Emergency calls in Denton are being dispatched faster than when the city auditor last examined the 911 center, but the most common urgent police calls still are not consistently sent out within the city's one-minute target, according to a follow-up review headed to the City Council on Tuesday, Oct. 13.
City Auditor Madison Rorschach's office checked progress on four recommendations it made in December 2023 to the Public Safety Communications Division, which answers 911 calls and dispatches police and fire units for both Denton and Little Elm. The review found every recommendation addressed and recommends the council close the audit, according to the agenda information sheet. Fieldwork took place in May and June.
What the numbers show
Drawing on two years of call records, January 2024 to December 2025, the report puts Denton's average fire dispatch time at 42 seconds, well inside the 60-second national fire standard and 11 seconds better than the figure it is compared against. Little Elm fire calls averaged 45 seconds.
Police calls are measured against local goals, since the report notes there is no industry-wide standard: one minute for Priority 1 calls and three minutes for Priority 2. Denton police Priority 1 calls averaged 70 seconds, an improvement of 20 seconds, and were running just above the target by the end of 2025. Little Elm's averaged 60 seconds.
Denton's Priority 2 calls averaged 262 seconds, usually more than a minute off the goal; Little Elm's ran under it.
The auditor notes that dispatch speed depends partly on how many officers are free to respond, and says the Priority 1 trend suggests the one-minute goal may be achievable.
