{"id":402716,"date":"2025-11-25T03:26:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T03:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/402716\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T03:26:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T03:26:14","slug":"austin-beutner-says-lafd-needs-dispatch-reform-to-cut-response-delays-daily-breeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/402716\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Beutner says LAFD needs dispatch reform to cut response delays \u2013 Daily Breeze"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynews.com\/2025\/10\/11\/former-lausd-superintendent-austin-beutner-launches-2026-mayoral-bid\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mayoral candidate Austin Beutner<\/a> on Monday unveiled new campaign analysis that he says shows Los Angeles\u2019 911 system is sending paramedics to too many non-medical calls \u2013 slowing response for Angelenos experiencing life-threatening emergencies.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking outside of Los Angeles Fire Department\u2019s Station 63 in Venice, Beutner said L.A.\u2019s median response times have risen to almost eight minutes, roughly a minute and a half slower than a decade ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday, there\u2019s too much work for too few people \u2013 about five times as many calls as a generation ago for a department that\u2019s about the same size,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"mng-gallery-initialized mng-gallery-slider\">\n<li data-index=\"1\" class=\"mng-ge mng-gallery-active\" id=\"mng-ge-0\" aria-hidden=\"false\" tabindex=\"0\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Austin Beutner holds a press conference addressing LA emergency response...\" class=\"size-article_inline\"  \/>\n<p>Austin Beutner holds a press conference addressing LA emergency response time in Venice Beach on Monday, November 24, 2025. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-index=\"2\" class=\"mng-ge\" id=\"mng-ge-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Austin Beutner takes questions during a press conference addressing LA...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/LDN-L-BEUTNER-CAMPAIGN-1125-DK-03.jpg\" \/>\n<p>Austin Beutner takes questions during a press conference addressing LA emergency response time in Venice Beach on Monday, November 24, 2025. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-index=\"3\" class=\"mng-ge\" id=\"mng-ge-2\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Austin Beutner takes questions during a press conference addressing LA...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/LDN-L-BEUTNER-CAMPAIGN-1125-DK-01.jpg\" \/>\n<p>Austin Beutner takes questions during a press conference addressing LA emergency response time in Venice Beach on Monday, November 24, 2025. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-index=\"4\" class=\"mng-ge\" id=\"mng-ge-3\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Austin Beutner holds a press conference addressing LA emergency response...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/LDN-L-BEUTNER-CAMPAIGN-1125-DK-02.jpg\" \/>\n<p>Austin Beutner holds a press conference addressing LA emergency response time in Venice Beach on Monday, November 24, 2025. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Show Caption<\/p>\n<p>1 of 4<\/p>\n<p>Austin Beutner holds a press conference addressing LA emergency response time in Venice Beach on Monday, November 24, 2025. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\" class=\"icon-enlarge mng-gallery-fullscreen-expand\" aria-label=\"Expand fullscreen slideshow\">Expand<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Beutner attributed the delay not just to staffing or equipment shortages but to the way 911 calls are screened and dispatched. He said firefighters and paramedics are regularly dispatched to calls that are not medical emergencies\u2013anything from leg cramps to someone asking for food or help turning off a fan\u2014tying up crews trained for heart attacks and strokes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf they\u2019re helping somebody whose fan needs to be turned off, they\u2019re not reaching your home when your loved one\u2019s having a heart attack,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Beutner proposed retraining dispatchers and creating a parallel line, similar to 2-1-1, that could route non-urgent calls to telemedicine providers, food banks or community groups, depending on the needs. That change alone, he said, could cut response times by \u201c10 to 20 percent,\u201d or roughly a minute depending on the neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to take the burden off of the fire department that\u2019s being asked to do things that they\u2019re not trained for,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s not the most effective use of the scarce resources we have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This publication asked both Mayor Karen Bass\u2019s reelection campaign and the Los Angeles Fire Department about Beutner\u2019s claims. Bass\u2019s campaign spokesperson said the inquiry was forwarded to the city for response. An LAFD spokesperson said the request had been forwarded to LAFD administration for review, but did not provide additional information before press deadline on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The Los Angeles Fire Department has faced mounting strain in recent years, amid rising 911 call volumes \u2014 driven largely by medical emergencies and persistent staffing shortages despite a growing population. Los Angeles fields roughly 3,500 firefighters for a city of nearly 4 million residents. By comparison, San Francisco has more than 1,800 firefighters serving the city and surrounding communities, despite having less than half of L.A.