Resq14
11-18-2004, 06:59 PM
I feel an expansion of the Cumberland County RCC needs to take place, and I'm going to put forth my case here. Anyone with half a brain needs to realize that the impetus for this is to IMPROVE SERVICE AND SAFETY. Pennies saved-per-year can not be the motivating factor for this discussion, DESPITE the fact that better service could be provided for less money at the county level. I do not support inventing an artifical layer of government (tri-town dispatch, etc) because the county-level already exists.
INTEROPERABILITY
This is huge, and this is my main point. When a town or city DOES decide to take the plunge into a more 'advanced' system (I'll use that term loosely here) that department then becomes an island in the county. Take Portland's system, for example. Yes, there ARE some "solutions" to be able to communicate, involving combinations of VHF/UHF patching, trunking scanners, a mobile radio in neighboring dispatch centers, simulcasting dispatch on the old VHF, etc... BUT in the field, this is essentially useless. We all work together, yet there is no system in place to allow us to communicate with eachother as we work.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Individual towns can not afford to improve radio systems to the level that public safety wireless communications necessitates, nor are they competitive in grant processes to make these improvements. At the county or state level, however, we would be VERY competitive. Even just putting a county or state repeater network in would be a start, and allowing towns and cities to operate off it. To me this is a good way to get things rolling.
STAFFING
There are too many centers still running "1 chair" centers. This doesn't come close to meeting NFPA recommendations, let alone common sense. Turnover is high, as "dispatchers" in smaller agencies are essentially administrative assistants. Emphasis is not on emergency communication. Dispatch is often used as a stepping stone to LEO, FF, or Medic, rather than being viewed as a profession. There are many VERY inexperienced dispatchers, and that's no fault of their own! The call volume just doesn't support putting experience under the belt.
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Anyone with experience in figuring out "run cards" in smaller communities knows that it's nearly impossible to do so, because you never know the status of your next-in units. Geographic and "closest unit responses" are complicated, time consuming, require excessive chatter via phone or state fire, or through shared paging or fire alarm notification systems. A regionalized system would know where all apparatus is, what is out-of-service, etc... and adjust CAD responses accordingly.
STANDARDIZATION
Whether it's how we talk on the radio, what equipment we're using, how calls are dispatched... the more times we can standardize things in emergencies, the better off we are.
COST
We'd be way more competitive for grants. All of the above would, over the long haul, refuce cost while improving service and safety.
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO............. ........
Personalities are holding this back, and that is OUR loss because our performance suffers, and ultimately our safety can be endangered. We could have a state-of-the-art system, largely funded by grant money. The arguments I hear against this, and they're all ignorant and reflect a massive disservice to us all:
- "stranded cost", from departments that have made "upgrades" in their centers recently -- ignorant imho
- "dispatchers won't 'know the area' " -- incredibly ignorant, examine centers that cover millions of people and thousands of square miles. We already have county dispatchers with EXTENSIVE experience and knowledge of the ENTIRE county, not just the areas they routinely dispatch for
- "who will be in charge" -- a major way to avoid actually discussing this... who will be in charge? The director of the center of course! It should stand on its own as a county agency, with a director, and agencies would have representation and oversight as appropriate.
- "we will need a(nother) study" -- analysis paralysis... with the ridiculous amount of studies that have been done recently, we could've put that money to actual use in a regional center.
- "what if someone walks in to report an emergency?" -- use the phone provided, or video system, etc
- "who will collect fees and issue burning permits?" -- wow they're starting to acknowledge that they care more about the administrative assistant work than emergency communication
- "i don't trust cumberland county government" -- grow up, put the right people in place to make the changes happen, and let them run with it. Hire someone who has managed a large regional center to come and create one here.
And then the argument that we DON'T hear, but that we know is true:
"I'm king of my own castle." And sadly this is the biggest issue preventing real progress from being made.
Real progress requires big thinking, and addressing serious problems in a serious way. Why is it that people who know little about emergency communications are the ones being put in the position to consider this? I'm sorry, but a mere "we asked dispatchers for input" doesn't cut it.
