Why is it so hard to find out how many officers we actually have in the districts? How many are answering calls? What are the backlogs of calls when they come on duty each and every day? I asked that last week, because how else is the public going to be in the best position to assess whether or not they're getting the biggest bang for their buck and holding people accountable? Maybe there is a legitimate shortage that the public may be willing to address in some way. Information is power. Without the information, how can you make these decisions?
My suspicion is that in an election year, elected leaders don't really want to talk about any of this. In fact, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms just announced she's not running for reelection, and many people believe that because of the crime situation in Atlanta, she will have to face stiff competition, a contested election, and cannot explain away the deficiencies in their approach to what's happening on the streets of Atlanta. The same could be said here. In fact, FOX 8 broke a big story last week when they found out through a public records request how shortages in New Orleans EMS impacts those in emergencies.
EMS received 1,202 calls for medical service in one week at the end of 2020, and they could not send an ambulance to 170 of those. And in the week of April 4th, this year, there were 1,372 service calls. 309 did not see an ambulance. Two weeks later, EMS dispatchers took 1,367 calls, but an ambulance never showed up to 318 of those calls. There were no units available to help. The EMS director, Dr. Emily Nichols says we cannot stay at this level of stress forever.
Are you surprised by this? Do you think that maybe someone in a proactive way should have been releasing this information, letting people know what the alternatives are available to them? If they call for an ambulance and the city can't provide one, why does it take a public records request to get us to have this conversation? I may be mistaken, but I don't remember much hoopla about any of these issues at a council meeting. This could potentially have disastrous outcomes.
It may be that you might be better off putting your loved one in the back seat of your car and driving them to the ER yourself. If you're waiting at home and no one's coming, wouldn't you want to know that? Nichols says they even do call backs to whomever has called 911 saying, ‘how are you doing now? We know an ambulance hasn't been able to make it to you, but how are you doing?’ to make sure that someone is not getting worse while they’re still trying to figure out how to get you an ambulance. Well, if you're four blocks away from a hospital, it may be you don't want to wait for an ambulance - but wouldn't you like to know?
Obviously someone in the administration has had to know about these challenges we're facing them on a daily basis. Fire has had similar challenges over the past couple of years. We know what the challenges are with the police. And now we're, now we're hearing the same about EMS. So I'll get back to the threshold question - have you had enough yet?
Where are we going to set the bar, and who are we going to hold accountable? You will never have more power as a citizen than you have right now during this election season, plain and simple. You will never get a reaction from an elected official more than you will right now, in advance of everyone heading to the ballot box. Do not underestimate the authority and the power that you have as the voting public. If you want to affect change, show up and press the issues and ask the tough questions.