Non-Emergency '311' line, app in the works for Amarillo
Amarillo 911 dispatchers receive thousands of calls each day.
"The majority of 911 calls we get aren't really emergency calls," said Councilman Mark Nair. "And that came from the 911 director when we had the Channel 7 forum."
Nair said he's seen this as an issue as soon as he heard it.
"We can put into place a system just for normal people who don't remember a police number or something," expressed Nair.
Nair's idea, a 311 call system. It's with the goal of taking the unnecessary load off of 911.
"It will make 911 more efficient, effective," Nair said. "It will give people a good way of getting information. It's just 311. It's easy to dial. And a lot of other cities have this kind of dichotomy."
City officials said other cities have seen a steep decrease in non-emergency calls to 911 after implementing the system, but how does it exactly work?
Amarillo's IT Director, Richard Gagnon, says a concerned resident would dial 311. The call would go to a separate call center.
Along with this, a new 311 mobile application is being worked on for residents to submit non-emergencies like potholes, streetlights, graffiti and illegal dumping.
"It's difficult sometimes to interface with the city right now and get services," said Gagnon. "You would open the App, select illegal dumping and take a picture of it and then it submits a ticket just if you would if you called in. That's helpful for us on the city side because it tells us exactly where it is at and it gives us a visual."
Gagnon said the app will also provide a form of open government with open records on it too.
City officials recently approved new technology with the goal of officially rolling a preliminary version of the 311 system in October.
