Regional Dispatch Center Under Consideration

A cost saving plan to create a regional public safety and emergency dispatch center with neighboring towns is being explored by Newtown officials.

Maureen Will, Newtown’s director of communications, told the Newtown Board of Selectmen that the plan could potentially save Newtown alone $600,000 a year in dispatch expenses, about 80 percent of current costs, if the town can join with neighboring towns in a regional dispatch center.

Creating such a center would also entitle each of the towns involved, including Brookfield, to receive a $250,000 state grant as an incentive and to defray the costs, Will said.

Will said she wholeheartedly supports the regional concept, based on a study she did with the help of a state grant over the past several months and her 30 years of experience in the dispatch field.

Will said officials in Brookfield, where she used to work in dispatch before coming to Newtown, backed the concept of a regional plan. She added she will be meeting with Bethel officials to solicit their support as well.

Brookfield is open to looking at a regional plan, Police Chief Robin Montgomery said, but right now it is still “in the embryonic stage.”

“What you’re seeing is people realizing that there’s a lot of duplicity of services,” Montgomery said. “Each town having dispatch and radio is expensive.”

Brookfield employs eight full-time dispatchers at police headquarters and their salaries and benefits make up approximately one-fifth of the police payroll according to Major Jay Purcell.

While consolidation has not yet been discussed formally within the department, a main concern is that the dispatcher office, which is in the front entryway of the police department, is currently staffed at all times. If the central dispatch office is in another location, the building would be empty at certain times of the night.

One optional remedy for this problem is video displays that would tie into the central dispatch office. If someone comes into the station late at night, a dispatcher will see them and can radio for a patrol car to return.

“I’m very excited about this project,” Will said about overcoming such obstacles. “We have new technology, such as video streaming and fiber optics, to support it. Our current dispatch facility in police headquarters is very cramped. Our equipment is overwhelming the space. We have no lockers or lavatory.”

The three towns, Bethel, Brookfield and Newtown, might contract with Northeast Public Safety, a dispatch firm, to provide their dispatch service, she suggested, adding the dispatch center might be located on Newtown’s Fairfield Hills campus.

Newtown Selectman William Rogers said it would be worthwhile to reach out to Southbury to see if officials there also would also be interested in joining Newtown to form a region.

Will noted Monroe, Easton and Trumbull recently agreed, following a study of their own, to form a regional dispatch center, which will be located in Trumbull.

Such regional dispatch setups are common in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and the Midwest, but they are new to Connecticut, where towns have tended to act on their own because of the lack of county government, the communications director said.

However, Will said Oxford for several years has been involved with the Northwest Public Safety, a regional communications center for fire, ambulance and emergency services with a number of towns including Woodbury and Bethlehem.

The difference for Brookfield and affiliated towns would be that their dispatch center would also involve local police calls and communication, she said.

She said there may be some concerns about monitoring lock ups when suspects are held for court or until they are freed on bond, because dispatch personnel would not be in the police headquarters of the various towns to do that.

One solution may be to create a regional lock up which might also result in a cost savings for the several communities involved, Will said.