted reports that Antioch Poliec cannot provide.

Councilman Steve Barr highlighted Brentwood residents were not getting the service they deserve and was willing to find a way to pay for it.

Vice Mayor Joel Bryant stated there are limitations with its contract with Antioch and that officers personal safety was in danger because of the inability to get information in a timely manner.

Mayor Bob Taylor noted Brentwood will move forward with its own dispatch center in a recent Q&A regardless of the price because they wanted their own dispatch center.

Tonight, Brentwood will discuss the dispatch center which will run the City $2.7 million annually with a start up cost of $3.6 million.  The current contract with Antioch is $840k and increases 6% each year.

Full report, click here.