The entire article as printed

from the Telegram & Gazette
by Brian Lee
Communities weigh pros & cons of regional dispatch centers


The state continues to encourage cities and towns to study formation of regional emergency dispatch centers, which are often viewed as a means to improve 911 services and save cities and towns money. But one town in the region recently nixed the idea. Regionalization at times comes at the hefty expense of individual police departments closing at the end of the business day, which has spurred the law enforcement term “going dark.” Spencer had been part of a proposed five-town Central Regional Emergency Communication Center to be housed in Oxford. Charlton, Southbridge and Sturbridge also were part of the plan. But last week, the Spencer Board of Selectmen voted to withdraw from the study. Spencer Town Administrator Adam Gaudette said not wanting to close the police station, and consideration for the tasks dispatchers perform for the chief and department, weighed heavily on the board’s decision. Dispatchers man the police station, and the Spencer board noted that Spencer’s lockup serves as a regional facility for smaller, surrounding towns. The board didn’t want Spencer to give up that responsibility, the administrator said.

The Spencer board suggested that regional dispatch would amount to no savings realized if it had to hire administrative help to pick up the tasks dispatchers perform, Mr. Gaudette said. Southbridge Police Chief Shane D. Woodson said he remains supportive of the proposal, with the caveat that the Southbridge station remain open 24 hours, seven days a week. “I agree with it,” Chief Woodson said of regionalization. “I’ve spoken with my town manager. He has assured me that we will not be closing the police department at all. The only way I’d agree and support this project is if my doors stay open. It’s a disservice to the community (to lock the department’s doors for parts of the day) and the people that we police.” Chief Woodson said that he doesn’t want to insult departments that close their buildings. Doing so can work for small communities. He said with regional dispatch programs in Essex County and on the South Shore, for instance, some departments went dark and could so because they’re largely affluent communities with lower volumes of calls to police. Closing the department would not work in Southbridge because of the town’s demographics, he said. “People (in Southbridge) need the police more than in some of these other communities because of the city issues we have here, with poverty, unemployment and drug abuse,” he said. “Every child in our schools receives free lunch. We have a lot of serious issues in our community that need to be addressed, and they rely heavily on our police. That’s why we need to be open.” In 2012, when Southbridge considered joining regional dispatch with Dudley and Webster, Chief Woodson said, Southbridge conducted an 11-day study in which it found approximately 400 people walked in to the station requesting police services, while another approximately 450 people called the business line to request police services. Southbridge can also be busy housing prisoners, he said. During the 11 days of the study, 36 eight-hour shifts were reviewed. Prisoners were housed during 22 of the shifts, he said.

CTC Inc. Public Safety Technology Center of Westboro conducted the fivetown study, and projects that recurring cost savings would be $65,855 for Southbridge, while the annual non-recurring capital cost savings would be $188,399. But Chief Woodson suggested those savings projections won’t apply to Southbridge, because, if the proposal comes to fruition, he aims to hire additional administrative staff to ensure the department never closes. On the other hand, Chief Woodson said, he understands how regional dispatch can help. Technology upgrades, in particular, will be tremendous, he said. Presently, there is poor radio reception in some areas of Southbridge, but if the proposal goes through, the state will spend millions of dollars upgrading radio communication between all of the agencies. This increases officer safety, Chief Woodson said. The other benefit is having the dispatch center as a separate entity, with dispatchers focused solely on 911 calls, and a manager who is a trained professional in handling emergency medical calls on hand at all times, Chief Woodson said. Regional dispatch centers are cropping up throughout the region and state. Holden, West Boylston and Princeton are part of the recently opened Wachusett Regional Emergency Communication Center, with emergency calls going directly to Holden’s public safety building. The Regional Emergency Communication and Emergency Operations Center in Worcester recently opened. It serves various Worcester emergency operations and Leicester for public safety 911 dispatch services. The South Worcester County Communications Center in Webster began providing 911 call-taking and dispatch services to Webster and Dudley in November 2014. Leicester and Dudley are among police departments that “went dark” after joining regional dispatch. Leicester Police Chief James Hurley said it’s more accurate to describe it as restricted service.

