MOUNT VERNON — Several members of the fire service in Knox County, including most Knox County fire chiefs, say they feel the citizens of the county would be better served by a reorganization of the 9-1-1 system. The system would be reorganized to resemble other systems throughout the country, and in other counties in central Ohio.
Currently, the county is served by two dispatch centers. The center at the Mount Vernon Police Department handles all 9-1-1 calls for the Mount Vernon fire and police departments. The center at the Knox County Sheriff’s Office handles all other police and fire/EMS calls within the county. Both centers have the same number of dispatchers.
Many members of the fire service would like to see duties redivided, with one center handling all county and city fire/EMS calls, the other handling all law enforcement dispatch. This could be also be divided between one center, with two divisions.
Knox County EMA Director Marie Blubaugh is in charge of coordinating 9-1-1 dispatch scheduling, payroll, hiring and training. Dispatchers at both centers are county employees. Operations and procedures at the county center are supervised by Sheriff David Barber and his designees; Mount Vernon Police Chief Michael Merrilees and his staff supervise operations at the city.
Merrilees and Barber both feel the current division between the two centers, combining police and fire dispatch at both centers, is appropriate.
“I think our 9-1-1 system, which has been in effect since 1993, has worked very well for a county this size,” Barber said when asked about redividing the system between law enforcement and fire/EMS.
Barber said he has one dispatcher per shift dedicated to law enforcement calls at the Law Enforcement Automated Data System terminal. The center has the capacity to have three dispatchers on each shift.
“The other one is assigned to fire band/EMS,” explained Barber.
Blubaugh said that once the Mount Vernon city dispatchers are brought up to full staff, this same division of calls between the two dispatchers will be instituted.
According to Blubaugh, both dispatch centers have budgets for an additional position, but have not been at full staff for more than four years. Blubaugh attributed this to a high rate of turnover, particularly at the Mount Vernon dispatch center, and a lack of a large pool of qualified applicants.
Barber said having two dispatch centers in the county also fulfills a state statute that requires counties to have and alternative Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) in case of an emergency which renders the 9-1-1 center inoperable.
In some communities, this is a smaller radio center at a separate location, which could be made operational in an emergency, but the smaller center does not maintain a large staff on a day-to-day basis.
Elsewhere, a nearby radio center which handles Ohio State Patrol dispatch could take over local radio traffic in a crisis.
Merrilees said he has not heard a persuasive argument for reorganizing 9-1-1 dispatch in Knox County, dividing traffic between police and law enforcement.
“I would have to hear a lot of justification for huge changes,” he said. “I really haven’t heard much discussion about it as well.”
Some Knox County fire chiefs say that although they have felt for several years that the system needed overhauled, in the last few years their professional voice has grown more unified through the Knox County Fire Chiefs Association.
All of the chiefs said that although local dispatchers do an excellent job within the current system, the chiefs feel the increased volume of calls as county population has steadily increased, and the large number of departments the dispatchers at the county center must coordinate, overtaxes the dispatchers at times.
“There is so much going on in those rooms,” Central Ohio Joint Fire District Chief Joe Porter explained. “The dispatchers do a wonderful job, but there’s so much going on. I think it would be beneficial to all involved to separate the disciplines [between law enforcement and fire/EMS].”
Barber said the dispatchers at the county do handle a very high call volume, and have more responsibility.
“The dispatchers here [at the KCSO] have a much bigger job. We’re responsible for 59,000 people,” Barber said. “They have the whole county to be responsible for.”
Firefighters in county departments say there are times when they must repeat an attempt to contact county dispatch as many as three or four times before they get a response. During the radio communication regarding a serious motor vehicle accident on June 8, tapes of the radio traffic confirm that a Fredericktown fire captain made three attempts to alert the county that the patient had been extricated, before dispatch responded.
These recordings of scanner traffic were obtained through www.scanmiamivalley.com, a Web site that offers live feed of several dispatch centers in Ohio, as well as recordings.
Fredericktown Fire Chief Scott Mast said that having to repeatedly ask for county dispatch assistance could cause a safety risk to his firefighters, and to the public. He pointed out that the county dispatchers must handle calls for more firefighters, more apparatus, more population and more call volume.
Mast said county firefighters he works with have wanted the redivision for years.
“I believe the dispatchers could then focus primarily on one kind of traffic,” he said.
He said that because local departments now regularly assist each other, and therefore must cross borders into different districts, all fire calls, including Mount Vernon’s, should be handled by the same dispatchers.
“Fire and EMS is fire and EMS, whether it be Fredericktown, Mount Vernon, or anywhere in the county,” said Mast. “The core is the same. We work together with other fire service a lot, because the neighboring departments work closely together.”
Mount Vernon Fire Chief Shawn Christy said communication is important between the Mount Vernon Fire Department and county fire departments.
“I think it’s extremely difficult for dispatchers to communicate with fire and law when our way of communicating and our needs and concerns are different,” Christy said. “But I do think they [dispatchers] do a hell of a job with our current system.”
Barber said the suggestion by county fire personnel that their calls may sometimes take a lower priority than KCSO law enforcement dispatch is not accurate.
“[Dispatchers] may be on another frequency, talking with the squad or law enforcement,” Barber said.
Porter said delays do occur sometimes, and that he believes dividing the calls between fire and law enforcement would help. He said the current system which divides the county calls between two dispatchers, does not always work.
“You can speak to two or three different dispatchers during a run,” Porter explained.
Some members of the fire service, and law enforcement as well, have questioned whether a dispatcher’s time should ever be spent performing tasks such as data entry or clerical work. Barber said that is not a fair assessment of what goes on in the dispatch centers.
“They do data entry of reports, which gives them something to do in the down time. They don’t do secretarial work,” Barber said.
The dispatchers do not enter fire or EMS reports for the fire service.
Merrilees said that when dispatchers are not working on 9-1-1 calls or other law enforcement telephone calls, entering reports is a good use of their time.
“We can’t afford to have someone sitting there doing nothing,” he said.
Dispatchers were hesitant to speak on the record about possible reorganization of the centers.
Barber said no one has ever been injured or killed in the county as a result of a dispatcher error.
“This county is very fortunate because we all work together,” Barber said. “It’s proven itself for 15 years. A lot of the calls that involve fire and EMS require law enforcement as well.”
Barber said he believes dividing calls between the two disciplines could lengthen response times.
“Response time is crucial, and I think we might lose time on that,” he said.
Barber plans to attend the next meeting of the Knox County Fire Chiefs Association, when the different suggestions about the future of 9-1-1 in the county will be discussed.
In Friday’s News: The proposed reconvening of the 9-1-1 Planning Commission for the first time since 1993.
