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LISBON -- With local police departments having trouble finding and keeping part-time dispatchers, Columbiana County Sheriff Ray Stone suggested now may be the time to explore having one central dispatching location serve the entire county as a way to address these manpower shortages.
"If we had centralized dispatching we'd have the pool of full-time dispatchers as well as the pool of part-timers" to draw from, thereby eliminating staffing problems, he said.
Stone's comments came during this week's meeting of the county 911 advisory committee after the topic of finding people willing and able to work as part-time dispatchers was raised. East Liverpool Police Chief John Lane and East Palestine Police Chief Jim Brown III said they can only afford to hire so many full-time dispatchers, forcing them to rely more and more on part-time dispatchers to work the other shifts and on weekends.
"It's hard to get people who are capable and willing to work those hours," Lane said.
Brown said smaller departments such as East Palestine are often unable to pay a competitive wage for part-time dispatchers, who frequently leave for full-time dispatching jobs with benefits or departments that pay a better. The turnover rate leaves them often scrambling for coverage.
"That is an issue when you rely on part-time dispatchers to carry the load," he said.
Part of the problem today is dispatchers are required to have more skills than in the past, making it more of a profession than a job, but the pay is not commensurate with the additional responsibilities, said Highlandtown Fire Chief Jeremiah Cole.
County Commissioner Tim Weigle, who serves as committee chairman, agreed. "It's a profession anymore," Weigle said.
Stone said that is why it may be time to begin discussing consolidating the five 911 dispatch centers into one to resolve dispatcher staffing issues and save money. Under the county's plan, the sheriff's office and the Columbiana, East Liverpool, East Palestine and Salem police departments serve as 911 answering centers, with the calls routed to them based on geography. Their dispatchers handle the 911 calls in addition to the routine calls they receive.
Weigle and Brown said having central dispatch to handle only 911 calls would not solve the problem because the police departments still need to maintain a dispatch staff to handle other calls. "There's just no way we could totally eliminate our dispatching," Brown said, a sentiment echoed by Lane.
Stone said that is why the solution could be central county dispatching to do the dispatching for all law enforcement agencies, with police departments contributing savings from the consolidation to help pay the expense. 911 funding generated by the monthly taxes on land lines and cell phones would also help pay for central dispatch.
The husband of county 911 Director Peggy Clark works as a 911 official in neighboring Beaver County, Pa., and Weigle asked her to explain how it works there. Clark said Beaver County was once like here, with each police department having its own dispatchers, but they now have countywide centralized dispatch that handles those duties for all, with the state contributing more than $1 million per year.
"It's being done all over the country and in Ohio," Clark said.
The police chiefs argued they need someone to be in the office when a person shows up asking questions or wanting to file a report. Clark said some of the departments in Beaver County hired a secretary to be in the office during the day Monday through Friday to take care of those inquiries. If someone wants to speak to an officer on a non-emergency matter after hours or on weekends, she said the dispatchers contact a police officer to come in off the road to meet with that person.
Stone said he was not advocating going to central dispatch, but it is inevitable because of the cost of each department having its own dispatchers. Brown said the people he serves still want the personal contact of being able to walk into the station and speaking with a dispatcher.
"But is that a luxury we can afford?" Weigle asked.
"And that's what it comes down to," Clark added.
Weigle said for the county to continue to maintain its 911 system as currently configured would require more state funding, which is based on a flat monthly cell phone tax.