Under municipal code, ambulance services in Champaign and Urbana can be fined by the fire departments for not meeting response time standards.
Yet despite frequent failures to meet standards for ambulance response times, both cities’ fire officials have said no fines or warnings have been issued to Carle Arrow Ambulance.
As of June 30, a CU-CitizenAccess.org review of ambulance call data found Carle Arrow Ambulance failed to meet the eight-minute standard in nearly one-third of ambulance calls responding to medical emergencies in Champaign. In Urbana, nearly half failed to meet the same standard.
The standard for ambulance response times in contracts and city code states ambulances must respond to 90% of calls during the calendar month within eight or 12 minutes, depending on the level of urgency.
Champaign County dispatcher METCAD tracks each call, including the city the ambulance was sent to, what company sent it, how long it took to arrive and the call type, which signals the level of urgency for emergency medical services.
The fire departments of both cities are supposed to do a monthly evaluation of ambulance response times, according to the cities’ municipal codes.
“After our most recent review, no warnings were warranted,” Champaign Fire Chief Tyler Funk said in an email in June.
Funk said in an earlier interview he would issue a warning to Arrow if ambulance response times continue to not meet standards in April. However, April’s data showed 37% of calls in Champaign requiring advanced life support took longer than the eight-minute response time standard, excluding ambulances that did not arrive or were canceled.
Newly-appointed Urbana Fire Chief Steven Doggett said in July a warning was “not needed at this time,” but the department has yet to complete a review of response times this year.
“We have not completed a review for 2026 times as of yet,” Doggett said in an email. “Arrow has upgraded to a new system that will provide a new report format. We should be getting our first report from the new system very soon and intend on reviewing this moving forward on a regular basis.”
The monthly failure rate is similar to the rates in 2025, as previously reported by CU-CitizenAccess.org in May.
Carle Communications Partner Laura Nootbaar said in an email that Carle implemented a new reporting system called LOGIS IDS in April 2026 and “data is reported to appropriate stakeholders each month.”
“This [system] advances our response abilities by factoring in real-time traffic patterns, construction, road closures and other municipal factors to coordinate the timeliest EMS response,” Nootbaar said. “Carle Health will continue to use collected data to regularly share out updates and continue improving performance alongside our partners in the Champaign and Urbana Fire Departments.”
Both cities are served by Carle Arrow Ambulance under franchise agreements.
Advanced Medical Transport served Champaign through Nov. 15, 2025, the day the city approved a sole franchise agreement with Arrow. Only Arrow served Urbana last year, as the company became the city’s sole provider in July 2024.
Although city ordinances allow fire departments to assess fines against ambulance companies, both departments’ fire chiefs said they had not done so — but have observed noncompliance. Indeed, no records of fines or warnings in the past five years were returned in response to Freedom of Information Act requests to both cities.
Records of Arrow‘s ambulance response time performance from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2026 showed:
- In Champaign, excluding calls where Arrow ambulances did not arrive, 2,807 calls required advanced life support. 965 did not meet the eight-minute standard, about a 34% failure rate.
- In Urbana, excluding calls where Arrow ambulances did not arrive, 1,905 calls required advanced life support. 915 did not meet the eight-minute standard, about a 48% failure rate.
Nootbaar said calls made outside of calling 911 are not reflected in METCAD’s data.
“In June of 2026, Arrow Ambulance dispatched 205 private calls from outside the METCAD 911 center within the Champaign-Urbana area,” Nootbaar said. “The national fire service chute time, or time out the door after dispatch, standard is 59 seconds. During this month, the Arrow Ambulance average chute time was 29 seconds.”
No history of fines, warnings in both cities
Under Champaign ordinance code, the city can fine ambulances $2,000 for violating response time standards, which is doubled with continued failure to comply every year.
The Urbana ordinance code has similar language. It also states that if an ambulance service fails to meet the response time standards, the city may issue a notice of violation and a fine of $25 for each call that exceeds the standard.
Urbana chief Doggett said in an interview he couldn’t recall any fines or warnings being issued.
“We’re more focused on compliance than we are fines,” Doggett said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that we won’t focus on that, but the number one priority is compliance because that means that people get the care that they need faster.”
Champaign chief Funk said he has not issued any written warnings or fines in his eight months as fire chief. However, he sent Arrow Ambulance a courtesy notification in late January reminding the company of the municipal standards and establishing a 120-day grace period after becoming the city’s sole provider.
Funk said in May “there is still some further growth needed” to meet the language in the municipal code and did not issue a warning in June after reviewing call data.
When extending the eight-minute standard to 10 minutes, both cities still fall short of the 90% compliance rate required. In the first half of 2026, ambulance response times in Champaign failed to meet the standard in 15% of calls and Urbana failed in 20% of calls.
