Audit: Salt Lake County 911 system inefficient

SALT LAKE CITY -- A state audit says Salt Lake County's 911 system is inherently inefficient and leads to delays in law enforcement response times.

Emergency calls from suburban and unincorporated areas go the Salt Lake Valley Emergency Communications Center, known as VECC. But when a call requires involvement from the sheriff's office it has to be transferred and a worker there interviews the caller a second time to determine the emergency.

The audit says it typically takes two minutes to complete the interview process once a call has been transferred to the sheriff's office.

In 2008, VECC received more than 43,000 calls for the sheriff's office. That is about 14 percent of all 911 calls received by the center.