Dispatch Center Gets First Upgrades In Years
December 15, 2021 at 2:26 a.m.
Dispatch Center Gets First Upgrades In Years
By David [email protected]
911 Director Sarah Lancaster demonstrated how the new desks can go down to accommodate a dispatcher seated or go up so a dispatcher can work while standing.
“Once the desks get over 30 inches, they start counting the calories you’re burning while standing,” she said. “Each station has their own heating and cooling.”
The old work stations had formica tops and were stationary. A lot of laminate was peeling and chipping, she said. “You had to sit all the time. So this is huge. They were about the standard height of a desk.”
Lancaster said it was a “little chaotic” when everything was going in at the same time, and the dispatchers were still working live, but “I think they’re happy.”
Brand new radio consoles were put in with a new vendor. They went from Motorola to Ztrons. “They have some different features that we hadn’t had before, like the instant recalls. Instead of going to a recorder, we can go straight here, which is nice,” she said, pointing to a place on the screen.
Dispatch is still trying to figure out a few things because of the changes.
“These are speakers we actually monitor traffic through that isn’t actively coming into our ear. We went from two to four, so they’re still trying to figure out which ones they want to go where,” she said.
Commissioner Bob Conley asked if they were portable and could be moved anywhere. Lancaster said “a little bit” but there was some limitations due to cord length.
The Kosciusko County Communication Center was built in 1998-99 and hadn’t had any upgrades until now, she said. “So it was well overdue and – I’m going to be a little selfish – well deserved,” she said. That was about the same time the county, Warsaw and Syracuse dispatches began to merge.
Originally, the funding for this year’s upgrades was through the county, but with the American Rescue Plan Act, “we’ve been able to use that to do our upgrades,” Lancaster said.
Behind each station of five screens and three keyboards is a light. If it’s green, that means the dispatcher is not on the phone and not talking. If it’s yellow, they’re on the radio, and if it’s red, they’re on the phone.
Dispatchers are scheduled for eight-hour shifts, but there are times when they work 12 hours, Lancaster said. “In the course of the day, they may sit for a couple of hours, stand for a couple hours. Off and on,” she said.
Three is the minimum staffing for the Communications Center. On the weekends, during the summer, they try to have at least four.
There are 21 actual Dispatch employees, and two of those are administration. Two are part-time. Right now, Lancaster said they are fully staffed and she hasn’t been fully staffed in the last three years. Three dispatchers have more than 20 years of experience, and Lancaster has 17 years herself. Four have less than two years of experience.
“Our normal average call volume is about 300 (calls a day). Saturday, after all of that wind, day shift alone took 357 calls,” Lancaster said. “That day, we took 550 calls, which is way out of the norm.”
Dispatchers don’t just contact police, fire and EMS. They may call the Indiana Department of Transportation, Kosciusko REMC, NIPSCO or whoever else is needed.
“I tell everybody they dispatch for 38 agencies. But in reality, it’s more than that,” Lancaster said. “... Everything starts here.”
Down the road, she said an automated dispatch would be great. “We’re still going to take the calls, but as far as dispatching out to the fire and EMS, it’s through an automated dispatch. Eventually, if it could work, maybe, turn toward a silent dispatch,” she said.
With a silent dispatch, very little or nothing would come over the scanners people have at home. Lancaster said that would be “very down the road.”
The upgrades in Dispatch are part of the county’s public safety communication project, which also include four communication towers around the county and new radios for emergency services.
Commissioner Cary Groninger said, “From a tower infrastructure perspective, I know we’ve built enough capacity we’re planning on having fiber connections to these towers that, even from a video perspective, there might be some livestream video that might be able to be brought back here.”
Lancaster said that’s one thing the whole 911 industry is looking at, what they call NextGen 911, “where we could start actually receive pictures, videos from a scene.” Those then could be attached to reports. “That is one way they are trying to head.”
