From Lowell Sun, Page 1 August 30, 2015
By Alana Melanson
Sun Staff
LOWELL -- Local dispatchers say the plan for a regional dispatch center in Tewksbury puts financial savings over public safety, and they worry it will lead to a loss of jobs and local knowledge while putting lives at risk.
In a Wednesday editorial board meeting at The Sun, dispatchers in Lowell, Chelmsford and Tewksbury expressed their concerns about a plan that would join their three communities and Dracut in a regional center in Tewksbury. With them was Jim Durkin, director of legislation, political action and communications for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 93, a union representing public dispatchers in New England.
Members of the dispatchers union believe unintended negative consequences will far outweigh any perceived benefits of the regional dispatch center proposed by the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments.
The regional center was originally proposed to include NMCOG's nine member communities. Billerica and Westford opted not to participate. Dunstable partnered with Groton, and Tyngsboro and Pepperell are also considering joining groupings of smaller towns instead.
Lowell officials have also expressed strong reservations about joining the regional facility, citing doubts about estimated cost savings and the effectiveness of the service dispatchers from the other towns could provide in Lowell.
If the plan moves forward with all four remaining communities, it would be the largest regional dispatch center in the state. According to NMCOG, a regional dispatch center would bring a cost savings of more than $1 million per year across all four communities. The council also says the center would result in new grant and training opportunities, and a large staff to handle crisis situations. Workers from existing town facilities would likely be employed at the regional center, NMCOG says.
But the dispatchers believe their jobs are at risk, and pointed to other regional centers that hired only a fraction of the dispatchers previously employed by their member communities.
T.J. Cooper, a lifelong Tewksbury resident, said she has invested 22 years into her career as a Lowell dispatcher and she cares about the community she serves.
"To turn around and just dismiss us, like 'Oh, reapply for your job and see if you get it,' that's a slap in the face," said Cooper, who also works part time in Dracut.
The dispatchers say they know the geographical intricacies of their communities. They know the differences between roads with the same or similar names, the locations of current landmarks and the long-gone landmarks that residents refer to as if they still exist. They worry that people from other communities, not as familiar as they, could send emergency personnel to the wrong locations and drastically increase response times to the detriment of those in need of help.
"It's all about getting to somebody in trouble as quickly as possible, and in many instances, particularly medical emergencies, seconds can mean a difference between life and death," Durkin said.
Matthew Sheehan, a Lowell dispatcher of five years, lives in Dracut but grew up in Lowell. He said his knowledge of the city can't be compared to a delay-prone GPS. In a car or foot chase, Sheehan said he knows all of the locations a suspect could end up, whereas someone without that level of familiarity wouldn't be able to properly direct additional units.
Matthew Carapellucci, a Tewksbury dispatcher of eight years and lifelong resident, said local dispatchers know how their town lines affect who responds to a call. He gave the example of Stadium Plaza, where the Lowell-Tewksbury line sits at the doors of Kmart.
Carapellucci said dispatchers are also usually familiar with community members and their medical conditions, call histories at houses, and how to deal with known mentally ill people that may call for help.
Richard Demers, a Chelmsford dispatcher of 23 years and lifelong Lowell resident, said dispatchers are familiar with the "frequent fliers," and can tell police what to expect when they pull up to a home. He said dispatching often means juggling emergency personnel between multiple calls.
In some of the towns, losing in-house dispatchers may mean having to pull a police officer off the street to man the front window and keep an eye on prisoners or the unexpected expense of having to hire someone else to do that job, Sheehan said. Or, it could mean locking the front door of a fire station normally open to the public while crews are out responding to calls, Cooper said, closing it to someone who may be in need.
The seasoned dispatchers said they know when someone unfamiliar with the area is dispatching from another regional center. David DeFreitas, a Chelmsford dispatcher of 23 years and longtime resident of the community, said Chelmsford receives numerous calls transferred from the Essex regional dispatch that are meant for Lowell or Chelsea.
Jason McNamara, a Tewksbury dispatcher of eight years and resident of the community, said misdirected calls could result in lawsuits. He said Essex once called upon the wrong town to answer what luckily turned out to be only a box alarm. He questioned what could have happened if it were a real fire.
DeFreitas said the regional plan will give dispatchers four years to learn the other communities. He questioned when the dispatchers were supposed to accomplish this between shifts and whether they would be compensated for their time, effort and expenses.
The dispatchers worry that call histories and other data stored in the towns' different computer systems won't be transferable to a new system, and information will be lost. They questioned the accessibility of police records that are now readily available in-house and frequently accessed during calls, such as restraining orders and stolen car reports.
While proponents of regional dispatch say the move will result in better training, the dispatchers say they are already trained at or above the level required.
Tewksbury selectmen voted to enter the regional dispatch center at their meeting on Wednesday. NMCOG will hold presentations about the regional facility at the Chelmsford Board of Selectmen meeting on Monday and at the Lowell City Council's Public Safety Committee meeting on Sept. 8.
Arguments for, against a regional dispatch center
Arguments for and against a regional dispatch center that would serve Lowell, Chelmsford, Dracut and Tewksbury. The center is proposed by the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments:
Benefits, according to NMCOG
* Significant cost savings: More than $1 million per year across all four communities.
* New grant and training opportunities.
* Large staff to handle crisis situations.
* Staff from existing town facilities would most likely be employed at the regional center.
Downsides, according to dispatchers
* Loss of jobs along with seniority and benefits earned over long careers.
* Loss of geographical knowledge.
* Loss of access to call histories and other records.
* Increased response times that risk lives.
* Unreliable state funding that will result in larger bills for member communities.
* Decreased communication and bonding with police and firefighters.
Follow Alana Melanson at facebook.com/alana.lowellsun or on Twitter and Tout @alanamelanson.
Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadlines/ci_28728222/dispatchers-warn-lost-jobs-safety-regional-center#ixzz3kPMYl9qz