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ST. LOUIS — The city’s 911 system, long a source of frustration and embarrassment, may now be turning a corner.

Public Safety Director Charles Coyle said Thursday that the city has filled about two-thirds of the vacancies in police and EMS dispatcher ranks since it hiked pay this summer. And it’s starting to show in hold times.

Last month, call-takers picked up 80% of emergency calls within 10 seconds or less, with occasional days where that figure crested 90%, the national standard for quality service.

That leaves room for improvement, Coyle said. But it’s a lot better than the 56% mark the city posted in July.

“We are improving,� Coyle told aldermen in a committee hearing Thursday. “We are getting where we need to be.�

The report was welcome news for a system that until very recently was a civic disaster. For most of the past few years, a short-staffed corps of dispatchers has struggled to answer the phones, leaving thousands of frustrated residents on minutes-long holds, sometimes with their lives on the line. But job applications have flooded in since Mayor Tishaura O. Jones and the board approved a raft of big raises, lending hope that the worst may be over.

“It’s progress,� Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, of Downtown, said Thursday. “We still got a long way to go, but it’s progress.�

It’s been a long time coming.

For years, the city police department’s 911 dispatch center, which is the initial contact for all emergency calls, prided itself on answering 90% or more of all calls within 10 seconds. But in 2018, just 80% of calls met the standard. In 2019, 70% did. And by 2020, the figure was 64%.

The decline tracked with the loss of dispatchers, who publicly complained of low pay, long hours and a lack of appreciation from city leadership.

Meanwhile, residents reported calling 911 about gunshots, overdoses, and crimes in progress, only to be greeted by an automated message stating that all operators were busy.

And initial attempts at reform weren’t enough.

In early 2021, officials under then-Mayor Lyda Krewson raised starting pay for police dispatchers to $38,000 from $31,000 and gave calls to 911 priority over calls to the police nonemergency line. Previously, all calls had gone into the same queue.

A few months later, Jones, newly elected, announced plans to merge the three separate dispatches for police, fire and EMS: The city could eliminate the extra step required when police had to transfer calls to fire and EMS services. And having everyone taking calls would reinforce beleaguered police dispatcher ranks.

But hopes for an orderly shift ran aground in negotiations with labor unions, who wanted pay increases for dispatchers and more input on the plan. There were still too many vacancies. By mid-2022, the percentage of calls getting answered within 10 seconds had dropped below 60%.

And then this summer, tragedies began to hit the news. After a July storm dropped a tree on a car in the Grove entertainment district, people reported struggling for more than an hour to summon help for a woman dying inside. A few days later, a woman sued the city alleging her husband died waiting on hold for crucial minutes as he bled out from an accidental gunshot wound.

That same month, officials announced new raises they said would turn the tide. Starting salaries for most police dispatchers jumped to $47,000 from $41,500. Starting EMS dispatcher pay rose to $47,000 from $32,000.

And the applications began rolling in. The more than 50 vacant dispatcher positions the city had in February have been cut to fewer than 20, Coyle said Thursday.

He cautioned against declaring victory right now. Some dispatchers will be retiring soon, and the city will have to keep up the hiring spree to fill their seats. Answering 911 calls is stressful work, and some of the newcomers may change their mind about the job once they get into it. And even if they don’t, it takes about a year to really get comfortable in the job.

Coyle asked aldermen to give him at least until the end of March to get the dispatcher to full capacity.

“I think we can make that,� he said. “We're off to a very good start.