“Because of what we’re trying to do with these tower sites, we’re trying to build enough capacity into those to handle that,” Groninger said. “Because a little bit of data or radio communication doesn’t take a lot of bandwidth. When you start sending video, it’s a whole different level of infrastructure, so we are trying to plan ahead for that as we are working through this process, which is a whole next-level.”
Lancaster said they’ve come a long way.
Conley said with the new capacity of the towers, “It’ll probably save lives.”
Groninger said they are also building into it an LTE network, “so when it’s fully operational, individuals who have signed up and have the authority to be on the line can use their cell phone device to talk on the radio or call back to dispatch without using the phone for 30 new frequencies. So you can actually talk to a policeman in his car.”
Lancaster said, “Basically, what happens, is your cell phone is turning into a radio.”
She thanked Groninger for having the foresight to see what was needed and running with it.
“There was a lot of people on that team,” Groninger said, but Commissioner Brad Jackson said Groninger headed that up.
“There was a lot of people that worked really hard behind the scenes to get it to where it is,” Groninger said.
Jackson said County Administrator Marsha McSherry was on it a lot.
“I can honestly say that she really did make my job easy the week that they were over here installing all of this. She made it so I could actually work on my stuff and not have to oversee,” Lancaster said of McSherry. “I said thank you, I say thank you again.”
Through all of this, Lancaster said the county has now developed a technology committee that is made up of individuals from police, fire, EMS and dispatch. The committee, which meets monthly, reports to the Commissioners.
“It’s been working really well. We have fireman, police officers, our county EMS, myself,” she said.
The committee is made up of positions not people, including the EMA director, dispatch director, county fire, county police, sheriff’s office, Warsaw city and a representative of the outerlying departments. They are all appointed by the Commissioners.
“The key is that they have ownership,” Conley said. “And if you feel like you have ownership in what’s going on, you’re more involved and you take it more personally.”
Groninger said that while he’s learned “a ton” about radios, the Commissioners really wanted a committee that has dealt with radios and know the technical information.
“The ARPA money that is being used to help all the agencies in the county is incredible. That is going to even set us even more so for the future when we’re all on the Phase 2 system,” Lancaster said.
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911 Director Sarah Lancaster demonstrated how the new desks can go down to accommodate a dispatcher seated or go up so a dispatcher can work while standing.
“Once the desks get over 30 inches, they start counting the calories you’re burning while standing,” she said. “Each station has their own heating and cooling.”
The old work stations had formica tops and were stationary. A lot of laminate was peeling and chipping, she said. “You had to sit all the time. So this is huge. They were about the standard height of a desk.”
Lancaster said it was a “little chaotic” when everything was going in at the same time, and the dispatchers were still working live, but “I think they’re happy.”
Brand new radio consoles were put in with a new vendor. They went from Motorola to Ztrons. “They have some different features that we hadn’t had before, like the instant recalls. Instead of going to a recorder, we can go straight here, which is nice,” she said, pointing to a place on the screen.
Dispatch is still trying to figure out a few things because of the changes.
“These are speakers we actually monitor traffic through that isn’t actively coming into our ear. We went from two to four, so they’re still trying to figure out which ones they want to go where,” she said.
Commissioner Bob Conley asked if they were portable and could be moved anywhere. Lancaster said “a little bit” but there was some limitations due to cord length.
The Kosciusko County Communication Center was built in 1998-99 and hadn’t had any upgrades until now, she said. “So it was well overdue and – I’m going to be a little selfish – well deserved,” she said. That was about the same time the county, Warsaw and Syracuse dispatches began to merge.
Originally, the funding for this year’s upgrades was through the county, but with the American Rescue Plan Act, “we’ve been able to use that to do our upgrades,” Lancaster said.
Behind each station of five screens and three keyboards is a light. If it’s green, that means the dispatcher is not on the phone and not talking. If it’s yellow, they’re on the radio, and if it’s red, they’re on the phone.
Dispatchers are scheduled for eight-hour shifts, but there are times when they work 12 hours, Lancaster said. “In the course of the day, they may sit for a couple of hours, stand for a couple hours. Off and on,” she said.
