LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas — There's been recent complaints on social media about delayed response times by 911 dispatch from Little Rock residents. People have shared their stories of being on hold or never getting an answer from responders.
Harold Hughs has been living in Little Rock for 30 years. He said for the countless times he's had to call 911, they've been slow to answering the call.
He said the last time he called could have been the difference between life or death for his landlord.
"She was checking out one of the other apartments in the building. A guy came up and was attempting to assault her and she was screaming and my roommate ran down to see what he could do there and I picked up the phone to call 911," said Hughs.
He said the phone rang for 21 minutes and he never got an answer.
"We chased him off. Police never did come because they never did answer the phone," he said.
Brandi Myers said she's been living in Little Rock for 12 years and has called 911 on two different occasions. Once when she worked for a hotel and had to call them a few times before getting an answer and another time when she witnessed a fire.
"I saw smoke behind the Walmart on Shackleford and I went and checked it out and the woods were on fire behind the hotel over there. I called 911 four times and no answer. I called the police department three or four times, no answer. The fire department once," said Myers.
She said after that, on the fifth call, 911 answered.
LRPD just rolled out their new dispatch system where they can see officer locations in real time. The goal for it is to shorten response times by dispatching the nearest officer to a scene.
"They made it this big deal about this new system with the extra monitors and all this, and I looked at my roommate and I go, 'Well, that's not going to do us any good if they don't answer the phone,'" said Hughs.
People have speculated that the communications center is short-staffed with not enough people to cover the city for calls.
LRPD said they're not short-staffed.
In their virtual Neighborhood Quarterly Meeting on Thursday, they addressed the issue. A spokesperson with the department said they're working and continually addressing concerns.