Having worked at both C-MED New Haven and also Troop I, I can understand both the consolidation side and the side to remain separate.
We already have regional centers in CT that work: Valley Shore, Willimantic Switch Board, Quinebaug valley Dispatch, LCD, and Tolland County Dispatch to name a few. Also the three busiest C-MED centers are South West (Lower Fairfield County), South Central (C-MED New Haven) and North Central (Hartford County). In the North West corner you have LCD and Northwest Public Safety the control the C-MED and the Eastern part of the state, well there are 5 separate C-MED control Centers that only control 1 or 2 hospitals!!
When I worked at C-MED New Haven, we direct dispatched four fire departments and five EMS agencies. Unfortunately two fire department left and the reason was all political (both sides), that was a fact. Now by what I'm hearing those two moves are begin regretted because of the proverbial "grass isn't greener on the other side" syndrome on some aspects, not all. The problem then is the same now, do more with less. EMS dispatchign was easy, all the same way but the fire end, there were 4 different ways us as dispatchers had to do it. Sorry, one uniform way is the only way to go and we tried to bring that to light. BUT those in charge of those departments kept saying "WE ARE PAYING YOU TO DO IT OUR WAY!" Crock of digested Shepard's pie if I say so myself. The added call volume swamped us, especially if we ended up with a working fire or a MCI. We did not have enough people to properly do our job and handle everything. Eventually staffing was re-aligned and helped make up for some of the problems.
Troop I is there still because it has a purpose, it covers a portion of the Central district that is not easily accessed by Troops H, A or G, though that argument has always been back and forth. The question with Troop I began when they decided to move Troop G from Westport up to Bridgeport making them a "super troop" and then re-assigning Troop I's stretch of I-95 from Milford to the East Haven / Branford line and I-91 from the split to just south of Exit 3 (the ramps are Troop I's) over to G. But what people do not realize is that Troop G only covers the highway as described and all the other stuff (the courts, detective bureau, Major Crime, ect.) is still covered by Troop I. Also Troop I has three resident trooper towns (Prospect, Beacon Falls and Bethany), small compared to the north east and north west portions of the state.
Consolidating Troop B and L together was talked about years ago. For those who don't know, Troop B is located in North Canaan (outside of Canaan village) and is closer to the Mass boarder. The problem is now too is everyone is promoting "community policing" and they get the sense of the dispatchers moving out to their area is going to take a longer response. Obviously that is not the case but its not explained correctly. Their call volume together is not even half of Troop I's or a quarter of Troop G or H's. As for the dispatchers, when I was there there were supposed to be six dispatchers per troop, two for each shift on a rotating basis 5 on, 3 off with two overlap days. The desk is always manned by a trooper as that is the SOP or a law requirement because of NCIC / Collect (cannot remember for sure which) If a dispatcher's position was open, it would be filled by another dispatcher from that troop, then open up to other troop's dispatchers, then by a trooper on OT. When I worked there the 6th position was not filled because of budget cuts, the position was still there but not filled.
Each troop receives the 911s from the cell towers along the highways, if they cover any highway. If the cell tower is located in the town, then it goes to the local PSAP. Great set up huh?????
You cannot compare a large dispatch center like NYC or LA to CSP or any other type of agency in CT. However those large "county" or "regional" centers still do the same thing that dispatch center do here. Instead of a Troop transferring to a local agency or FD / C-MED dispatch center, they do and intra-transfer. The call is answered by the call taker, they take the information, then the information and the call is transferred to PD, EMS or FD, or it may just transfer the information.
No matter what, can consolidation of dispatch centers be done, yes. But the unfortunate thing that public safety is always a knee jerk reaction and consolidation will never be properly implemented correctly.