Julie Burns has had to make a few calls to 911 recently. Each time, the Zachary resident has been frustrated to find her call being answered not by a local police dispatcher, but instead by a variety of neighboring public safety agencies.
“I can understand it going to East Baton Rouge Parish,” Burns told the City Council Aug. 27. “But when a Livingston Parish dispatcher calls you back or a West Feliciana or East Feliciana or New Roads dispatcher calls you back, they know nothing of your area. And the time to get somebody to our house can take a lot longer than what it should.”
In recent years, the Zachary Police Department has not employed its own dispatchers, relying on an agreement with East Baton Rouge Parish to field and route emergency calls. And the parish 911 system has not been working properly lately, Mayor David McDavid said at the council meeting.
Burns and a couple of her Ramey Drive neighbors said something needs to be done.
“We really need dispatch of our own,” Burns said.
Lisa Boyd, one of the neighbors, said she appreciates everything the Zachary police force does to protect residents like herself.
“They’ve been working hard to make our town better — and they have, and they’re still working,” she said. “But that 911 call is a problem.”
Another neighbor, Thomas Snowden, agreed.
“Zachary’s been a safe place for the most part. We’ve had our incidents,” he said. “But for the most part, I’ve never had a time where I needed the police and they weren’t there fast enough — until recently.”
Some council members said they too have dealt with 911 calls being picked up by out-of-town dispatchers, causing slower response times.
“When I’ve called from Zachary, the dispatcher has no idea about our streets,” said Councilwoman Ambre DeVirgilio. “I have been treated rudely in an emergency several times.”
Councilwoman Brandy Westmoreland recently called 911 to get help after being involved in a car wreck near the Winn-Dixie grocery store. She became annoyed when the dispatcher pressed her for a precise address.
“I was like, ‘I don’t understand. There is one Winn-Dixie in this town. I don’t know the address. It’s on Hwy. 19.’ And that’s how I slowly figured out that I clearly was not talking to a Zachary police officer,” Westmoreland said.
Councilman John LeBlanc said he called 911 a few months ago and managed to connect with an East Baton Rouge Parish dispatcher — but only after the phone rang numerous times.
Police Chief Darryl Lawrence was not at the council meeting to answer questions; he was with his officers at the scene of an incident, McDavid said.
McDavid, however, was able to offer some insight into the situation. He was police chief before being elected mayor in 2022 and currently serves on the parish Communications District Board of Commissioners, which oversees 911 services.
The Zachary Police Department had four of its own dispatchers before entering the agreement with East Baton Rouge Parish. McDavid said the 911 system has been experiencing problems.
“We’ve had to call the company out of California to address this situation down in Baton Rouge. … Not sure where that’s at right now or what they’re going to do with that problem,” he said.
McDavid said it’s possible to have local dispatchers again — but emphasized that the decision would be up to Lawrence.
“If he wants to take the dispatchers back, we could bring the funding back here,” he said.
He was sympathetic to the concerns expressed by the residents.
“I do see a problem,” McDavid said, “and hopefully we can get it fixed.”