AUSTIN — Austin City Council members agreed Tuesday to hire a civilian professional to lead improvements to the city’s 911 call-taking system, but stopped short of endorsing a separate emergency communications department. The discussion followed the release of a 111-page feasibility study by Mission Critical Partners, a public-safety consulting firm. The firm recommended keeping 911 call-taking within the Austin Police Department while modernizing operations and placing a civilian leader in charge of the function. The recommendation differs from the creation of a fully independent joint emergency communications center, a proposal that has been under consideration as city officials examine how Austin handles emergency and mental-health calls. The city’s recently approved budget includes $1.4 million for developing the proposed center. Mission Critical Partners said moving call-takers out of the police department alone would not necessarily improve performance. The firm also identified concerns involving response times, accountability, technology, data visibility, customer access and the city’s evolving approach to emergency response. The study outlined three possible paths: targeted modernization while retaining the current organizational placement; maintaining the existing structure without changes; or creating an independent public safety answering point and department. It recommended the first option as the least risky, while acknowledging that the current structure does not resolve every operational gap. Consultants Bonnie Maney and David Jones presented a 17-page executive summary during Tuesday’s council work session. Maney said the firm reviewed the city’s operations and spent time observing the existing 911 floor. She also praised Austin’s mental-health resources, including a dedicated mental-health call center within the public safety answering point. Maney said relatively few communities have a similar resource. Several residents urged the city to continue pursuing a joint center, particularly because of concerns about how calls involving mental-health crises are handled. Others opposed the proposal. Council Member Mike Siegel, who represents District 7, cited a reported 269% increase in mental-health calls to Austin 911 from 2014 to 2024. He asked whether the consultants had examined why the number rose and how often eligible calls were diverted to alternative mental-health services. Maney said the firm had not analyzed the increase specifically in Austin. In other cities, she said, higher call volumes often reflect greater public awareness and more opportunities to request a mental-health response through 911. She also said the firm had spoken with staff at Integral Care, the county’s behavioral-health provider. Those staff members said they did not believe they were receiving every call that could appropriately be routed to mental-health services, according to Maney. Siegel questioned whether the city is meeting a benchmark in the study calling for 90% of 911 calls to be answered and transferred within 30 seconds. Maney could not provide the percentage of calls currently meeting that standard, and Siegel said the figure was not included in the report. He also noted that fire and emergency medical personnel do not have access to the time a caller initially contacts 911; they receive the time the call is transferred to their departments. That gap could make it harder to assess the full response timeline, he said. “Quality control units, technological modernization, reducing unnecessary transfers, and duplicate questioning” are among the improvements identified in the study, Siegel said. He argued the city should proceed with hiring a civilian 911 expert rather than rely on additional consulting work. “We should use the dollars to hire budgeted staff and keep exploring these questions,” Siegel said, adding that the move would not necessarily require shifting employees out of the police department or establishing an independent department. District 6 Council Member Krista Laine asked whether the city currently has enough information to establish a baseline for call-taking performance and measure improvements. Maney said some data points are missing. Laine also questioned the proposed timeline, the potential effect on fire and emergency services, and whether police staffing could keep pace with call demand under the recommended approach. District 5 Council Member Alter raised concerns about the study’s cost comparisons. The independent-department option listed $11.2 million in call-taker wages and benefits, while the recommended option did not include comparable personnel costs, she said. The study recommended creating a four-position quality assurance and quality improvement team to measure call-taking performance, support employee development and connect findings to training, coaching and policy. Council members questioned how much missing data contributed to that recommendation. Assistant City Manager Ramón Batista will serve as the interim implementation lead while the city works toward hiring a permanent civilian leader. No final decision was made to establish a standalone 911 department.