- A woman was in distress, standing in Peninsula Park. The caller knew her and requested Portland Street Response to help her calm down.
- A person was lying on the sidewalk along Northeast Halsey Street, screaming. No, the caller did not see any weapons. The 911 call taker discerned this was a Portland Street Response call.
- A man was banging his head and flailing his arms. He wasn’t violent toward passersby. The 911 call taker routed this to Portland Street Response.
- A person was lying down, no coat, in deeply cold weather. The caller was concerned for their welfare. The 911 call taker routed this to Portland Street Response.
- A woman was lying on the ground in the Gateway Fred Meyer parking lot. The caller thought she was intoxicated. The call taker prepared to send out Portland Street Response. Then the woman called out that she had heart pain. The call type shifted from Portland Street Response to one requiring an ambulance, accompanied by firefighters who have medical credentials.
These were all calls that came through 911. In some cases, callers made clear they wanted Portland Street Response sent. In other cases, the 911 call taker discerned that call type.
I am often asked whether particular situations are good for calling Portland Street Response and how to reach Portland Street Response. I know that the way to access PSR is by dialing 911, and I say so.
But maybe you are like me, hesitant to call 911, concerned to tie up the lines or that police might be sent, escalating the situation.
So last Friday, March 10, I visited the 911 call center in the Lents neighborhood, shadowing two call takers for four hours, Joseph Stegemyer and Nick Laycox. A call taker for six years, Stegemyer trained Laycox, who has now been on the job for three years.
All around the room, people with headsets faced monitors. Tens of chairs were pushed together in several areas, some with more lumbar support, some with more padding, alongside a few exercise bikes low enough to push up to a desk. One call taker recommended I select a short, green, padded chair. I did and donned my own headset to listen to calls.
The 911 call takers navigated five monitors and three keyboards. The central screen immediately captures where the call is coming from, as well as other 911 reports for that area and the first responders who are nearby. Snippets of conversations ricocheted around the room, sometimes clearly about the same issue from various points of view, such as a fire spotted from a busy road. The map netted those calls together.
But a digital list at the bottom left corner of the bottom left monitor was most illuminating to me.
On the top of the list are the 911 calls, and that’s what the call takers clear first. These are the time-sensitive calls. Lower are a few other lines coming through, including the non-emergency police line. Listed also was a tally of calls that were ringing, as well as clocks that logged the response times.
The same call takers answered the non-emergency calls after all 911 calls were cleared.
And that’s what helped me understand. 911 calls are treated as time-sensitive; the others are not. If Portland Street Response calls were to come in on a different line, they would be answered by the very same people but with a longer wait.
That’s the difference.
An emergency — to draw from the root of the word — is something that’s emergent, that’s emerging. One can’t wait to respond. If someone is yelling at passersby, and you are concerned that the situation feels unstable and someone who is able to calm such a situation is needed, you can’t wait. Such situations can change quickly.
While Portland Street Response calls aren’t about criminal matters, fires, or heart attacks, they are about crises that need a quick response. They are a new way we are imagining crisis response. If we want Portland Street Response to succeed, we need quick responses; slow response times will impair the program.
Both Stegemyer and Laycox communicated clearly with each caller, making clear the responder they dispatched is the one the caller wanted. I was also glad to see how they treated Portland Street Response calls: the subject of the call was not logged into the system, keeping their identities separate from warrant checks.
Before Portland Street Response was launched, I sat in that same call center, witnessing call takers who were beleaguered by the high volume of 911 calls that were about homelessness, and for which they had no good option.
Now they have that option. Both Stegemyer and Laycox made clear they were thankful for it.
And as I watched Stegemyer and Laycox steering callers through their panic, gleaning enough information to send a responder, I was struck by how the skills they showed were important at every point of a crisis. They stayed calm and kind.
Each of us plays a role in a civic chain of responsibility. If you find yourself witness to a street crisis and are able to maintain your calm, remember that people often mirror behaviors. Then, if you make a 911 call requesting Portland Street Response, make sure you are empowered with the knowledge of what qualifies a crisis for Portland Street Response, and communicate that clearly with Stegemyer, Laycox, or whoever else answers your call.
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