Danbury to privatize 911 Dispatch

[x635 4,066]

Danbury to swap uniformed dispatchers for civilians

Posted on July 23, 2014 | By Danbury newsroom

DANBURY – The city is one of the last places in the country that uses police officers and firefighters to answer 911 calls, but not for much longer.

Mayor Mark Boughton will ask the City Council for a $750,000 transfer Thursday to consolidate Danbury’s two dispatch centers into one and staff it with licensed dispatchers from a private company.

http://blog.ctnews.com/offbeat/2014/07/23/danbury-to-swap-uniformed-dispatchers-for-civilians/

[texastom791 31]

Anybody have any info on the company out of Nj that's mentioned on the article ?

[x635 4,066]

Did a little homework on this with some credible sources and here's what I came up with:

-Dispatcher is a promotion for Danbury Firefighters, one that comes with Lieutenant's pay. .

-PD and FD Dispatch, which are still separate centers, were both supposed to move together into the new PD on Main Street when it opened, but the Police Chief didn't want Firefighters in the secure areas.

-Police Officers fully staff the PD Dispatch Center, taking Officers off the street.

Basically, the jist I get is there's no reason to be paying a Police Officer or Fire Lieutenant to sit behind a radio in two separate dispatch centers when their are so many other qualified candidates for professional civilian dispatchers in the City Of Danbury who can do so without having to contract with a private company for staffing (management maybe).

[JM15 386]

Who are your qualified candidates?

[spike2231 38]

me??????maybe

[spike2231 38]

seriously who would be qualified why bring in people from outside danbury area would it not be better to hire from within where people know the area and how it works

[BFD389RET 112]

The Civilian Public Safety Dispatchers are the Norm through out the entire state, Danbury is one of 2 Maybe 3 Juristictions who have yet to civilianize communications 100%...

"Who are your Qualified candidates?" Hahaha Are YOU serious? What qualifications do you think you need? and How does one get qualified? You make it sound Like Patton needs to come back from the dead, To approve your qualifications... Its answering a freakin phone.... 9-1-1 whats the emergency ? really isnt that big a deal training and certification to the standards set forth by the State are the qualifications... and to prove it....

You can't get qualified unless YOUR agency sends YOU and You cant get an Agency unless Your qualified HAHAHAHA

[sympathomedic 383]

The original post had a link that mentioned "Licenced" dispatchers. In CT is there such a thing and a dispatching license? Can you get a ticket for dispatching too fast, or changing channels without signaling?

[BFD389RET 112]

awe common, That post also said Danbury was the last place to use A firefighter Or cop to dispatch In the whole country too,.... You cannot believe A word the media says as it is..., MUCH less NOW they outight Lie about stuff

You cant blame anyone except the "journalist" for the "big words" they use or use in place of the ones' they dont understand..... I am not sure about getting a ticket for dispatching too fast, I do know Its a good idea to have a cuff key when The cops decide to cuff you to the console...

[Viper 139]

"Who are your Qualified candidates?" Hahaha Are YOU serious? What qualifications do you think you need? and How does one get qualified? You make it sound Like Patton needs to come back from the dead, To approve your qualifications... Its answering a freakin phone.... 9-1-1 whats the emergency ? really isnt that big a deal training and certification to the standards set forth by the State are the qualifications... and to prove it....

I think the question is....are YOU serious?

[AFS1970 504]

Danbury is just the latest to be looking at this from entirely the wrong standpoint. With any job, but more so in the emergency services, financial concerns can not be the only factor looked at. However any time there is a move to civilianize a job, be it dispatcher, records clerk, parking enforcement or even jailer, it is always brought up that it will be cheaper. Very often the field units complain because the penny pinchers don't understand that you get what you pay for. You want cheap, you can get cheap, but don't look for qualiy also.

At least in this setting it looks like the private staff will be in a Danbury owned center. I am generally against privitization because even when it saves money it often includes hidden cost increases and is often hard to switch back from if it does not work out. I have heard of cities privitizing and selling off all their equipment which makes it very hard to get rid of a bad contractor.

