Grand Jury Questions Need For 13 County Centers

Faced with the question of whether 13 public safety communications centers is too many for San Mateo County (N. Calif.), a civil grand jury has concluded the answer is “No,” for both operational and financial reasons. The county has 15 fire departments and 16 law enforcement agencies south of San Francisco. In a 12-page report issued last week, the grand jury noted the county originally had 22 centers, but had reduced that number over the past 12 years. Now, stand-alone centers spend an average of $30.04 per call for dispatching, while agencies using contract dispatching spend just $18.45 per call, about 39 percent less. The report also said that many stand-alone centers have no back-up dispatching plans, and have only a single dispatcher on-duty during some periods. “Elected officials in some cities have been reluctant to consolidate police dispatch,” the report stated. The grand jury recommended the county continue pushing to consolidate, and create back-up dispatching procedures. They also suggested that some smaller agencies might perform their own dispatching during business hours, but then have a larger center provide dispatching services at other times so no agency has lone dispatchers on-duty. Download (pdf) the grand jury’s report here.