Three is the minimum staffing for the Communications Center. On the weekends, during the summer, they try to have at least four.
There are 21 actual Dispatch employees, and two of those are administration. Two are part-time. Right now, Lancaster said they are fully staffed and she hasn’t been fully staffed in the last three years. Three dispatchers have more than 20 years of experience, and Lancaster has 17 years herself. Four have less than two years of experience.
“Our normal average call volume is about 300 (calls a day). Saturday, after all of that wind, day shift alone took 357 calls,” Lancaster said. “That day, we took 550 calls, which is way out of the norm.”
Dispatchers don’t just contact police, fire and EMS. They may call the Indiana Department of Transportation, Kosciusko REMC, NIPSCO or whoever else is needed.
“I tell everybody they dispatch for 38 agencies. But in reality, it’s more than that,” Lancaster said. “... Everything starts here.”
Down the road, she said an automated dispatch would be great. “We’re still going to take the calls, but as far as dispatching out to the fire and EMS, it’s through an automated dispatch. Eventually, if it could work, maybe, turn toward a silent dispatch,” she said.
With a silent dispatch, very little or nothing would come over the scanners people have at home. Lancaster said that would be “very down the road.”
The upgrades in Dispatch are part of the county’s public safety communication project, which also include four communication towers around the county and new radios for emergency services.
Commissioner Cary Groninger said, “From a tower infrastructure perspective, I know we’ve built enough capacity we’re planning on having fiber connections to these towers that, even from a video perspective, there might be some livestream video that might be able to be brought back here.”
Lancaster said that’s one thing the whole 911 industry is looking at, what they call NextGen 911, “where we could start actually receive pictures, videos from a scene.” Those then could be attached to reports. “That is one way they are trying to head.”
“Because of what we’re trying to do with these tower sites, we’re trying to build enough capacity into those to handle that,” Groninger said. “Because a little bit of data or radio communication doesn’t take a lot of bandwidth. When you start sending video, it’s a whole different level of infrastructure, so we are trying to plan ahead for that as we are working through this process, which is a whole next-level.”
Lancaster said they’ve come a long way.
Conley said with the new capacity of the towers, “It’ll probably save lives.”
Groninger said they are also building into it an LTE network, “so when it’s fully operational, individuals who have signed up and have the authority to be on the line can use their cell phone device to talk on the radio or call back to dispatch without using the phone for 30 new frequencies. So you can actually talk to a policeman in his car.”
Lancaster said, “Basically, what happens, is your cell phone is turning into a radio.”
She thanked Groninger for having the foresight to see what was needed and running with it.
“There was a lot of people on that team,” Groninger said, but Commissioner Brad Jackson said Groninger headed that up.
“There was a lot of people that worked really hard behind the scenes to get it to where it is,” Groninger said.
Jackson said County Administrator Marsha McSherry was on it a lot.
“I can honestly say that she really did make my job easy the week that they were over here installing all of this. She made it so I could actually work on my stuff and not have to oversee,” Lancaster said of McSherry. “I said thank you, I say thank you again.”
Through all of this, Lancaster said the county has now developed a technology committee that is made up of individuals from police, fire, EMS and dispatch. The committee, which meets monthly, reports to the Commissioners.
“It’s been working really well. We have fireman, police officers, our county EMS, myself,” she said.
The committee is made up of positions not people, including the EMA director, dispatch director, county fire, county police, sheriff’s office, Warsaw city and a representative of the outerlying departments. They are all appointed by the Commissioners.
“The key is that they have ownership,” Conley said. “And if you feel like you have ownership in what’s going on, you’re more involved and you take it more personally.”
Groninger said that while he’s learned “a ton” about radios, the Commissioners really wanted a committee that has dealt with radios and know the technical information.
“The ARPA money that is being used to help all the agencies in the county is incredible. That is going to even set us even more so for the future when we’re all on the Phase 2 system,” Lancaster said.
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