Ontario's Special Investigation Unit (SIU) is investigating the circumstances that led to the death of a 21-year-old woman who made three 911 calls on Dec. 30 due to domestic violence.
Police regulators announced an investigation late Wednesday.
The first call was around 2 a.m., but police did not respond. Then, they received a second call and, according to the SIU, a third 911 call from the police that said the woman had died.
An official is under investigation, the SIU said. Two investigators and one forensic investigator have been assigned to the case.
The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates police conduct that could lead to death, serious injury, sexual assault, or shooting at others.
It urges anyone who may have information about the Thunder Bay survey, including videos or photos, to contact the Principal Investigator at 1-800-787-8529 or fill out the form online:
It is reported that the 911 manpower in Ontario is insufficient, and the delay in police dispatch and wiring has become an old and stubborn disease. Not only domestic violence, but even crisis accidents on the road often take a long time before the police are dispatched. In September, Mike McDerment called 911 after spotting a car on fire on a Toronto freeway, but couldn't get through for a long time: more than four minutes passed, and no operator answered.
On Sept. 22, the average wait time for emergency calls at Toronto Police's 911 Communications Centre was 2 minutes and 44 seconds. According to an internal service report, the maximum wait time is 10 minutes and 14 seconds.
About two years ago, a media investigation revealed that the 911 waiting time was not an accident in Canada. In the largest city, there is a shortage of personnel due to the low professional quality of 911 operators.
Since then, a report by the Toronto Auditor General found that phone volume and staffing issues were central to the delay in phone answering and the need to hire more operators. But according to internal records obtained through a freedom of information request, more than a year after the report was released, the wait time for Toronto 911 has only become longer and more frequent.
The monthly service level report from June to September showed that the average answering time for 911 calls increased by 44 seconds over three years, from an average wait time of 24 seconds in 2021 to 1 minute and 8 seconds this year. This year (as of the end of September), the longest wait time for a caller to wait for 911 to answer was 12 minutes and 40 seconds on June 3.
Toronto police asked why 911 call times are still getting worse, whether the service plans to increase the number of 911 operators in the budget to reduce wait times, and how many positions are currently open at the communications centre.
The Toronto Police Service did not respond to these questions.
In one such report in July, the department noted that it had partnered with the Toronto Police Association on a project to review current staffing levels and shift deployments at call centers.
As a result of this partnership, a third-party consulting firm was engaged to conduct an analysis of the new minimum staffing requirements and review staffing levels, on the recommendation of the Auditor-General. "Once the vendor completes the analysis, the project team will use the results of the analysis to determine new staffing requirements," the police report said. "If a staffing gap is identified, the service will follow the appropriate channels to seek any necessary supplemental communications services. ”
According to the report, the work is expected to be completed in the spring of 2024, and once completed, the project team "will consider other initiatives to support employee retention." At the same time, internal reports show that the service almost always fails to meet the minimum standards for 911 call answering. Ontario does not have provincial oversight or legislation that sets standards for emergency call answering times.
According to the monthly service report, on April 15, the average wait time for 911 calls was 1 minute and 39 seconds, and the longest wait time faced by callers was 6 minutes and 10 seconds.