Picente: County 911 Center Fielded More than 350,000 Calls in 2012

As Oneida County’s 911 Center marked its first year of fielding emergency calls made from all Oneida County communities, Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente, Jr., today called the year of successful operations a major step in protecting the public and developing strong inter-governmental partnerships.

Picente also released figures showing that the Center received 354,490 calls (including both 911 and 7 digit calls). Of those, 128,314 were placed using the 911 emergency number.

“Our commitment when we began this combined emergency 911 center was to serve the public effectively and efficiently,” Picente said. “Our first year of fully consolidated operations reveals that we have made good on that commitment. I want to not only credit Oneida County Director of Emergency Services Kevin Revere and all of his staff for their outstanding work, but also the partners in all of our communities that have worked with Oneida County to make this consolidation a success.”

Revere said that the volume of calls increased greatly in 2012 with the addition of calls from the City of Utica. “The City’s Public Safety personnel worked very closely with us and helped greatly in the transition stage so that we could continue to fulfill our commitments to the rest of the county and also provide the same high level of services that the people of Utica had experienced in calling the Utica Police Department.”

Revere noted that the center handled 51,929 responses for the city of Utica Police Department of which 6,646 were vehicle and traffic responses and 45,283 involved other Utica police responses. The Center also responded the Utica Fire Department 13,299 times.

“We in the county have worked diligently and ceaselessly to bring about the consolidation of 911 services because this step is in the best interests of the people of Oneida County, both from the perspective of increased efficiency in our use of taxpayer dollars and in addressing the public safety needs of the people of our county, including the city,” Picente said. “I have made this a priority because it was a project that was often discussed, but never accomplished. We have turned the rhetoric of consolidation into effective service to the people.”

2012 Data Summary: Oneida County 911 Center

Fire Agencies

Total Fire and EMS responses of fire departments in 2012: 32,322 (the number includes multiple agencies responding to the same call – fire/ems to an ems call for example but it is total responses of agencies)

Total responses minus ems calls for all departments in 2012: 7,822

Busiest Departments:

UFD: 13,299
RFD: 5,140
Top four busiest volunteer FD (total calls): New Hartford: 1,536
Clinton FD: 1,074
NY Mills FD: 921
Whitesboro FD: 818

Major Categories

Structure Fires: 1,158 dispatched structure fires
Vehicle Fires: 209
Automatic Fire Alarms: 2,046
Flooding, cellar pumps and water details: 122 (in 2011 we had 875 due to several large storms – April flooding then Lee and Irene)
Grass/Brush Fires: 219

EMS agencies

Total responses in 2012: 19,693 (these are the ems agencies that we dispatched)

Top three EMS agencies with largest responses:

AmCare Ambulance: 6,020
Central Oneida County: 3,502
Kunkel: 2,330

Police Responses

Total law enforcement responses in 2012:

163,581 (this would include dispatching multiple agencies to the same incident – for example Sheriff and State Police to the same call)
MRD responses for 2012: 70,043 (county sheriff, NY State Police, town and village police agencies combined)
UPD responses for 2012: 51,929
RPD responses for 2012: 28,959
NHPD responses for 2012: 12,650

(A full breakdown of all communities and responses will be published in the Department’s annual report).