a recent car crash in downtown Jersey City is shedding light on what neighbors claim is a long-standing problem 9-1-1 calls being met with extensive wait times some just going unanswered it's reigniting demands for an investigation and investment to be made into the city's aging dispatch system senior political correspondent David Cruz reports Jesus this is the video shot by a resident across the street from the Taqueria restaurant on the busy but usually pretty quiet intersection of grand and Grove streets downtown one's not picking up you can hear the couple's exasperation as they try to get through to a 9-1-1 operator councilman James Solomon represents downtown a number of people call 9-1-1 and some calls did get through so there was a call that got through and got dispatched to jcpd but numerous calls did not get through and so I spoke to both the general manager at Taqueria and a number of residents who live nearby who said hey I called I didn't get a call back for 10 20 minutes and obviously you know that have faith they've lost faith in a city where a third of the municipal budget goes to Public Safety residents say an unresponsive 911 service is simply unacceptable I think this has been a recurring problem over the years in 2016 there was an accident downtown where people called again no no answer this is every few years this pops up and we have reviews and then nothing happens Dana Patton lives not too far from the scene of the Taqueria incident she says she has personal experience with 9-1-1 delays if someone in your family is having a heart attack or an emergency you should be able to call 9-1-1 and you should be able to get medical help and if you're calling and no one's answering that's a failure on the most basic level as Pam Johnson whose work with the anti-violence Coalition of Hudson County brings her into regular contact with Crime Victims in some cases no one answers you know and that's a huge problem and and I think now that since a lot of other people are complaining in a different neighborhood that folks pay attention to you know is getting attention and that's unfortunate but we'll take it at the time of that Taqueria 20 minutes even the initial four or five minutes we received 200 different calls about several major incidents happening in the city at the same time public safety director Jim Shea says the department which handles about 43 000 calls a month is looking into the incident at the restaurant but he says he's not aware of a chronic problem with the city's 9-1-1 system he admits to Stubborn staff shortages covid related mostly and the system bogged down by more regulation than innovation I mean it sounds like you need a whole new system uh I think I'm going to agree with you Dave that there's absolutely no question that government technology usually lags you know civilian technology civilians tend to adapt you know things are quicker than we do because we have purchasing laws and bidding laws and have to go through all kinds of background we have a 9-1-1 system that was designed and works now it's not that it's not responding to our modern environment it's that it's capable of being overwhelmed I'm not I'm not sure what the issue is but those you know the powers that be they know what the issues are and they have to dive really deep to you know create a system that's working for each resident in each neighborhood of Jersey City everyone agrees a 20-minute wait for any emergency call is unacceptable but when what residents say they experience doesn't match what officials say residents experience the disconnect can mean the difference between life and death I'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight news