LPD chief concerned about welfare of 9-1-1 dispatch centers

By Andrea McCann, staff writer

Linton Police Chief Keith McDonald testified at the Statehouse recently against legislation that would cause Greene County to lose its 9-1-1 dispatch center in Linton - legislation he says would threaten public safety.

House Bill 1343, which was defeated late last month in the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee with a 4-3 vote, would've limited 9-1-1 centers to one per county. Those would be located in the sheriffs' departments. The bill would have eliminated 71 “public safety answering points,” or dispatch centers, throughout the state, including the one at the Linton Police Department (LPD).

Currently, there are 163 public safety answering points in Indiana.

Although the bill was initially defeated, McDonald is still concerned. He said the legislators can try again to get it passed, adding it to another piece of legislation. He said Greene County residents pay for 9-1-1 service on their phone bills and should be aware of how the proposed legislation would affect them if it slips through.

“People in Greene County need to be aware it's a county issue, not a Linton issue,” he said. “If we have one dispatch center and it goes down, it will affect every person in Greene County. They should call their legislators. Even though it's defeated now, it could be tacked onto another bill and passed later.”

McDonald said his concern is not with who's answering 9-1-1 calls, but with the lack of a carefully thought out backup plan. It was suggested by the bill's proponents that if the county's dispatch centers were reduced to one, another - such as LPD - could act as a backup. Or, another county could handle communication in the event that Greene County's is knocked out during a disaster, such as a tornado or lightning strike.

But McDonald doesn't believe using LPD as a backup is feasible for various reasons. With training and certification required, he said, it would be impossible fiscally to prepare dispatchers and just have them standing by. Also, 9-1-1 dispatchers are required to have specialized training, so if LPD doesn't have certified dispatchers on staff using their training daily, McDonald wondered, how can they stay fluent on it and provide adequate backup service?

“It would be impossible for us to act as a backup after a year or more without an active 9-1-1 dispatch center, and then during the course of a disaster come online and have dispatch personnel to take it over,” he said.

New training has been mandated for 9-1-1 dispatchers this year, but the proposed legislation eliminating 9-1-1 dispatch centers would be adopted in two years if it's passed. The LPD chief doesn't think it makes sense to spend thousands of dollars on staff training, only to have those positions eliminated.

Plus, two of the LPD dispatchers are paid through 9-1-1 funds, so if that funding is moved to the Greene County Sheriff's Department (GCSD) and recent LPD budget cuts are considered, McDonald isn't sure if there would be money to justify keeping a dispatch center in Linton for other, non-emergency calls. Ultimately, he said, that decision would be up to the city council.

He also said it doesn't make sense to have a dispatch center set up and not in use.

“We have new equipment and an existing lease on equipment,” McDonald said. “We've got a system set up that's working. If it's not broke, why fix it?”

McDonald doesn't believe the other option suggested by proponents of HB 1343 has been well thought out, either.

“We can shift (communication) to another county in times of disaster or emergency,” he said.

But, he said, communication might as well be shifted to New York City, because there would be no radio traffic if the county's dispatch center was out.

“We struggle with radio communication within Greene County, so you can imagine how difficult it would be receiving it from another county,” he said. “It'd be horrible at best, especially in a disaster. They'd still have their normal communication in the other county. They'd be overloaded with our disaster communication.”

He said the county handling the disaster communication wouldn't be familiar with Greene County law enforcement agencies, complicating their assistance.

“It's absolutely ridiculous in my opinion,” he said.

“I can't speak for every county. For some counties it may make sense, but for Greene County it doesn't, and the people of Greene County should be alarmed at having one dispatch center and no backup.”

He said Lake County has 17 dispatch centers now, and he can't imagine them trying to compress those into one.

The Mooresville, Avon, and Greenwood chiefs of police also testified at the hearing, McDonald said, and had the same message about the legislation: It's a mistake. The chief said seven people were there to hear from those in support of and those opposing the legislation.

“The reason I was asked to testify, I think, is because we're kind of a unique county here,” McDonald said, explaining that the county's large geographical size was part of that.

“Basically, I was contacted by the Indiana Association of Chiefs of Police, which I belong to. I was told there was a hearing going on in reference to 9-1-1 dispatch centers and that the bill that was up for vote - that they were having the hearing on - was going to mandate that every county reduce dispatch to one 9-1-1 dispatch per county. I was contacted to see if I'd be willing to testify in the hearing at the Statehouse.”

Besides having two 9-1-1 dispatch centers - one at the LPD and one at the GCSD - the county has two connected routing systems for 9-1-1 calls that makes it unique. One goes to Kokomo, McDonald said, and one to Evansville.

“That's a concern of SBC,” McDonald said. “They've expressed a problem if we go to one (dispatch center).”

Greene County Sheriff Leon Allen said his dispatchers already answer all 9-1-1 calls except those placed on land lines within the City of Linton. But McDonald pointed out that about 25 percent of the county's population is in Linton on any given day, because it's the largest city in the county and people are there for shopping, dining and other activities.

“The Greene County Sheriff's Office is capable of handling all 9-1-1 calls placed in Greene County if it comes to that,” Allen said.

McDonald said he doesn't doubt that, and his main concern is still having a reliable backup system that's ready in the event of an emergency.

“We have that now and it works,” he said. “I'd hate to lose that.”

While the legislation would impact the county as a whole, McDonald said there is some extra concern on his part for Linton residents. He said emergency response times are pretty good in the city. If calls go through another dispatch center and have to be transferred, that could slow down response times somewhat.

“There's a heck of a lot of activity in the city of Linton,” McDonald said.

“Linton is the largest city in the county. We have some unique issues. The activity is drastically different here.”

In addition, McDonald said if a call comes in from the county, and one of his officers is closer, that officer will respond. He said he keeps activity grids to keep track of calls to different areas.

“Ten percent of our activity is in the county, of all calls we respond to, and many are 9-1-1 calls,” he said. “The activity is tremendous.”

He said his 10 cops and eight reserves have no spare time. In 2005, LPD dispatchers answered 65,524 total calls.

Although the sheriff said he doesn't see how, in Greene County, having one dispatch center would affect jobs, McDonald said he could see a shift, at the very least, if LPD loses its entire dispatch center.

“We could very likely lose the whole dispatch center if we lose those two positions paid from the 9-1-1 fund,” the chief said. “There's probably going to be a (personnel) shift if the sheriff's department takes on all of it.”

McDonald said he believes legislators are worried more about “cutting the almighty dollar” than public safety.

“In these times, you'd think (public safety) would be one of their highest priorities,” he said.