Memorandum 16-184 Dispatch Consolidation

Memorandum 16-184

TO:              Katie Koester, City Manager

FROM:         Mark Robl, Chief of Police

DATE:          November 9, 2016

SUBJECT:    Dispatch Consolidation

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Yesterday I found a Public Safety Communications Strategic Plan prepared by William Doolittle and Gary Boyd and Associates for the Kenai Peninsula Borough 911 services board in 2004. In 2003 the E911 board discussed the future of public safety communications and asked the borough to hire a qualified firm to review the existing 911 system and public safety radio communications system on the Kenai Peninsula. The firms of Gary E. Boyd and Associates and William L. Doolittle and Associates were contracted by the borough to conduct the study. The specific objectives of the study were to “understand the current emergency communications systems in the borough; identify requirements for improvements; analyze major alternatives for meeting the requirements; define recommended projects; and organize the projects into an implementation plan and capital budget.” The study covered all of the incorporated and unincorporated communities and areas of the borough and all local law enforcement, fire service, EMS and emergency preparedness agencies in the borough.

All of the public safety communications centers in the borough were studied and analyzed. The report considered the centralization of dispatch centers, (consolidation), versus the decentralized approach in use then and still currently used today. The study described the three different approaches to dispatching as single PSAP/single dispatch center, (public safety answering point), single primary PSAP and multiple secondary PSAPs, and multiple primary PSAPs and dispatch centers utilizing selective routing, (our current model). The study listed the advantages and disadvantages to each. The study then discussed risks and backup communications plans.

The multiple primary PSAP alternative was recommended as the preferred approach. This is how our dispatch centers are currently configured on the Kenai Peninsula. This approach has the least amount of risk. It also provides a ready back-up plan assuming the centers are properly connected. Having multiple, connected dispatch centers on the peninsula with trained dispatchers in each 24/7 and the proper interagency agreements in place allows one center to quickly begin dispatching for another agency in the event of any unexpected outages.

My position remains strongly against consolidating any of the dispatch centers on the Kenai Peninsula. As identified in this independent study, our best option is to maintain multiple centers properly interconnected and staffed. Doing so prevents a single point of failure scenario from wiping out emergency services dispatching borough wide. It takes advantage of the great local knowledge our dispatchers possess, allows for the public to receive an independent level of service, provides our officers with superior officer safety and full time clerical support and significantly improves the efficiency of our operations. Individual centers will be much more capable of coordinating responses to area wide emergencies and will be able to successfully function locally if cut off from the statewide radio system.

Attachments: Various excerpts from the 2004 Public Safety Communications Strategic Plan.