Add It Up: ‘Atlanta 911, thank you for holding’
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Number of 911 calls the Atlanta Police Department received between May 10 and July 31 of this year: 243,938
Number of calls 911 staffers kept on hold for an “unacceptable” amount of time during that time period: 30,813
Percentage of Atlanta 911 calls that were placed on hold in December 2008: 33
Longest period of time, in minutes, that WSB-TV found a 911 caller was reportedly placed on hold: 38
Number of minutes a West End home burned in May before firefighters were dispatched by the 911 Center: 17
Number of minutes Rachel Wittenburg waited for a 911 operator in September while her daughter suffered a seizure: 7
Average number of seconds in which emergency calls are answered, according to former call center director Miles Butler in August: 12
Number of seconds it’s considered “acceptable” for 911 caller to wait on hold: 40 seconds
Number of calls placed to Atlanta 911 in 2008 that were “abandoned” by the caller: 55,591
Atlanta’s 2008 crime ranking among 268 cities with more than 100,000 people: 14
Sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Police Department, WSB-TV