Greensboro City\ Guilford County, NC Consolidation

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ScannerMan929

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I understand that Guilford County and Greensboro City public safety have, or are going to, consolidate the dispatches into one center for the "Greensboro Metro Area". Will the departments consolidate into one single service, i.e., GC Sheriff and GPD =Guilford County Police, or GFD and GC Fire?
 

FireCop

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Just from what you describe, it sounds like just a consolidated comm center. If you get further info, let us know.
 

pboy

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At least they would have Charlotte\Mecklenburg to use as a model in weighing the pros and cons of consolidated policing.
 

ncmedic245

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As it stands now, Greensboro and Guilford County are moving toward a consolidated 911 center. They already answer the phone "Guilford-Metro Communications"

The goal is to have all 911 calls routed to a single center for screening and dispatch thus avoidng "transfering" between different agengies. Also, it allows all of the trucking systems to share hardware; towers etc.

The only ones bucking the system are High Point City communications. They don't want to give up control of "their" system. Too bad. They are already exceeding the range of the current system v.s. the amount of land they have annexed. The consolidation would sve the expense if all of those new towers.
 

CCHLLM

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There's a standing joke that refers to "The Independent Nation Of High Point, and then there's the rest of Guilford County."

I think the problem lies in the fact that HP has to exist in a unique situation. It's banging on 90K in population which makes it WAY too big to be considered a suburb of Greensboro, too big not to be responsible for its own destiny, and yet it has to exist in the same county as a second independent entity. If I were a responsible member of the HP city government, I believe I'd find it hard to not try to steer the city toward some sort of independence. In the interests of its own citizens, it certainly can't afford to let the citizens of Greensboro dictate what a city in Guilford County is supposed to be, nor can it afford to let the county determine its growth, yet it can't afford not to go along with overall plans that would stimulate the overall growth and good of the local area. Sort of a damned if ya do, and damned if ya don't do position, but not wanting to play for the greater good of communications? C'mon.....
 

ScannerMan929

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I don't see why communications would dictate public policy. I understand that High Point doesn't want to be dragged into Greensboro affairs, but it seems rather unreasonable that HP city government is unwilling to consolidate communications. Most of the time Guilford County EMS has to run scanners on the HP 800 system to find out who is doing what for HPD or HFD. It would ease things considerably if High Point either consolidated communications or sought a true Smart Zone System for Guilford County.

Any more thoughts? This topic is definitely milked....
 

pboy

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There are those dreaded words. Higher taxes. Higher taxes don't get politicians re-elected.

Consolidation cuts costs. Elected officials will eventually surrender some of their territorial might. It will be a pure matter of self preservation.
 

CCHLLM

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It's called turf, and nobody wants to surrender any turf. Why is it always a power thing rather than the public good sort of thing. Guess I'm still naive that way, and that's surprising since I work for the state.
 

austincage911

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check the facts before pushing consolidation

Having went thru consolidation with Davidson County as both a responder and an Emergency Dispatcher, I feel people are jumping on this "effecient" consolidation bandwagon.

You see, I've been there, the thing people forget is what is lost in consolidation, namely people manning your radio. You see where you may have had 2, 3 or more people responsible for an agency, when you consolidate you may get 2 but will more than likely only get one person dispatching your agency, or possibly doing your agency plus another agency or two. Now ask yourself, if your a responder in a mayday situation, do you want that dispatcher having to handle 3 or 4 frequencies plus answer the phone? If your a caller calling 911 do you? At Davidson County, I routinely handled County Fire, Thomasville Fire, Lexington Fire and County Ems all at once sometime having to pick up Denton Pd in the process.

You see in the emergency dispatch profession you tend to have a high turnover, and as anyone who has worked at any level of government can attest, if you work short and still get the job done, come budget time what happens? Your asked why you still need those positions. So, it becomes a never ending cycle, you pile more on people because you don't have proper staffing, they burn out and leave and you end up with a bunch of newbies, putting even more pressure on the experienced people and so on and so forth. This is the reality of a consolidated center.

But let's consider High Point in particular, I see there are some people bashing them for not consolidating with Guilford County. Well as someone pointed out, High Point is unique in that it sits in 4 counties. Although the majority is in Guilford, about 15-20% of the city is in Davidson with portions of the city falling in Randolph and Forsyth Counties. Seeing as how there is even more expansion planned into Davidson county and they already have a consolidated set up, if you want to talk consolidation why not merge with them?? I'm sure some people will read that and laugh, but think about it, it makes almost as much sense.

Bottom line, consider what you lose in a consolidation, people that know the area and know the callers, responders and what they expect. What do you gain? Higher turn over, more inexperienced people and longer response times (although not addressed in this post, it is a fact). Is that really a savings?
 

austincage911

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jlh said:
Wouldn't surprise me, scannerman, since there is an overall move toward consolidation of everything in Guilford county. Afterall, they've done such a wonderful job on the schools :wink: .

LOL, I guess if you don't live in the area you wouldn't get that.

For those who don't know, the schools in High Point have went straight downhill since the county took over. Don't look for the citizens of High Point to rush to push thru giving up something else to the county.
 

CCHLLM

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The part about people dispatching who are not familiar with the territory or the people is a valid point. NC Wildlife has been dispatched statewide from a single location in Raleigh for a coupla decades now. While that application of the subject has nothing to do with emergency services dispatching, and I would know since I did that ES and LE dispatch thing before getting into the tech side, what it does have to do with is that the technology available to do so is now a thing of the present, not just a dream for the powers-that-be.

What does it mean for all of us? Well, for us, the VIPER technology makes it possible to dispatch all the SHP units from an expanded comm center in Raleigh, saving money and making the comm centers in Asheville, Newton, Salisbury, Monroe, Greensboro, Elizabethtown, and Williamston something less than technically necessary. Political necessity is another matter altogether. Once VIPER is fully online, the technology required to centralize would most likely cost less than just operating all the comm centers for one fiscal year. Once the usual state of the politics catches up with the technology and the money issues become sufficiently political, I predict that a central dispatch system for the units of the Dept of Crime Control and Public Safety will become a reality. Like it or not, where it can go from there on local bases is wide open, limited only by money and politics.

I'm old and set in my ways, and in spite of the saving of revenues, I'm not so sure I'm convinced taking the local out of dispatching is a good thing, though the technical side of it does appeal to me.
 

ScannerMan929

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austincage911 said:
jlh said:
For those who don't know, the schools in High Point have went straight downhill since the county took over. Don't look for the citizens of High Point to rush to push thru giving up something else to the county.

Absolutely. The Guilford County School Board is the most inept political governing board ever. They bleed stupidity. The educational aspect of the situation is that GCS is focusing nearly all of its resources on Greensboro rather than High Point, and consequently, High Point has become quite apprehensive about anything that pertains to "joint efforts" between Greensboro and High Point. Who would have thought that something like the education system would affect the balance of power when instating a radio system...?

I'm relieved that there are competent people making decisions over the implentation of a good radio system.
 

jlh

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Scannerman, just to keep things straight, that quote should be attributed to austin, not me.

Both of you made good points.
 
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