What If You Called 911 and It Took 12 Minutes for Someone to Answer Your Call?

That is not 12 minutes for police or fire or EMS to arrive, that is 12 minutes to talk to someone at 911. Assuming you still can after 12 minutes. Toronto police 911 centre wait times nearly hit 12 minutes, but why do delays keep happening?

Delays in getting through to the Toronto Police Service’s 911 communications centre have been well documented in recent years, but despite promises of corrective action there are still periods where callers face major wait times.

This is not a new story. 911 call centers all over North America have trouble hiring and retaining people. It is high stress, made higher stress by bad management. And in many of the big cities, people stick around long enough to get trained, and then head for suburbia where the pay is better, and mandatory overtime doesn't destroy their lives.

Granted, 12 minutes was an extreme wait time, but there were other incidents.

“It’s absolutely atrocious,” newly elected [Toronto Police Association (TPA)] president Clayton Campbell told CityNews on Monday.

“Those are top-tier calls, right … and we also had 50 911 calls in pending. That’s 50 911 calls not being answered and it’s an absolute disgrace that’s happening in the city.”

Campbell said he’s been made aware of other recent instances of eight-to-nine-minute waits to get through to 911.

The building where the 911 center is housed is old and out-of-date. The backup site is worse. This does not make for a nice work environment and probably contributes to the staff turn over. But the pay doesn't help.

According to 2024 figures provided by the TPA, salaries start at $97,000 for Toronto police communications staff while Peel Regional Police and Niagara Regional Police are closer to $106,000.

“In London (Ontario), those communication operators make $13,000 more a year than our members. Why would they stay here? The call volume is out of control. They’re burnt out and they can go to a smaller service, work less and make more money,” Campbell said.

It seems that politicians all over North America have a problem understanding this little fact of life. People want to be paid a reasonable wage for the work they do. They don't want mandatory overtime to destroy any chance of a personal life. And they really don't seem to understand that they aren't the only game in town.

Do you know what you would do, if you had to wait 10 minutes to talk to someone at 911, and then wait another 8 minutes for police to arrive? Or EMS? Maybe you should make some plans now.