Ridgefield News
July 22, 1998

Sparks Fly as Debate Over
Centralized Dispatching Flares

Dial "911" For Delays!

July 22 -- Ridgefield -- Things got pretty intense in the large conference room at Town Hall today as the Ridgefield Board of Selectman heard from the Central Dispatch Committee, and on the 14th the Central Dispatch Committee heard from the fire fighters. Then events became even more interesting at the Board of Selectmen's meeting when Police Chief Rotunda declared that if the system is not "first class" neither he nor the Police Commission will support any changes.

The Selectmen's meeting started with a detailed presentation by the eloquent A. J. DiMattia who explained that the committee had been looking at the problem from a global perspective -- no specific attention had been focused on the needs of one uniformed service or another, nor on staffing problems nor union concerns. The main issue was to better understand dispatching and the opportunities any changes may present.

The coolice Station. This will require adding two more full time dispatchers, costing about $90,000 annually. Some dispatching will still be performed by police staff. In addition, one new console will be required, costing about $15,000 plus some construction work at the Police Station. When all is done, this will allow the town to handle the current level of calls, but not any substantial increase.

[Photo] A group of fire fighters meet with Selectmen Mike Jones after the Centralized Dispatch Committee meeting on July 14th. [Left to Right] Jerry Myers, Selectman Jones, Micky Grasso, and Bruce Taylor.

Full Upgrade. In this plan, all centralized dispatching is centralized and all dispatchers will be civilian. This will require new computers, new software and construction work, estimated to cost about $240,000. In addition, the staff of dispatchers will be nine people -- there are currently two paid dispatchers at the Police Station -- and the total salary will run about $400,000 annually. This upgrade will allow the dispatch center to handle the projected increase in calls.

Outsource. There is the option to out-source the dispatching process, either partially (just Fire and ambulance) or completely. This would reduce the staff on the town's payroll, but there would be charges of approximately $45,000 annually from the vendor, rising as call volumes increase.

Regionalize Dispatching. This puts all 911 calls into a regional dispatching center serving multiple communities. The State is encouraging this concept with grants. Several communities have implemented regionalized systems, but the quality of the results vary, and there is no certainty it will actually reduce costs.

Several members of the public and of the uniformed services spoke to the issue. Peter McDivitt from the Fire Dept. made it clear when he explained his perception that our current dispatching processes are broken. "The wake up call will take on the form of a human tragedy," he said.

There was no official word from the police union on their lack of attendance at the either meeting.

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This site hosted by Web-Connect of Ridgefield mmittee found dispatching to be a more complicated and professional issue than they had expected. "Dispatching requires critical verbal and analytical tools, and the ability to use those skills accurately under intense pressure," Mr. DiMattia said. "It's more like an air traffic control job."

Ridgefield gets about 6,000 calls to the 911 emergency number annually, the committee learned, with about two-thirds of those being police calls, with the rest being ambulance and fire calls. The problems they identified included:

• The hand-off of the call from the police to the fire dept. is often incomplete;
  
• That hand-off is manual, not automatic;
  
• That hand-off is done in the blind, without knowing if there is a fire fighter there to answer the phone;
  
• There are no pre-arrival instructions given to emergency callers; and
  
• The staff at the Fire Dept. is not state-certified to act in a dispatching role.

This last issue is troubling because of the liability issues it raises. "The State has specified certain dispatching standards of training and performance," Mr. DiMattia noted. "No one at the Fire Dept. is certified today."

In the presentation of the preliminary findings, the Committee determined there are approximately six paths from which the town might choose:

No Change. This option will cost the town about $35,000 to train dispatchers to comply with state law, and force a group of fire fighters to attend classes which vary from five days to three weeks in length. In addition, the town will be receiving new computerized dispatching consoles in the next twelve months -- free from the state -- but some architectural work will be required at the Police Station to accommodate them, costing about $10,000.

Upgrade the Fire Dept. Dispatching. This option is interesting as it does the reverse of what might be expected of a "centralized" dispatch study -- it decentralizes dispatching and simply upgrades the facilities and staff at the Fire House. This would require two new people costing $90,000 annually and about $30,000 in equipment.

Some Centralization. Put all the dispatching functions at the P