Community Services passes nonemergency call ordinance

The Benton Community Services/ Animal Control Committee discussed an ordinance to reduce nonemergency calls to the Fire Department.

Chief Russ Evans explained the department has been working on the ordinance. The ordinance he is proposing would recoup some of the costs associated with those calls.

“This is established to hopefully slow down abuse of the system,” Evans said.

He has spoken with other departments who are experiencing the same problems. He said Bryant is interested in seeing what Benton does. Little Rock is in the process of getting its own ordinance in place.

Evans told Council Member Frank Baptist that Little Rock does have a lift assist vehicle, but that truck can only be operated when there is a surplus of staff, which rarely happens. On top of that, Little Rock only runs it is limited areas.

Evans said it would be very expensive for Benton to get a similar truck.

Evans shared a three-page list with committee members of addresses where the department is repeatedly called for non emergencies, such as helping older people move from their bed to a chair or go to the bathroom.

Evans told the members about one woman called her home health agency for help and the agency called the fire department to do the services the agency was supposed to provide.

The department responds to three to five nonemergency calls each day.

Baptist said this issue should be important to the taxpayers who expect fire and police service. He feels the nonemergency calls hinder service.

The ordinance defines a nonemergency call as “non life threatening in nature and do not require specialized or medically trained personnel.” Examples include calls for service where a person needs help transferring from a bed to a chair or chair to a vehicle; repetitive calls for aid in which no injury or transport to a medical facility has occurred; and repetitive or false claims of fire related incidents.

The ordinance clarifies that if someone is unsure if it is an emergency, they should call anyway and “the question will be resolved in favor of the caller.”

Evans said they are not trying to get people not to call when they actually need help. They are trying to curb the nonemergency calls. No calls will go unanswered.

The ordinance would make it so if someone in a three-month period makes five nonemergency calls they can be fined up to $150 per call after the fifth call.

The effective date for the ordinance would be six months after its passage by the full council. Council Member Robin Freeman urged using that time to educate the community about the need for it and helping people understand they do not need to make the nonemergency calls.

Evans said they do try to educate people not to abuse the system and also try to connect them with resources to help them.

The department will have to keep track of repeated nonemergency calls.

Resident Darrell Wood asked if falls would be considered nonemergency because his father has had several calls and uses his emergency pendant to make a call.

“That is a realistic case,” Evans said assuring Wood that is not what the ordinance is focused on.

Evans said a large part of his concern is what he referred to as “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” He explained that he tells his fire fighters to treat ever call as an emergency, but if they are used to responding to the same address over and over for non emergencies, they may get a call for a real emergency from an address and expect it to be another nonemergency and may not be prepared to render aid as quickly.

The ordinance was accepted and will be forwarded on to the full council.

More from the meeting will be in an upcoming edition of The Saline Courier.