St. Clair Shores City Council receives emergency services report

ST. CLAIR SHORES — The St. Clair Shores City Council listened to an annual report presented by Tony Leese, the director of the South East Regional Emergency Services Authority, at their meeting on Aug. 19.

SERESA handles the 911 dispatch center for Roseville, Fraser, Eastpointe and St. Clair Shores. The report was for 2023 and Leese said in a letter attached to the meeting’s agenda that the year saw more progress and improvement in SERESA’s service delivery.

“I am grateful for the professional and dedicated SERESA staff who carry out our vital public safety role each day, and each night, year-round,” Leese said in the letter.

According to the items attached to the agenda, SERESA experienced updates to policy, an organizational restructuring, expanded public education and much more.

Leese said during the meeting they’re proud of the leadership restructuring that removed some administrative positions and added a managerial position.

“That provides better focus and dedication on our training and our quality assurance programs,” Leese said. “Because of this, informal training as well as formal training has really ramped up in this past year, much more than we’ve ever had.”

Leese also said they are working to increase the number of reviewed calls.

“This allows us to collect data and track trends on our dispatchers and address any concerns that we have,” Leese said. “Problem areas that we may or may not have.”

According to an email from St. Clair Shores Fire Chief James Piper, SERESA has used RapidSOS for two years, which is designed to have better geolocation. It allows emergency services to get a more accurate location from a person calling from a wireless device.

Piper said as more people solely use cellphones, SERESA had to get better at locating a person using a wireless device as opposed to a landline.

“The system is built and is improving every year,” Piper said. “Technology comes out and gets better, to better pinpoints, so if someone doesn’t necessarily know where they are, you can begin to get a better information picture right there in dispatch on where the caller is calling from.”

In 2023, according to a report attached to the meeting’s agenda, SERESA received 95,556 calls to their 10-digit administrative line, 67,404 outgoing calls, 3,024 911 calls from a landline, 72,024 calls from a wireless device, 5,578 calls from a VoIP source and 190 texts to 911. The total number of calls received in 2023, including traffic stops, was 124,456. This is slightly higher than the previous year with 124,324 calls.

In 2023, the average answer time was 4.5 seconds with 98.54% of calls answered within 15 seconds. The average call time lasted 1 minute and 52 seconds.

Other things Leese mentioned is a continued accreditation in their emergency medical dispatch program, quicker hiring practices, workstation replacements and more.

Councilwoman and Mayor Pro Tem Candice Russie said she hasn’t received a complaint about SERESA in 14 months.

“It’s a vital service and it seems like whatever issues there had been, they have been resolved and you are providing that service in a very professional, confident fashion, dependable fashion, to our residents,” Rusie said.

Councilman Chris Vitale said he’s heard the opposite with some residents experiencing issues when calling dispatch.

“It largely seems to center around the idea of dispatchers playing lawyer,” Vitale said.

He explained that when a resident called about vagrants, the dispatcher informed the resident that the Supreme Court said they couldn’t do anything. Leese said SERESA’s policy is to not screen any calls.

“If incidents like that are occurring, I’d like to know about them,” Leese said.

Councilman Dave Rubello asked what residents can do to have a quicker emergency call.

Leese said the biggest thing is for residents and others to know where they are and to give a brief overview of the situation. Questions may still be asked while the call is ongoing though.

Piper said the report shows the work of the fire department so they can show it to the state.

“For the average citizen, it gives you a good metric of what your fire department is doing and what your police department is doing,” Piper said.

He said the chiefs may use this information to get more staffing or equipment if the numbers show a need for it. It helps inform residents where their fire and police tax money is going.

“That helps us have a better performing fire department,” Piper said.