Residents can still go to the Leicester station and make contact with a dispatcher outside the station lobby, through a call box. But Dudley Police Chief Steven J. Wojnar called it “a definite change of business operation,” and he noted that “a lot of members of the public aren’t really too thrilled with it, if they need to come through and get some business done.” Dudley employs interns from Nichols College to help with daily administrative tasks. “We don’t have enough funding to keep them there around the clock, so there are times when we don’t have anybody stationed at our desk to help out with public walk-ins and things,” Chief Wojnar said. “It’s not an ideal system, but we understand that that comes with the territory, when you have to do something like this. It takes away from customer service, that’s a definite.” He suggested that having an experienced dispatcher in the building provided the opportunity for the dispatcher to answer questions, provide information or maybe handle something a police officer wouldn’t necessarily have to handle. “Now if somebody comes in and no one is at the desk, or the person there doesn’t have the experience, they’ll have to call an officer from the street to deal with those situations,” the chief said. Dudley has an agreement with Webster in that Webster will hold Dudley prisoners who are locked up for an extended time. But if Webster’s lockup is full, or if Webster can’t hold someone from Dudley, Dudley is responsible for the prisoner’s well-being. At times, a Dudley prisoner has to be taken directly to Webster, especially if they’re causing problems or acting violent, Chief Wojnar said. As for the positives, Chief Wojnar said, “We certainly find it’s a good product as far as the quality of dispatch, and we get the benefit of equipment upgrades.” Leicester Town Administrator Kevin Mizikar said the town will be able to reallocate cost savings to hire two additional police officers in next year’s budget. Presently, Leicester has 18 sworn full-time officers, including its chief
Mr. Mizikar said there hasn’t been a decline in service since regional dispatch opened. “We’re still operating as we did, just from a different location.” He acknowledged that the drawback of regionalization is not always being able to employ someone who sits in the station to deal with a person face to face. Leicester has hired jail monitors to give the department the ability to house prisoners if they can’t be taken to an alternate location immediately. “That’s operating efficiently,” Mr. Mizikar said. “We are looking, in next year’s budget, to hire some part-time civilian staff that would be able to pick up some of the administrative functions that our dispatchers did, that are not being provided to the regional center.” Leicester and Worcester’s agreement is different than other communities’ in that Worcester is able to take over Leicester operations and utilize the state funding it received, Mr. Mizikar said. “We don’t have to make a direct payment to the city except for capital costs,” Mr. Mizikar said. “So although we have to hire additional civilians, we’re still able to hire two full-time sworn police officers with our savings. It enables us to provide better policing services that we wouldn’t have been able to if we didn’t transition to the regional center.” Charlton interim Police Chief Daniel R. Charette, whose department is also part of the five-town study, said he believes some police chiefs would want to implement regional dispatch. But, like Chief Woodson and the others, he suggested a civilian presence will be needed at police stations to give out information, forms, and take care of basic daily administrative duties. “I don’t think stations are going to go dark,” he said. “I do think that some stations may have different business hours, say they’re open until 7, 9, at night.” Also, he said that at least one of the stations would have to be used as a regional lockup because, without full-time dispatchers, departments can’t house prisoners.

He said the increased expectations of both officers and dispatchers in the last decade or two has to be recognized, and, “we should let dispatch break off and do their thing.” Ten area towns’ emergency calls are handled by dispatchers at the State Police Academy in New Braintree. State police spokesman David Procopio said in an email that several of the local police departments maintain some presence in their station lobby for the public, at least during the day shift and when staffing allows, while others do not. Residents of those towns who wish to physically go to a police station, for whatever reason, are welcome to go to any of the state police barracks, which have front desks staffed around the clock, he said. The closest barracks for residents of the area are in Brookfield, Belchertown, Sturbridge and Holden. In an emergency, people should call 911 on their home phones or cellphones to receive immediate service, Mr. Procopio said.

posted by Jeff Bennett