Civilian dispatch a way of life in Greater New Haven

Source: New Haven Register, Conn.迷你倉Dec. 31--EAST HAVEN -- Local callers dialing 911 for police have an experience unlike any other within Greater New Haven.In East Haven, the voice you hear on the other end of the line belongs to a police officer, something none of the town's neighbors can claim."It comes down to this," the East Haven police union president, Officer Bob Nappe, said. "In an emergency would you rather talk to a civilian or a trained cop?"The days of dialing and talking to a uniformed officer appear to be numbered.Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. has marched forward with a plan to hire six civilian dispatchers to staff the phone lines at the Police Department. Maturo has said the decision is designed to cut down on overtime costs and move officers out from behind desks and back onto the streets.Nappe has said the union's preference is to hire more officers. He has pointed out that patrol staffing levels have not increased in decades despite an increase in population.In neighboring Branford, uniformed police officers stopped fielding 911 calls in the mid-1990s, according to Capt. Geoffrey Morgan. The shift to civilian dispatchers did not affect response times or the quality of service, he said.When the Branford police station was built in 1995 at its current Laurel Street address, Morgan said officials decided to locate both fire and police dispatch services within the facility."We civilianized it and moved it to our 911 center," he said. "It certainly was the right thing to do and it's a work in progress all the time."In East Haven, all 911 calls first come to the Fire Department. Fire Chief Doug Jackson said his department has employed civilian dispatchers since 1988. The official term for the location where all emergency calls originate is called a PSAP, or public service answering point. Jackson said the department's civilian dispatchers are trained to ask callers a series of questions. Police-related calls are transferred to the Police Department.Civilian dispatchers at the Fire Department handle medical-related calls. Jackson said dispatchers are trained to direct callers for a series of questions to give first responders an idea of the nature of the medical emergency."We're pretty quiet, we're all in compliance and we do monthly reporting to the state," Jackson said. "I have to take yearly training and all my dispatchers are mandated to as well."State records show that in 2012 approximately 13,246 calls came through the Fire Department. Of that sum, 3,314 calls came from land lines. Another 7,606 calls came via cell phone. There were 2,326 calls from voice-over-internet providers.Through the end of November there have been 11,465 calls in 2013 while Branford has fielded a total of 9,038 calls at its PSAP during the same time frame.Morgan said the biggest issue for any civilian dispatch operation is proper management."Ideally every 911 center should have its own manager to oversee the operation," he said. "It should not come under the auspices of the chief, they are different animals."You don't go to the foot doctor for a toothache."State police Lt. Paul Vance said uniformed troopers oversee a network of civilian dispatchers."There's a chain of command we follow," he added.The agency has also made news for its decision to regionalize separate troop dispatch centers. The move took effect in Octobe文件倉. In the Eastern District, calls to the state police are now routed to a dispatch center at Troop C's barracks in Tolland. Statewide, the plan is to decrease the number of dispatching zones from 12 to five, with three main call centers.The center in Tolland now fields calls from 50 eastern Connecticut towns and two tribal nations."We've already had this in place in the western part of the state for over a year," Vance said. "There have been a few bumps along the way but nothing to impact response time."Maturo has said the plan in East Haven is to "sooner or later integrate the two call centers" into a single dispatch headquarters.The city of Milford has already made this move. A new combined fire and police emergency dispatch center was unveiled earlier this year, putting police and fire dispatchers in the same room answering 911 calls for the first time in 40 years.The upgrade took five years of planning and cost $3.5 million. The calls are handled by trained civilians.A trained civilian was also the dispatcher in charge in Newtown on the morning of Dec. 14, 2012. Newtown 911 dispatcher Bob Nute's calm, professional demeanor in the face of a mass school shooting made him the national winner of the 2nd annual Smart Telecommunicator Awards. The awards ceremony, held in April, also saw the Association of Public Safety Officials present a plaque honoring the entire Newtown dispatch team as Dispatch Center of the Year.On that fateful day Nute and other civilian dispatchers answered more than 150 calls per hour and coordinated police, fire and emergency medical service responses. Nute had been on the job for five years.Maturo's administration has already published advertisements soliciting applications for six civilian dispatch jobs. The decision has irked Nappe, who has pointed to a 2007 memorandum of agreement that includes union negotiating rights. The hiring of civilian dispatchers cannot take place prior to a 180-day negotiating period.The union has refused to waive the period but the jobs are not slated to be filled until after July 1, well beyond the 180 days. Language in the agreement states that the 180-day period is necessary "to negotiate the impact of any decision to employ civilian dispatchers."Daniel Ford, a staff attorney with the Connecticut Council of Police, is representing the union and said he has reached out to town officials and added they have agreed to "sit down and bargain the impact."Maturo proposed the move in November after a Register story outlined manpower shortages at the Police Department. Between August and October, officers filled 777 overtime shifts costing more than $280,000 in extra wages.Maturo has not specified how much money he expects to save by the shift to civilian dispatchers.The starting hourly wage for civilian dispatchers, according to East Haven's ad, is $23.34 to $24.56, meaning the full-time position nets a wage of roughly $50,000 before taxes.Grade A patrol officers make a base pay of a little less than $65,000.Call Evan Lips at 203-789-5727. Have questions, feedback or ideas about our news coverage? Connect directly with the editors of the New Haven Register at AskTheRegister.com.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the New Haven Register (New Haven, Conn.) Visit the New Haven Register (New Haven, Conn.) at .nhregister.com Distributed by MCT Information Services存倉