The City of Oakland's 911 Dispatch System has been in a state of crisis. Countless Oakland residents have experienced unacceptably long wait times and have been forced to wait on hold in moments of distress. This year, the Alameda County Grand Jury report called out some of these structural challenges in the City’s 911 dispatch system, which included inadequate hiring processes for vacant positions. In response, this past October I requested a detailed informational report regarding the City’s recent hiring practices for 911 dispatchers over the past two years. I also submitted a Public Records Request to the City’s Human Resources Department at the same time, in order to ensure that we were getting a comprehensive understanding of the hiring situation. The recently released staff report from HR will be heard at tomorrow’s City Council meeting on Tuesday, December 5th as Item 10, and I invite you to attend to share your thoughts.
Information shared in Staff Report and my Public Records Request reveals that for an entire year, from April 2022 to April 2023, the City’s Human Resources Department did not process any applications received for vacant 911 dispatcher positions, missing out on approximately 1000 properly-submitted applications. As a result, several frontline public safety positions (that are non-sworn, civilian staff) were vacant at a time when our emergency response system has been severely lacking. Moreover, once the year-long hiring gap was discovered by the City’s Human Resources Department (HR), staff did not contact eligible candidates who applied during that year for follow-up steps in the hiring processes. Some candidates were simply asked to re-apply. Others were never contacted and received no communications from the City except an auto-response acknowledging that their applications were submitted to an online portal.
You can view the staff report here which includes more details. Some, but not all, of these documents in response to my Public Records Request been released by the HR Department, and you can view them here.
The City has publicly committed to maintain a “continuous hiring” process for 911 dispatch positions for the last several years, and re-iterated this commitment in its official response to the 2020 Grand Jury Report. Continuous hiring means that individuals may be able to submit applications for these roles year-round, until every vacancy is filled. I have been in conversation with HR and OPD staff to understand the obstacles to enacting continuous hiring, and explore methods by which the city is starting to overcome these issues moving forward for critical public safety roles.
Another issue that the informational report reveals is that applicants may now submit electronic typing tests and written exams. Such testing formats do not include virtual proctoring, nor verification that the person taking the test is the applicant themselves. This is especially concerning in light of expansive use of ChatGPT and AI software that easily give applicants an opportunity to cheat on such exams. OPD has raised concerns about these virtual, unproctored tests in recent months, but they have nevertheless continued.
While these revelations about the City’s recent hiring practices and missed applications are deeply concerning, I see several silver linings and opportunities for change. For example, the information gathered reveals that there is vast interest in these city positions. The request for a month-by-month breakdown of applications received between January 2022 and August 2023 indicates that as many as 362 applications were received in a single month (although these numbers certainly varied each month). Moreover, HR and the City Administration acknowledge the human error that led to this unfortunate hiring reality, and the need to implement corrective measures moving forward. I would like to note that our current City Administrator Jestin Johnson was not yet hired during the duration of the year-long 911 dispatcher hiring gap. I appreciate his efforts on this issue and willingness to collaborate to move the HR department forward. This includes naming a new HR Department Director in the near future, as this position is currently vacant.
