Saint Joseph PD & 800 MHz

[k8tmk]

The local newspaper recently had an article about Saint Joseph City PD looking at switching to the 800 MHz state system and being dispatched by Berrien County. According to the article, St. Joe PD is the only holdout from allowing the county to perform their dispatch duties.

I will make the following prediction here, so that I can say "I told you so" if I'm right.

I predict that once the county has everyone under their control, they will continually raise their fees to the indvidual agencies at a tremendous rate. When police vehicles are replaced, the older radio equipment will no longer be installed. This will make it very costly for police departments to return to doing their own dispatching. And that's IF they can find an unused frequency (obviously their old unused frequencies will be reassigned to someone else).

Let's see how this plays out!

Randy

 

[kd8ati]

That may or may not be true. There are a ton of other counties doing the exact same thing, and they seem to be having success with it, from what I hear. Even here in the Detroit area cities are starting to create a central dispatch to save money.

I don't particularly like the idea of a central dispatch. local city dispatchers are familiar with the area. That makes the job easier on both dispatch and police. "hey im chasing someone towards joes bar in the alley" is a lot easier during those situations then "im running southbound in the alley behind main st towards central ave", which would be the case with most central dispatchers. Also makes it easier for the 911 call taker as well, for the same reason.

The local newspaper recently had an article about Saint Joseph City PD looking at switching to the 800 MHz state system and being dispatched by Berrien County. According to the article, St. Joe PD is the only holdout from allowing the county to perform their dispatch duties.

I will make the following prediction here, so that I can say "I told you so" if I'm right.

I predict that once the county has everyone under their control, they will continually raise their fees to the indvidual agencies at a tremendous rate. When police vehicles are replaced, the older radio equipment will no longer be installed. This will make it very costly for police departments to return to doing their own dispatching. And that's IF they can find an unused frequency (obviously their old unused frequencies will be reassigned to someone else).

Let's see how this plays out!

Randy

 

[garryd451]

If St. Joe is the only one not being dispatch by the county, what about Niles P.D. when did the county take over dispatching for them?