\u2019s population.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynews.com\/tag\/palisades-fire\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">January Palisades fire<\/a> intensified debate over whether the city has adequately invested in LAFD\u2019s capacity and planning. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynews.com\/2025\/04\/14\/ladwp-argues-it-cant-be-sued-for-lack-of-water-to-fight-palisades-fire\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Concerns over fire preparedness<\/a> later<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynews.com\/2025\/01\/10\/la-fire-chief-lashes-out-at-city-hall-over-fire-preparedness-newsom-demands-probe-of-water-issues\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> became a major point of conflict<\/a> between Mayor Bass and former Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, contributing to the public fallout that ended with Crowley\u2019s removal by Bass.<\/p>\n<p>Beutner did not release the full methodology behind the comparison but said his team gathered data from publicly available sources, including the FireStat system.<\/p>\n<p>His campaign website says the \u201cnational standard\u201d is for an ambulance to arrive in under five minutes for most medical emergencies. In practice, there is no single national emergency medical services response time, and performance varies widely by city, call type and agency.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most widely cited professional benchmarks is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iaff.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Departments\/Fire_EMS_Department\/30541_Summary_Sheet_NFPA_1710_standard.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the National Fire Protection Association\u2019s (NFPA) 1710 standard<\/a>, which guides career fire departments on how to staff and deploy emergency resources. NFPA 1710 sets a one-minute turnout time and recommends that a first responder or basic life-support unit arrive within four minutes for 90% of emergency medical incidents. For departments that provide advanced life support (ALS), the standard recommends ALS arrival within eight minutes for 90% of incidents.<\/p>\n<p>But Beutner said the root issues extend beyond dispatching. He pointed to what he called \u201cchronic underinvestment\u201d in LAFD stations, equipment and personnel.<\/p>\n<p>Monday\u2019s announcement also continued a theme Beutner has emphasized since entering the race in October; that the January Palisades fire \u2014 which ignited while Mayor Karen Bass was in Ghana \u2014 exposed deeper failures in how Los Angeles prepares for and responds to crises.<\/p>\n<p>Beutner said the city still lacks a full accounting of what happened on January 7, and again called for \u201ca truly independent commission\u201d to investigate the fire response.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy truly independent, I mean upstanding members of the community, not politicians,\u201d he said. \u201cPublic hearings. Ask questions, get the facts \u2013 from the Fire Department, from DWP, from other city officials, including the mayor and her team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Bass has called for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynews.com\/2025\/10\/31\/mayor-karen-bass-calls-for-probe-into-lafd-response-before-palisades-fire\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a full investigation into Lachman fire<\/a>, after reporting by the Los Angeles Times revealed that firefighters were instructed to leave\u00a0a smoldering canyon days before flames reignited into the devastating Palisades fire.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy are we hearing about this from the media and not from City Hall officials?\u201d Beutner said.<\/p>\n<p>Beutner said he chose the Venice fire station because firefighters there told him that a significant share of their calls involve issues that are not medical emergencies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you visit a station like this,\u201d he said, \u201cyou learn that as many as 20% of their calls are not true medical emergencies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beutner also promoted an app on his campaign website that allows residents to look up estimated emergency medical services respond times for their ZIP Codes.<\/p>\n<p>Former LAUSD Superintendent Beutner entered the mayoral race in October. He is one of several challengers to Bass, who is also facing a challenge from housing advocate Rae Huang and the possibility of a renewed bid by developer Rick Caruso.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayoral candidate Austin Beutner on Monday unveiled new campaign analysis that he says shows Los Angeles\u2019 911 system&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":402717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[7373,1582,276,90,5413,2961,224,6080,5337,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-402716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-2026-elections","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-elections","12":"tag-karen-bass","13":"tag-la","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-county","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115608210399873686","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}