Hialeah mayor rules out inquiry into thousands of unanswered 911 calls
Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo Jr. has dismissed a demand from Councilman Bryan Calvo for a formal investigation into the city’s 911 emergency-line operation.
A spokesperson for Bovo’s office confirmed to el Nuevo Herald that unanby swered 911 calls happen in the city but emphasized that this an issue “that happens everywhere.”
“We know we have a 5% rate of abandoned calls, but we want to improve that percentage, we want to enhance our operations,” Ismare Monreal said.
Calvo urged the city to launch a formal investigation into “the alarming revelations brought to light two recent Herald articles.”
El Nuevo Herald reported that Hialeah recorded 4,716 unanswered 911 calls so far this year through May 31, or 6.69% of all calls during that time.
Bovo issued a statement on Monday comparing the rate of unanswered 911 calls for Hialeah and Miami-Dade County. The mayor said that so far in 2023, Miami-Dade County abandoned 68,127 calls out of a total of 632,222 calls received, a rate of 9.73%. Hialeah, he said, abandoned 5,307 calls out of a total of 73,255 calls received, a rate of 6.76%
There are no figures for the national average percentage of 911 calls that go unanswered. But according to the National Emergency Number Association, the gold standard is that 90% of all 911 calls should be answered within 15 seconds and 95% within 20 seconds.
In stories reported by el Nuevo Herald in recent weeks, Hialeah residents complained of waiting for several minutes for an operator to answer the phone.
Councilman Calvo argues that there is enough evidence pointing to a crisis in the 911 system:
A report commissioned by Mayor Bovo to replace Police Chief Sergio Velázquez, conducted by the Colina Group in March 2022, warned that the 911 unit “is woefully understaffed ... grossly neglected and needs immediate attention.” The report highlighted a “high stress, understaffed, chaotic environment [that] has resulted in high overtime rates, high turnover rates.”
Andrew Glassmer, a police radio dispatcher at Hialeah’s 911 Communi