911, Please Hold

America’s 911 dispatchers are straining under pressure, leaving thousands of callers waiting during emergencies.

Byard DuncanRevealMay 26, 2026

Dispatcher Donna Bocik responds to a 911 call at the Collier County Emergency Services Center, Friday, July 11, 2025, in Naples, Fla. Image: (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

The 911 system functions as a sort of promise: Call for help, and someone will be there to respond quickly. But in many American cities, it’s a broken promise.

Thanks in part to a widespread understaffing crisis across 911 dispatch centers, hundreds of thousands of callers are left waiting on hold during their most harrowing moments every year.

Reporter Byard Duncan has spent more than a year reporting on America’s flailing 911 system, and what it might take to fix it. This week on Reveal, in partnership with Type Investigations, he traces the issue from California to Wisconsin and a final stop on Capitol Hill.

Credits:

Reporter: Byard Duncan

Producer: Steven Rascón

Editor: Jenny Casas

Data Support: Melissa Lewis

Field Recording: Phoebe Petrovic

Editorial Support: Sasha Belenky

Episode executive producer: Kate Howard

Fact checker: Melvis Acosta

Legal review: Victoria Baranetsky

Production manager: Zulema Cobb

Digital producer: Artis Curiskis

Score and sound design: Jim Briggs, Fernando Arruda & Claire Mullen

Deputy executive producer: Taki Telonidis

Executive producer: Brett Myers

Host: Al Letson

Key Findings

Across the U.S., 911 dispatch centers are expected to pick up 90% of emergency calls in 15 seconds or less. Records reveal that many of America’s largest cities are falling short—including in Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, Baltimore, Minneapolis.
Oakland has one of the slowest response times in California, consistently reporting long 911 hold times. For 11 out of the past 12 years, it’s fallen short of the 15-second national standard.
Nearly one-third of Oakland 911 callers in 2024 waited more than a minute for an answer. Nationally, at least 400,000 people who called 911 in 2025 experienced call wait times of over a minute—more than 1,000 callers per day, on average.

About the reporter