As for the certification issue, the state has a class for dispatchers. It was originally an 80 hour class that they bought from A.P.C.O. but as times changed they dropped it to 60 hours and then I think down to just over 40. There was allot of stuff in it that you just didn't need, but in my opinion it isn't enough. Syaing that it is just answering a phone is pretty much like saying that being a cop is just walking around town and beign a firefighter is just spraying water. Each job has it's specific challenges and each job is diferent enough that there are few if any direct comparisons.

How interesting that if this is just answering a phone and anyone can do it, that when it was field personnel they needed to get extra money to do it, but now that your wife / kid needs a job this should be done for half the money. I have an idea, why certify drivers as firefighters? I can hire a guy with a CDL for less than a firefighter, after all it's just driving a truck.

[HomerSimpson 1]

The civilian dispatchers that will be hired are going to be people from Danbury and surrounding communities. No one is going to bring in some mythical group of licensed dispatchers from out of state. It's not like there is some sort of dispatcher jump team waiting on standby to move in to take over new territory. Jeez. The company is based out of state, but the people who will work in the comm center will be people from that community. They will hire some people that are already trained and certified, and they will hire some that are not and that will have to undergo the appropriate training and certification process. Connecticut dispatchers must be certified within 1 year of hire at the basic state telecommunicator level. It's not a license, per se, but it is a required level of certification. Civilian dispatchers will earn less than half of what the police and fire dispatchers are being paid now.

[houlidsa 76]

The better question is why are the two unions not getting together and at least trying to make this a Light Duty job? I have seen places that give away jobs to private sector because no one wants to, change the oil, answer the phone, etc etc. However if those same guys got hurt off duty or had some other special circumstance come up they cry about their situation because of limited options. A close friend of mine has crohn's disease and instead for having to get ML donated to him and go out on disability an option like LD would have been much more appealing.

[Reliance 29]

1. Problem is you don't just answer the phone. I have been a FD dispatcher for 25+ years. I answer a four line phone. I handle 5 different radios.. After hours I also handle Public Works & ANIMAL CONTROL CALLS. You also have to enter data in the computer for the call as 24 of the 27 depts. I look after have text messaging besides the paging system. Also when the call is done forms are filled out and emailed to the department at the end of the call. Plus you have to have some experience in knowing the areas that are covered. We have some alarm companies that monitor buildings and they don't usually know or want to tell you the department that covers that area so you have to know or have knowledge of the area. The coverage area is about 1300 square miles or about 4000 square kilometers.

[SageVigiles 1,194]

Lets see: Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, CT State, FDNY, Yonkers, Boston, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, DC, Fairfax County and Detroit all use civilian dispatchers. But for some reason it won't work in Danbury? Come on...

I agree they should have went with municipal employees supervised by uniformed police/fire supervisors who can make snap decisions instead of a contract service. That I won't argue. But come on, let's be serious here. There is no reason not to go with civilian dispatchers.

Edited October 5, 2014 by SageVigiles

[HomerSimpson 1]

The unions both negotiated away the dispatch positions in their contracts many years ago. It's taken this long for the city to get around to following throught on civilianizing them. The FD bargained for a brand new fire station and a dozen more FF's in exchange for dispatch, and PD got money, etc. No one "took" anything from either.

[thebreeze 194]

Lets see: Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, CT State, FDNY, Yonkers, Boston, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, DC, Fairfax County and Detroit all use civilian dispatchers. But for some reason it won't work in Danbury? Come on...

I agree they should have went with municipal employees supervised by uniformed police/fire supervisors who can make snap decisions instead of a contract service. That I won't argue. But come on, let's be serious here. There is no reason not to go with civilian dispatchers.

Civilian dispatchers, who still work for the municipality, are different than dispatchers from a private company. The thing about private companies is that they are profit driven, they are taking the contract to make money. When those municipalities you mentioned hire civilians they aren't looking to make a profit off of it, they are looking for someone to do the job proficiently. What might suffer with a private for profit company is the level of service you receive.

[SageVigiles 1,194]

Like I said, I agree it should have been municipal employees not a contract service.

