When a guest needed medical attention during a Food Bank of Northwest Indiana event on Thursday morning, calls to 911 went unanswered for nearly 30 minutes.
VP of Operations and Community Impact Tricia Sheaks called an area police department that was able to contact 911.
Boys and Girls Clubs of Northwest Indiana Executive Director Mike Jessen was among about five callers.
“No one answered after ringing incessantly,” Jessen said, including calls from at least 10:37 a.m. to 11:06 a.m. “Many people here were trying to get through with no answer.”
“When they finally answered, they said it was an influx of calls and not enough people to answer the demand,” Jessen said.
911 Department Executive Director Mark Swiderski said it was a “perfect storm” of complications.
The computer-aided dispatch system had just been taken down for maintenance. “We’re basically down to pen and paper” when it’s down, he said.
The call volume really jumped for some reason between 10:15 a.m. and 11 a.m., with 160 incoming calls, 60 of them nonemergencies, he said.
The Food Bank event occurred around 10:30 a.m., give or take five minutes, Swiderski figures.
“We had about 80 calls coming in between 10:30 and 10:45,” he said. “It basically equated to a new call coming in every 11 seconds.”
The department also has started using an AI system to help with nonemergency calls – emergencies get routed to a human trained to take those calls – and that system was down along with the CAD system.
When callers got frustrated because no one answered, they hung up and dialed again. “It unfortunately puts them to the back of the line again,” Swiderski said.
Staffing is based on historical call volume, so at that time of day there’s usually 22 to 25 employees on duty, 13 of them dispatchers and the rest available to take calls, Swiderski said.
The department is attempting to implement a 311 system using AI to handle nonemergency calls. “Some people just don’t know the nonemergency line to our center,” he said, and dial 911 instead. “We want to make sure this system works first” before instructing people to dial 311 for nonemergencies.
Swiderski said he understands some people get frustrated with AI systems when they call. He stressed that it’s not used for emergency lines, and if the AI detects the caller has an emergency, the call is routed to a human right away.
Lake County Board of Commissioners President Mike Repay said Friday he’s looking into the situation. “I honestly was beside myself when I heard this story.”
Repay promised a full investigation, beginning with the 911 executive board and then the full commission and a public report when the investigation is completed.
More Top Picks Best Toro Mowers
“I was contacted obviously early on with the complaint, but I don’t have at this point an end to the story, so to speak,” Repay said.
“I haven’t gotten the answers that I’m satisfied with,” he said.
“My hope was that we were going to find something technological,” he said, but that wasn’t the case. The county recently began using a new automated system to help with calls.
“I think I can tell you safely it was a personnel failure,” Repay said.
Repay spoke with 911 Department Executive Director Mark Swiderski, he said. “I’m not satisfied. I’m not happy with the encounter,” Repay said.
Swiderski did not respond Friday to a call for comment.
“We’re going to work toward getting to the bottom of this” to see what disciplinary actions and policy changes might be necessary, Repay said.
“I’m imagining in my head all the different ways that this could have gone the right way,” Repay said.
Commissioner Kyle Allen promised Friday to follow up.
“No issue has been expressed to me. I’ll just say that,” he said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.