Atlanta's E911 center slashes response times, aims for national standards
Atlanta's 911 calls wait time
When you call 911 in an emergency, seconds count. Atlanta’s emergency 911 center says it’s cut its average wait times for 911 calls in half. But the center is still operating below the national standard.
ATLANTA - Atlanta’s emergency call center has significantly reduced its average 911 response times, but officials say more work remains to meet national benchmarks.
The city’s E911 center reports that it has halved its average call answer time in two years—from more than 24 seconds in 2023 to just over 10 seconds this year. However, it still falls short of national standards, which call for 90% of 911 calls to be answered within 15 seconds and 95% within 20 seconds.
What they're saying:
"Last year, we closed out with a 12.54-second average answer time. This year, we’re trending even further down at 10.52 seconds," said Ryan Solis, Deputy Director of Atlanta’s E911 Center.
Solis credited the improvements to a combination of better staffing, upgraded call-routing technology, and increased public awareness of when to use 911 versus the city’s 311 non-emergency line.
"Now the system is better prepared to automate an understanding of which bucket this caller needs to go into. Is it an emergency bucket or a non-emergency bucket?" Solis explained.
Last year, Atlanta E911 upgraded their system to better locate callers.
They've had problems in the past with calls being routed to the wrong county or city 911 center.
"Last year we were able to work with the Georgia Emergency Communication Authority to implement location-based routing for the state. What that means to the layperson is that when you dial 911, the device that's in your hand is able to send its GPS coordinates to the cell phone tower. And the cell phone tower is then able to deliver the call to the appropriate 911 call center based on where you're standing. Traditional, legacy routing always had us routed based on the location of a cell tower," Solis explained.
The department has historically struggled with staffing shortages and a high volume of non-urgent calls that clog the system. Solis recalled one such incident: "One of my craziest calls that I've answered myself was a woman refusing to leave the line at the drive-thru at Dairy Queen because her chili dog was too messy. And so she needed an officer to come out and assist with a refund."
Last year, the department hired 48 employees. So far in 2025, nine more have been added, leaving only six vacancies. "We project that we will be at full staffing shortly," Solis said.
What's next:
Despite the progress, Atlanta still lags behind other metro-area call centers. Cobb County, for example, answers about 95% of its 911 calls within 15 seconds.
Solis remains optimistic that continued system upgrades and fully staffing the center will help Atlanta meet the national standards set by the National Emergency Number Association (NENA).
"Where we stand as an agency is we have answered 82.73% of our calls in 15 seconds and 84.88% in 20 seconds or less," she said. "We hope to reach [the national standard] soon with all of these changes that we've implemented."
City officials continue to urge residents to use 311 for non-emergency issues, reserving 911 for true emergencies where every second counts.
The Source: FOX 5's Eric Mock spoke with Ryan Solis, Deputy Director of Atlanta’s E911 Center, for this article.