South Windsor Police Dispatch Center in Final Phase of Overhaul

The South Windsor Police Department dispatch center is entering the final phase of its overhaul, according to Chief Matthew Reed.

The $440,000 project, which included the installation of a new radio console, now calls for the expansion of its current room to double its size.

The new dispatch console, which cost $290,000, replaced used equipment that was installed 10 years ago. That upgrade, in addition to the new radio equipment for department personnel and vehicles that was purchased with a $350,000 grant two years ago, means that the town is covered with the most recent communications technology, according to Reed.

The new technology makes use of microwave links, which replaces the old 800 mhz system, Reed said. That means that the department’s communications have blanket coverage - in addition to greater clarity in transmission - over the entire town, as repeaters no longer have to be used to bounce signals over hills and other obstacles.

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“We’re judged the most critically during our most critical incidents,” Reed said. “We put [the project] off as long as we could until we had no other alternatives. We said, ‘Let’s do it now and let’s do it right.’”

Accordingly, the final phase, which will cost about $100,000, calls for, among other things, a wall to be knocked down in the dispatch center to expand the room from about 260 square feet to 500 square feet and will subsume some former office space. The center will also have to be re-wired, Reed said.

This project is not, according to Reed, a case of municipal profligacy. Indeed, the dispatch center was designed and built in the mid-1980s  and was supposed to house just two people, back when the department was about half its current size in terms of personnel, Reed said.

After the freak October nor’easter, which saw the center at times cram up to eight people in the room, it became clear that the overhaul was needed not just from a technological standpoint.

“We were doing things we never had to do before,” Reed said. “[During the November power outages], we had people in from the utility company, the fire department, ambulance, the police department.”

The refurbished center will house three dispatchers comfortably and will have space for a sink and a hot plate so people can take a meal break or have a drink of water without having to leave the room, Reed said.

“The new space will be more self-sustaining,” Reed said. “It will be bigger and more conducive to a modern dispatch center.”

Some creative funding was used by the town - a 7-year financing deal was worked out - to pay for the project. In April, Reed had proposed taking the money out of his operating budget, which the council declined to do.

“The town council was courageous; this needed to get done,” said Reed, who credited Lt. Tim Edwards for managing a lot of the project. “We had a bona fide problem that we needed to get done immediately. …

“I can now say we have a system that is reliable and provides services people of South Windsor can expect.”

Reed said that he hopes the final phase of the project will be finished by mid-summer.