Read the NIOSH LODD reports. Communications is discussed in too many of these... it is a weak point in our area. Speaking from the field, I'd love it to happen.
Speaking from my job in municipal dispatch, I'd still love it to happen, even if my job disappeared. It's the right thing to do.
That's my opinion, I welcome yours.
INTEROPERABILITY
This is huge, and this is my main point. When a town or city DOES decide to take the plunge into a more 'advanced' system (I'll use that term loosely here) that department then becomes an island in the county. Take Portland's system, for example. Yes, there ARE some "solutions" to be able to communicate, involving combinations of VHF/UHF patching, trunking scanners, a mobile radio in neighboring dispatch centers, simulcasting dispatch on the old VHF, etc... BUT in the field, this is essentially useless. We all work together, yet there is no system in place to allow us to communicate with eachother as we work.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Individual towns can not afford to improve radio systems to the level that public safety wireless communications necessitates, nor are they competitive in grant processes to make these improvements. At the county or state level, however, we would be VERY competitive. Even just putting a county or state repeater network in would be a start, and allowing towns and cities to operate off it. To me this is a good way to get things rolling.
STAFFING
There are too many centers still running "1 chair" centers. This doesn't come close to meeting NFPA recommendations, let alone common sense. Turnover is high, as "dispatchers" in smaller agencies are essentially administrative assistants. Emphasis is not on emergency communication. Dispatch is often used as a stepping stone to LEO, FF, or Medic, rather than being viewed as a profession. There are many VERY inexperienced dispatchers, and that's no fault of their own! The call volume just doesn't support putting experience under the belt.
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Anyone with experience in figuring out "run cards" in smaller communities knows that it's nearly impossible to do so, because you never know the status of your next-in units. Geographic and "closest unit responses" are complicated, time consuming, require excessive chatter via phone or state fire, or through shared paging or fire alarm notification systems. A regionalized system would know where all apparatus is, what is out-of-service, etc... and adjust CAD responses accordingly.
STANDARDIZATION
Whether it's how we talk on the radio, what equipment we're using, how calls are dispatched... the more times we can standardize things in emergencies, the better off we are.
COST
We'd be way more competitive for grants. All of the above would, over the long haul, refuce cost while improving service and safety.
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO............. ........
Personalities are holding this back, and that is OUR loss because our performance suffers, and ultimately our safety can be endangered. We could have a state-of-the-art system, largely funded by grant money. The arguments I hear against this, and they're all ignorant and reflect a massive disservice to us all:
- "stranded cost", from departments that have made "upgrades" in their centers recently -- ignorant imho
- "dispatchers won't 'know the area' " -- incredibly ignorant, examine centers that cover millions of people and thousands of square miles. We already have county dispatchers with EXTENSIVE experience and knowledge of the ENTIRE county, not just the areas they routinely dispatch for
- "who will be in charge" -- a major way to avoid actually discussing this... who will be in charge? The director of the center of course! It should stand on its own as a county agency, with a director, and agencies would have representation and oversight as appropriate.
- "we will need a(nother) study" -- analysis paralysis... with the ridiculous amount of studies that have been done recently, we could've put that money to actual use in a regional center.
- "what if someone walks in to report an emergency?" -- use the phone provided, or video system, etc
- "who will collect fees and issue burning permits?" -- wow they're starting to acknowledge that they care more about the administrative assistant work than emergency communication
- "i don't trust cumberland county government" -- grow up, put the right people in place to make the changes happen, and let them run with it. Hire someone who has managed a large regional center to come and create one here.
And then the argument that we DON'T hear, but that we know is true:
"I'm king of my own castle." And sadly this is the biggest issue preventing real progress from being made.
Real progress requires big thinking, and addressing serious problems in a serious way. Why is it that people who know little about emergency communications are the ones being put in the position to consider this? I'm sorry, but a mere "we asked dispatchers for input" doesn't cut it.
Read the NIOSH LODD reports. Communications is discussed in too many of these... it is a weak point in our area. Speaking from the field, I'd love it to happen.
Speaking from my job in municipal dispatch, I'd still love it to happen, even if my job disappeared. It's the right thing to do.
That's my opinion, I welcome yours.