Councilman Bryan Calvo is urging the City of Hialeah to take immediate action and launch a formal investigation into alarming allegations that more than 30,000 calls made to the city's 911 operators were missed, according to news reports.
The Miami Herald published an article Thursday that, along with corroborating data from Miami-Dade County, revealed that from 2021 to May 2023, 33,219 emergency calls went unanswered in Hialeah, according to public records obtained by el Nuevo Herald.
According to the article, data obtained from the 911 Communications Department that from Jan. 1 to May 31, revealed 4,716 calls went unanswered in Hialeah.
"I am deeply troubled by the revelations presented in the Miami Herald article," stated Calvo. "We must ensure the safety and security of all our residents, and the current state of our emergency response system is completely unacceptable. Lives are at stake, and we must act swiftly to address these failures and prevent further harm to our community."
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Calvo called for a thorough investigation to identify the root causes of the missed calls that he claimed "endangered nearly 15% of the city’s population over the last 30 months."
"I will be submitting a formal request to the city administration, urging them to initiate an immediate investigation into this crisis," added Calvo. "We must ensure that our emergency response system is fully equipped, adequately staffed, and operating at the highest efficiency standards. Our residents need to trust that we are keeping them safe."
Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo, however, issued his own statement Monday, defending the efficacy of the emergency response system.
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"I want to take this opportunity to assure the residents of the City of Hialeah that our 911 Call Center is fully functional and ready to answer any emergency calls that are received," the mayor's statement said. "As a basis for this dangerous assertion, this media outlet has cited data without any context and used biased sources to fabricate a crisis in attempt to slander this great City."
According to Bovo's statement, in 2022, Miami-Dade County failed to answer 96,662 calls out of a total of 1,125,069 calls received, a rate of 7.91%. In comparison, the City of Hialeah, failed to answer 7,849 calls out of a total of 140,161 calls received, a rate of 5.6%.
So far in the year 2023, Miami-Dade County failed to answer 68,127 calls out of a total of 632,222 calls received, a rate of 9.73%, and the City of Hialeah did not answer 5,307 calls out of a total of 73,255 calls received, a rate of 6.76%.
