[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 137 (Monday, October 6, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10442-S10443]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                       BALTIMORE'S 311 INITIATIVE

 Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I rise today to bring my 
colleagues' attention to a crime-fighting initiative implemented by the 
Baltimore City Police Department, in conjunction with the Federal 
Community Oriented Policing Services [COPS] Program created by the 1994 
Crime Bill, and with American Telephone and Telegraph. This 
initiative--the 1-year anniversary of which was the first of this 
month--has contributed greatly to community policing efforts in 
Baltimore, and I believe holds great promise for the Nation at large.
  Like other major cities in America, Baltimore--our 12th largest 
city--has experienced over the past several decades a rapid rise in 
crime. One of the effects of this rise has been the increasing burden 
placed on the 911 emergency telephone system--a system which citizens 
regularly used to phone in not only emergency calls, but also criminal 
complaints of a nonemergency nature. In 1995 alone, the Baltimore 
Police Department fielded 1.7 million 911 calls. Such a volume made it 
increasingly difficult for the city's police to address in an 
expeditious manner those complaints that were truly of an emergency 
nature, and required the redeployment to the phone banks of officers 
who should have been on the city streets.
  In October 1996, the Baltimore City Police Department, aided by a 
$350,000 award from the COPS office, established a new telephone line 
for nonemergency calls. This 311 line is staffed by limited duty 
officers specifically trained to handle both emergency and nonemergency 
calls, and citizen understanding of the differences between the 311 and 
911 lines has been heightened by an intensive public awareness 
campaign.
  Mr. President, this experiment has proven to be an unmitigated 
success. As a result of the implementation of the new 311 number, 
emergency calls to 911 have decreased by 25 percent, leaving 
Baltimore's police with more time to address in an expeditious manner 
true emergencies. In fact, statistics show that 911 operators now 
answer the phone on an average of 2 seconds, as compared to 6.5 seconds 
before the 311 line was set up, and that 80 percent fewer callers to 
911 receive a message asking them not to hang up. In short, because of 
the 311 number, Baltimore's police can now respond immediately to 
situations that demand prompt action.
  Moreover, the reduction in 911 calls has allowed Baltimore's police 
to spend more time patrolling their beats, a consequence of which has 
been a declining crime rate in the city of 15 percent in fiscal year 
1997, as opposed to an 11 percent decline in fiscal year 1996.
  These and other statistics appear in an October 2 New York Times 
article entitled ``Baltimore Cites Success with Alternative to 911,'' 
which I ask to be printed in the Record at the conclusion of my 
statement.
  Mr. President, on this 1-year anniversary of the 311 program, I want 
to applaud the successes of the COPS Program, and the efforts of the 
Baltimore City Police Department and the Office of Governor Glendening, 
both of whom have demonstrated the kind of vision and initiative that 
are essential to a successful Federal-State-local law enforcement 
partnership. Numerous other localities are in the process of developing 
their own 311-type programs, and I fully expect that on the second 
anniversary of the Baltimore initiative, several of my colleagues will 
be on the Senate floor announcing similar success stories in their own 
States.
  The article follows:

                [From the New York Times, Oct. 2, 1997]

            Baltimore Cites Success With Alternative to 911

                         (By Michael Janofsky)

       Baltimore, Oct. 1.--Until a year ago, the owner of a cat 
     stuck in a tree and the spouse of a shooting victim would be 
     likely to call the same number for help: 911.
       But under a pilot Federal program that could expand quickly 
     around the country and beyond, Baltimore is using a different 
     telephone number for non-emergencies, 311, a change that has 
     reduced the number of 911 calls to local police by nearly 25 
     percent, enabling operators to handle life-threatening 
     situations more efficiently and giving officers more time to 
     patrol the streets.
       In announcing the results of the program on its first 
     anniversary, local, state and Federal officials said the 311 
     experiment has been so successful that more than 100 other 
     jurisdictions, including Chicago and Philadelphia, are eager 
     to try it.
       ``The results here have exceeded my expectations,'' said 
     Joseph E. Brann, the director

[[Page S10443]]

     of the Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented 
     Policing. ``The importance to the rest of the country is that 
     this was a community willing to use a new strategy to solve 
     an old problem.''
       Most regions have used 911 as an emergency alternative to a 
     seven-digit number for the local police station since the 
     early 1970's. But here in Baltimore, Thomas C. Frazier, the 
     police commissioner, said the steady increase of calls to 
     911, an average of 5 percent a year in recent years, was 
     forcing many officers to spend their entire eight-hour shifts 
     responding to calls--many of which were not 
     true emergencies--at the expense of department efforts to 
     increase the time officers patrol neighborhoods.
       ``We are trying to create more discretionary time for 
     officers.'' Mr. Frazier said at a news conference, ``and this 
     enhances our ability. It has freed up an amount of time for 
     them to be proactive.''
       As part of the Clinton Administration's comprehensive 1994 
     crime act, the Justice Department last year had a small 
     grant--$349,787--available to test a program that would 
     combine new technology and a city's willingness to wean 
     residents from 911 for non-emergency needs. Baltimore jumped 
     at the chance.
       After a year, Mr. Frazier pronounced the program ``a hugh 
     success,'' with 24.8 percent fewer calls to 911 and better 
     service for those who still needed it. A department analysis 
     of calls made after 311 was implemented showed that 911 
     operators now answer within an average of two seconds, rather 
     than six seconds; that 78.5 percent fewer callers get a busy 
     signal, and that 82.2 percent asking them to not to hang up.
       In addition, a police survey of people who called 311 found 
     that 98.2 percent of them were satisfied with the response 
     even after learning that an officer would not be immediately 
     dispatched. For example, someone returning from vacation to 
     discover a burglary had taken place would probably be told by 
     a 311 operator that the police would respond, but not 
     necessarily right away.
       More significant, Mr. Frazier said, the availability of 311 
     to solve nonemergency problems led to an immediate decrease 
     in the frequency with which the police were dispatched. 
     After 311 was introduced, Mr. Frazier said, the number of 
     times the police were dispatched fell enough to give an 
     officer an additional hour a day for community policing. 
     Mr. Frazier added that the overall crime rate in Baltimore 
     has fallen 15 percent in 1997, compared with an 11 percent 
     drop in 1996.
       The success of the 311 option here probably will lead to 
     its implementation in other cities. Lieut. Gov. Kathleen 
     Kennedy Townsend, who helped lobby for the Federal grant, 
     said Maryland's other populous regions, including Montgomery 
     County and Prince George's County, near Washington, would 
     soon get 311 systems. And John F. Reintzell, a spokesman for 
     the Baltimore Police Department, said that the department had 
     received inquiries from 150 police departments in the United 
     States, Britain, Canada and South Korea.
       Mr. Brann of the Justice Department said that the Federal 
     Government did not intend to offer further financial support 
     for 311 but that several current studies the Government was 
     monitoring could help localities decide how they might amend 
     the way they handle emergency calls. Dallas is offering a 311 
     line for access to all city agencies, and Buffalo is 
     beginning a public awareness campaign to familiarize 
     residents with seven-digit police station numbers.
       ``Agencies all over the country are interested,'' Mr. Brann 
     said. ``But we're not trying to shove anything down anyone's 
     throat. It should be a local agency determination.''

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