[HomerSimpson 1]

I agree too that a municipal employee operation would have been preferable to a private operation, but the reality is that municipalities have been getting so beat up over public employee contracts and pensions that they are gun shy over the prospects of having yet another public employee union to deal with. One of the main issues that the city did not want was that it did not want to deal with any union. It did not want to deal with contracts, pensions and benefits, grievances, etc. The company that took the contract employs only at-will employees, meaning they could be let go for any reason, or no reason at all. No union protections, no grievance procedures, no pre-negotiated salary increases, nothing. These dispatchers will be earning a fraction of what surrounding publicly employed dispatchers will earn. The winners here will be; 1) the company, because they're in it to make money, and 2) the city because they just pay the contracted rate and relieve themselves of all employee and long term contract issues, benefits, problematic employees, etc. The people who are getting the short end of the stick are the employees who are going to earn sub standard wages, and who will have to work under deplorable working conditions where they face the potential for termination for any reason what so ever.

If this whole privatization experiment takes off, publicly employed dispatchers are going to start feeling the pain as more and more municipalities chip away at their salary and bennies, or even decide themselves to eliminate and privatize their own dispatch centers. I sure hope I'm wrong, but I think we're seeing the writing on the walls this one.

[SageVigiles 1,194]

The people who are getting the short end of the stick are the employees who are going to earn sub standard wages, and who will have to work under deplorable working conditions where they face the potential for termination for any reason what so ever.

They'll get all their state certifications then leave to work at a department that pays better. No different than what's happening to a lot of the PDs in Connecticut.

[nycmedic 65]

If you do not like the pay and benefits then dont take the job

[AFS1970 504]

Civilian dispatchers, who still work for the municipality, are different than dispatchers from a private company. The thing about private companies is that they are profit driven, they are taking the contract to make money. When those municipalities you mentioned hire civilians they aren't looking to make a profit off of it, they are looking for someone to do the job proficiently. What might suffer with a private for profit company is the level of service you receive.

In municipal government we do not call it profit, but by the simple fact that this job is a promotion for line personnel yet civilians make less than line personnel in general, there is definately the same motivation. Perhaps the private companies are a little more honest about it.

[JTF429 37]

The better question is why are the two unions not getting together and at least trying to make this a Light Duty job? I have seen places that give away jobs to private sector because no one wants to, change the oil, answer the phone, etc etc. However if those same guys got hurt off duty or had some other special circumstance come up they cry about their situation because of limited options. A close friend of mine has crohn's disease and instead for having to get ML donated to him and go out on disability an option like LD would have been much more appealing.

You do not know much about Danbury or the two unions. It's not that easy and it has to be done in negotiations. Which is another story.

[JTF429 37]

Lets see: Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, CT State, FDNY, Yonkers, Boston, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, DC, Fairfax County and Detroit all use civilian dispatchers. But for some reason it won't work in Danbury? Come on...

I agree they should have went with municipal employees supervised by uniformed police/fire supervisors who can make snap decisions instead of a contract service. That I won't argue. But come on, let's be serious here. There is no reason not to go with civilian dispatchers.

There is a very good reason not to go with civilian dispatchers, It is called a union job. We have those up north, unlike your right to work states.

[houlidsa 76]

You do not know much about Danbury or the two unions. It's not that easy and it has to be done in negotiations. Which is another story.

You are 100% I do not know and that is why I posed the question. Do we not ask questions to learn? I understand negotiations but I really understand the importance of off line positions from personal experience.

If Homer is correct that they negotiated the rights away so be it. However that other story is the reason they are in the position they are in now.

Also in my prior post when I said answer phones, I was not referring to this. I was referring to clerical positions, help desks, etc.

[AFS1970 504]

There is a very good reason not to go with civilian dispatchers, It is called a union job. We have those up north, unlike your right to work states.

I fail to see how "right to work" enters into this at all. I am a Dispatcher, and am in a union. Although there was a brief hitch in the very beginning, well before my time, for the most part the position of Dispatcher where I work has always been a union job.