There are bad dispatchers out there and there are alot of great dispatchers out there... A consolidated dispatch center that properly integrates with proper oversight from all participating agencies and tertiary agencies, will have issues both with integration and also in ongoing maintenance, but the advanteges are numerous.
Lets work on the assumption that Waseca County, Blue Earth County and Nicollet county all have their own dispatch center (which they do)... Standard staffing is 1 dispatcher 90% of the time. I dispatcher to handle Law Enforcement, Fire, EMS, Public Works and City Service calls and the subsequent radio traffic associated with said calls and the appropriate forwards. a small handful of law enforcement activities is an appropriate system load, but once you start adding in EMS calls and Fire calls, it quickly becomes too much work for one dispatcher and something is bound to suffer... Chances of all three of those counties being incredibly busy at the same time is low.
If you can consolidate all of those centers, you can have 2 dispatchers covering those 3 counties allowing for better coverage of your crews with a significant cost savings.
One of my part time jobs is in public safety in one of the counties affected by this merger. I also have worked in public safety with an agency served by a consolidated dispatch center and have also in that same center. I know I felt safer and more well covered by the dispatch center with 7 dispatchers covering 14 service areas than i do working in a dispatch center that is staffed with 1 dispatch... someone is bound to hear me calling for help when i have 7 dispatchers versus 1 dispatcher who frequently misses traffic due to being on Law Enforcement business...
Consolidated dispatch centers allow the addition of services not previously offered such as Medical Priority Dispatch System allowing dispatchers to give CPR, OB Delivery and other Emergency Medical Instructions, but more importantly, MPDS makes EMS, Fire and Law Enforcement crews safer by allowing them to reduce the priority of their response. Vehicular accidents occurring during emergent response to calls is one of the largest killers of public safety personnel after heart attacks...
Training costs are significantly lower proportionately and of a much higher quality with a larger center...
There is the valid argument that a local dispatcher knows the service area much better than one in a consolidated dispatch center, which is the argument that White Bear Lake used when they opted out of Ramsey County Communications.
Although others may be opposed to it, and there are bound to be many errors in my argument, but from my personal safety standpoint as a full time member of the public safety community both in the metro area and in rural MN, a consolidated dispatch center is my communications provider of choice... I am going home at the end of the day...
For the record, i have worked public safety in Stearns, Meeker, Kandiyohi, Morrison, Benton, Sherburne, Mille Lacs, Wright, Hennepin, Ramsey, Olmsted, Goodhue, Waseca, Isanti, Le Sueur, Rice and Todd Counties and when dispatching, we served St. Louis, Douglas, Morrison, Meeker, Stearns, Benton, Sherburne, Olmsted, Dodge, Steele, Rice, Blue Earth, Nicollet, Martin, Mower and La Crosse Counties...