After 120-day grace period, Champaign response times still fall short
The letter sent by Champaign Fire Chief Tyler Funk to Carle Arrow Ambulance establishing a 120-day agreement to meet municipal standards for ambulance services, including response times. Source: City of Champaign, released in Freedom of Information Act request.
Funk said that upon accepting Arrow as Champaign’s sole provider, there was a mutual agreement the fire department would give the company 120 days to make purchases and begin hiring. This would give Arrow time to “build response time compliance.”
“We didn’t expect them to be able to meet those times for this first five-month period of time that we were looking at the data,” Funk said.
During the 120-day agreement, he said there had been a lack of compliance due to service agreement changes. Arrow became the sole provider for Champaign on Nov. 15, 2025; however, the date range was Nov. 18, 2025 through March 18, 2026.
“So certainly there’s a lack of compliance, but I think that’s still just a growth thing,” Funk said in April. “I know they were getting close in March.”
In response to an initial request for comment, Carle Communications Partner Laura Nootbaar said Arrow Ambulance “consistently meet(s) or exceed(s) national averages,” for response times, but did not mention the 120-day period to build compliance until directly asked by CU-CitizenAccess reporters.
“The agreement between the City of Champaign and Carle Arrow Ambulance states that Arrow would have 120 days to meet response time standards and Arrow has met that requirement,” she said in an April 30 email.
Nootbaar did not directly address questions about any of the findings from METCAD’s 2025 dispatch data, which included 33% of 4,332 calls in Champaign where the response time was longer than eight minutes and 50% of 3,726 calls in Urbana.
Advanced Medical Transport responded to 2,943 calls in Champaign last year before ending service in November. AMT President Andrew Rand said in an email the company provided “very reliable” response time service to the city but did not answer specific questions about response time data.
Urbana chief Doggett said Arrow is “actively communicating with us regarding pursuing property for an Urbana location” to better serve parts of the city like southeast Urbana.
No fines or warnings issued despite response time shortfalls
Response times for the first half of 2026 showed Arrow’s compliance rate in both cities was slightly higher compared to 2025, but still fell far short of standards.
Call types in dispatch data determine the standard response time. The call type classifications Bravo, Charlie, Delta and Echo, shortened to the first letter in dispatch data, primarily identify calls requiring advanced life support. Alpha and Omega typically identify calls requiring basic life support and all other calls.
In Chapter 5.5 of Champaign’s code and Chapter 3.5 of Urbana’s code, the standard says ambulances must respond to 90% of calls categorized as class B, C, D or E during the calendar month within eight minutes. Similarly, 90% of calls categorized as class A or O during the calendar month must be responded to within 12 minutes.
The standard is based on the national standard established by the National Fire Protection Association in standard NFPA 1710, according to fire officials.
The Champaign municipal code requires a written warning be given upon the first violation of the standard. If response time violations continue after the written warning, the fire chief is responsible for imposing financial penalties.
These penalties include warnings, fines and possible suspension. Fines range between $500 and $2,000, some recurring monthly.
If an ambulance provider fails to meet the response time standards within 365 days of receiving a written warning or fails to comply with the response time standards within 365 days of receiving the previous violation notice, a fine of $2,000 will be imposed.
If the response time standards are not met a fourth time within 365 days of the previous violation, a $2,000 fine will be imposed, the franchise agreement will be reviewed and the franchise may be suspended or revoked.
| Violation | Fines |
| Failure to comply with Response Time Standards (first violation). | Written Warning |
| Failure to comply with Response Time Standards within 365 days of the Written Warning. | $2,000 |
| Failure to comply with Response Time Standards within 365 days of receiving the previous violation. | $2,000 |
| Failure to comply with Response Time Standards for the fourth time within 365 days of the previous violation. | $2,000 plus review of franchise agreement for possible suspension or revocation. |
| Failure to comply with Monthly Data Reporting. | $500 per month, until data is reported to the Fire Chief. |
| Failure to comply with reporting Training and Certification Standards. | $2,000 per month, until training and certification standards are reported to the Fire Chief. |
In Urbana, failure to meet ambulance response time standards can result in a minimum fine of $25 per violation. A fine of $165 can be imposed for lacking a required ambulance license or not complying with emergency dispatch procedures outlined in section 3.5-58 in the Urbana municipal code.
| Chapter 3.5 Ambulances | Section Title | Minimum Fine |
| 3.5-30 | Ambulance license required. | 165.00 |
| 3.5-58 | Compliance with emergency dispatch procedures. | 165.00 |
| 3.5-60 | Failure to meet response time standard. | 25.00 |