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HomeMy WebLinkAbout18 - Emergency Response Times on PCH & Balboa PeninsulaCITY OF NEWPORT BEACH AGENDA ITEM NO. 18 TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF TH CITY COUNCIL FROM: Homer L. Bludau, City Manager DATE: September 26, 2000 SUBJECT: REPORT FROM POLICE AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS REGARDING EMERGENCY RESPONSE TIMES ON PCH & BALBOA PENINSULA ISSUE Council Member Adams requested a written report from the Police and Fire Departments regarding emergency response times during peak day and weekend periods along PCH and the Balboa Peninsula. While the hard data leaves something to be desired, the following data and experiences are reported by the departments. 1. There seems to be a concern on the part of some community residents regarding emergency response times, specifically emergency response times involving Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) and the Peninsula. Do you have hard data to compare response times in these areas with other parts of the City? POLICE All calls for service to the Police RESPONSE Level' based on their urgency. geographic areas (defined as listed by their Priority Level. Priority Levels Defined: Department are categorized by "Priority The below response times for the general Reporting Districts 13, 26, and 41) are Priority 1: The call for service involves a major crime or incident that is in progress and demands immediate police response to protect life or property. Priority 2: The call for service involves a major crime or incident that has just occurred and requires an urgent police response. Priority 3: The call for service involves a less serious crime or incident that has just occurred and requires a police response. City Hall • 3300 Newport Boulevard • Post Office Box 1768 • Newport Beach, California 92659 -1768 Priority 4: The call for service is to report a crime or incident that has already occurred. Priority 5: The call for service involves an incident that requires police services (Parking Control, Animal Control, etc.) NOTE: The below listed average response times are calculated from the time the call is entered into our Computer Aided Dispatch system until the first officer arrives on the scene. Reporting District 13 (Peninsula): • Priority 1: 2:55 • Priority 2: 6:49 • Priority 3: 10:56 • Priority 4: 14:57 • Priority 5: 13:05 Reporting District 26 (West side of Newport Bay including PCH)• • Priority 1: 2:30 • Priority 2: 9:32 • Priority 3: 8:50 • Priority 4: 19:18 • Priority 5: 16:20 Reporting District 41 (East side of Newport Bay including PCH): • Priority 1: 3:04 • Priority 2: 8:18 • Priority 3: 8:29 • Priority 4: 17:16 • Priority 5: 37:07 *Based on current limitations of our relatively new Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system data, only total response times including peak traffic times (per Traffic Engineer 7:00 a.m. -9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.), have been included in this report. We do not believe that even if the data were available, there would be any significant increase in response times during peak hours in other parts of the City for calls for service. As with any new system, by going through this exercise, we have discovered some flaws in the assumptions made by the vendor's programming staff when developing the product. We are in the process of modifying the reporting capability and should be in a position to isolate the peak time data in the future; however, not in time for this report. FIRE The Fire Department has reviewed our history of response times for the RESPONSE Balboa Peninsula. Our ability to quantify our findings is hampered by our current records management system. We were able to come to some conclusions by reviewing some average, response times on the Peninsula. There is a slightly longer response time average (15 to 20 seconds) on Balboa Peninsula during peak hours (weekdays 7:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.). We believe the same is true in many parts of the City during peak traffic times, as would be expected. The Peninsula is probably slightly more impacted since there is little room for traffic to pull out of the way of emergency vehicles. 2. What are the problems or issues with current emergency responses in these geographic areas? Any particular problems during peak hourlweekend times? POLICE Reportino District 13 (Peninsula): RESPONSE Currently, there are no problems or issues with police emergency responses in the geographic areas. We believe we are adequately staffed and most importantly, already deployed in those areas, to provide the police response necessary to handle emergency calls for service. The only potential problem that may occur during peak traffic hours or on weekends, when there is generally more traffic in this area, is the possibility of a very slight increase in our response time. Overall, since we are already heavily deployed in the project area, especially during peak response times on weekends when traffic conditions are heaviest, we don't believe our response to emergencies are significantly degraded. Reporting District 26 (West side of Newport Bay): Currently, there are no problems or issues with police emergency responses in this geographic area (other than similar comments about traffic as listed under Reporting District 13). This Reporting District is on the west side of Newport Bay. Reporting District 41 (East side of Newport Bav): Currently, there are no problems or issues with police emergency responses in this geographic area. We believe we are adequately staffed to provide the police response necessary to handle emergency calls for service. Currently, there is an increase in traffic and some backup at the intersections of Jamboree and East Coast Highway and Bayside and West Coast Highway during peak traffic times on weekdays only. In speaking with the Traffic Engineer, he believes these backups are an engineering problem associated with "CALTRANS" lane configuration and signal phasing. Overall, we believe there is sufficient lane width and our field deployment in this area is adequate enough to insure our response times are not significantly degraded by the projected traffic impacts associated with the project. Even in the event there is a significant event causing congestion (other than project related traffic), we can still reach the scene in a timely manner by assigning one of our Motor Officers to the call. FIRE Other than the slight delays during peak hours, there have been no RESPONSE reported problems with Fire Department response times on the Peninsula or in the area of Bayside and East Coast Highway. We do not anticipate much of an impact with the current plans for development in these areas. 3. What, if any, aids does the department use to mitigate or lessen current impacts, including deployment schedules, deployment areas, traffic mitigations, etc? POLICE The Police Department employs the use of emergency equipment (lights RESPONSE and siren) when necessary to respond quickly to emergency calls for service, regardless of traffic conditions. We also deploy officers in the field in specific geographical areas and overlapping beats to ensure quick responses to emergency calls for service. In addition, we have the ability to assign Motor Officers to a call in the event traffic congestion may inhibit our response time in a vehicle. Our future technology plans also include the implementation of an Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) system to assist Police Dispatchers, supervisors and field units, which will give them the ability to respond the closest available unit to any emergency. We believe this system will be installed within three years. In addition, we intend to explore the potential for using "opticom" devices on our emergency vehicles (currently in use by the Fire Department) to activate signal phasing for the responding unit to further enhance our response capability. FIRE The Fire Department is aware of the impact peak hours have on our RESPONSE ability to respond. We typically strive to maintain our geographic deployment during these times so units don't have to travel far to reach most areas of the City. The use of red lights and sirens allow us to maneuver around traffic where lane widths allow. The City has installed traffic signal preemption systems at most intersections that allow us to stop opposing traffic and speed response. Future technologies such as Automatic Vehicle Location systems and computer based routing will further allow us to improve response times.