firebuff08

I like the new layout. Very clean and simple. Forget adding flash. That just adds clutter. I do prefer the limited edition blue background over the gray. This is a great site, especially for former Westchester residents like myself. Sure helps me to keep up with what is going on in Westchester and surrounding areas. Keep up the good work.

After reading all of the posts on this subject, I just can not believe how slow Westchester County is to catch up with the rest of the world. Back in the late 1970's and early 1980's I was Chairman of the Communications Committee for the Westchester EMS Council and I served on two 911 study committees appointed by then County Executive DelBello. The same arguments against centralizing dispatch that are being made now were being made then. At the time, Westchester still did not have 911, though most populated area of the country did. I now live in CT and work in a PD based PSAP (we roll 911 calls for fire and ems to fire). CT has had 911 since the late 1960's. Here 911 is funded by the STate and the equipment is identical at all 106 PSAP's in the state. Training is given by and mandated by the State. The biggest problem in Westchester as I see it now and as I saw it back in the 80's was too many chiefs of too many small and inefficient political entities. Back then and probably the same now, the 6 villages in Greenburgh, for example, has an officer on the desk dispatching and as few as 2 officers on the street. The town could have taken over dispatching for all of them without barely increasing the workload at the Town PD dispatch center. The fewer the number of PSAPs, the fewer the number of transfers and lost calls. (Yeah, we have too many PSAP's here in Connecticut as well). At least we do not have as much duplication of services. Because we do not have counties (other than lines on a map) there is no county PD. You have two of the best examples of centralized fire and ems dispatch right in your own backyard...44 Control in Rockland County and Dutchess County Fire. Every call is dispatched in a precise, organized manner and there is clear, central control of the radio channels. Both Rockland and Dutchess have been doing it that way for 30 to 40 years!!! Why does everyone in Westchester want to reinvent the wheel?