Monday NENA Story

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1997 Annual Conference
Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO)

Thursday, August 14th

by Gary Allen

[links are photos]

(Charlotte, S.C., 10:02 p.m. EDT) -- The cost of AT&T's 311 service was finally revealed at the APCO annual conference by a company representative during a panel discussion about Baltimore's experience with the new non-emergency telephone number. Up to now, company representatives have declined to discuss cost issues and even police officials in Baltimore, where the service is undergoing a two-year trial, could not get AT&T to give them pricing figures.

Debbie Cole, a product director at AT&T's judicial and criminal justice markets based in Washington (DC), said AT&T will charge agencies a $50 per month flat fee, and from about 15 to 30 cents per minute of 311 talk time. Cole said the per-minute cost is based on volume, with heavy-traffic users receiving the lowest rates. She said, "You'd gotta be pumping a lot of traffic through" to receive the lowest rate.

Sgt. Nelson Herman told the audience that Baltimore's 311 calls last an average of two minutes, and that they handle about 1,500 calls per month. Using those figures and a average of 25 cents per minute, AT&T would charge Baltimore $246,975 per year for the 311 service it's now receiving for free. If AT&T charged Baltimore the highest rate, they could pay as much as $329,100 a year.

Just last June, during a seminar at the the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) annual conference, Baltimore police officials said they had asked AT&T for pricing figures, but said they had not yet received them yet.

During the question-and-answer portion of the panel discussion, a member of the audience asked how much the system cost, including equipment and line charges. Herman said he could answer the equipment question, but that Cole would have to answer the line charge question. Cole mentioned the $50 flat monthly fee, but initially said the per minute charges were variable and she could not give a specific figure. Later, another questioner asked her, "What's the range of per minute cost, the low and the high?" It was then that Cole mentioned the 15 to 30 cent per minute figures.

Cole said, "You think it's a lot of money. It's not nearly the amount of money it costs you to set up a 911 program." She said it's not a dedicated system, but runs over the public switched network, and requires no up-front hardware to purchase or lease. "The cost of a 311 versus a 911 system is fractional," she said.

On another subject, Sgt. Herman said the 311 calls are now fielded by a pool of 50 to 60 light-duty police officers. DISPATCH Monthly has learned that some of the officers have been on light-duty for up to 20 years. He said that if and when that pool of officers is diminished, he would recommend hiring community service officers or retired police officers to continue staffing the 311 lines. He added that officers now receive 40 hours of training on equipment and comm center procedures before they begin taking 311 calls. Several persons in the audience of the APCO seminar questioned why Baltimore did not use dispatchers to answer 311.

"The opinion of the higher-ups in the police department was that they had limited duty police officers here that were not serving a real useful function, outside of the telephone reporting unit," Herman said. "And that these people could be better utilized in this type of atmosphere." But he did say that, "If it comes to the point that we begin to put civilians in there (311)...that I would definitely push that they would be 911 operators that could work both sides. I would not feel comfortable otherwise." Yet, he added that there are enough light-duty officers to staff the unit and it costs the department nothing.

Herman said the city will soon install a computer network linking all city agencies. The 311 call-takers will then be able to enter non-police service incidents into a Lotus Notes application that will route the information to the proper city department.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department

Just a short drive from the Convention Center is the very new police headquarters for the combined city-county police department that serves the metropolitan Charlotte area. It's a very simply-designed building but has very distinctive interior details and colors that make it a pleasant place to visit (if you're not in handcuffs) and to work. A large mural in the lobby surrounds a circular reception station.

The city/county has about 650,000 residents in 530 square miles, generating about 682,000 telephone calls and over 803,000 incidents in 1997. They handle it with 1,283 sworn officers and 91 comm center positions. They have asked for 26 additional positions in 1998 and another 21 in 1999.

The dispatchers work three basic day, swing and night shifts, plus two relief shifts (1900 to 0300 and 1100 to 1900 ). They usually have two supervisors and 22 dispatchers on the day shift, 2/21 on swing and 2/23 on nights. The fourth shift is seven dispatchers and the fifth shift is 1/8. Dispatchers pick shifts once a year by seniority and performance. They work a 28-day work cycle, then their days-off change by moving up one day.

On the third floor--along with the police chief and internal affairs--is the communications center, a very large, rectangular room with indirect fluorescent lighting. There are two individual fluorescent lights at each work position. All of the dispatchers and supervisors were wearing snappy polo shirts in Plant Equipment Inc. (PEI) colors, and with the companies name on the back, and "Charlotte-Mecklenburg" on the front. The comm center is staffed and supervised by civilians, but it ultimately overseen by a police captain.

A supervisor's platform rises about six inches from the center-side of the room, 27 workstations are spaciously arranged throughout the room. The cables and cords are routed through the ceiling in cleverly-designed vertical raceways, which saved the department about $40,000 from installing a raised floor.

At one end are 15 call-taker positions, each with a Compaq computer and an IBM terminal. The former displays Plant Equipment Inc.'s VESTA phone management software, while the later displays a in-house CAD system running on an IBM mainframe that dates by to 1974--they expect to replace it with a new $2.6 million system within a year. Some positions have a computer mouse, others have trackballs. At the other end of the room are 12 radio dispatcher positions, each with four screens--a Motorola trunked radio last-unit list, two CAD screens and a 17-inch screen for radio control. All dispatches are immediately transmitted to in-car laptop computers, which can also access criminal justice databases.

The VESTA screen allows call-takers to receive, originate or transfer calls, and to look up common telephone numbers. The screen is completely re-sizable and positionable by the dispatcher depending up their own preference.

So, there are only call-takers and radio dispatchers--no service channel dispatcher because the officers can generally perform any miscellaneous tasks they need using the laptops, or the radio dispatcher can help them with something simple. There is one call-taker who is assigned to exclusively call back 911 hang-ups, so other dispatchers arent' tied up with this task. This call-taker continues to work the hang-up calls and then sends them for dispatch if he/she can't get a response.

Incoming calls to the CAD are routed to call-takers by an automatic call director (ACD).

The positions are equipped with ergonomic Watson furniture--the keyboard and computer screen tabletops can be independently raised, lowered or adjusted by angle. There is a wrist rest and a footrest at each position. Charlotte dispatchers said they frequently type standing up.

At the supervisors' position, three large-screen monitors show the status screens of all 12 radio dispatch positions--four screens. There is also a position for the Seltronics Eyretel digital logging computer (writing to DAT tape) and associated cassette tape-making equipment.

There are some offices off the main room, and a break room is across the hall, through the elevator reception area and a locked door leading to the administrative area of the 3rd floor. There is a very large training room adjacent to the break room which is wired for telephone and computer connections.

The new center is not without its history--at one end of the room, in a corner, they have gently placed an old telephone PBX and radio gear as a reminder of what it used to be.

As if the tour wasn't enough, we were invited to visit the basement gift shop! Volunteers staff the small room there, selling T-shirts, polo shirts, caps and other miscellaneous supplies, all to benefit the police benevolent association.