How Neighboring Communities Use County Dispatch

For the past year, Gulfport city leaders have discussed the possibility of outsourcing the city's police dispatch to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office (PCSO). It would be a cost-saving measure as the city's budget continues to grow and officials search for ways to make cuts while maintaining essential emergency services.

Savings could be significant – as much as $147,677 for the first year and an annual savings of as much as $305,226 thereafter, according to an estimate obtained by Gulfport Police Chief Robert Vincent in September 2010. There is debate as to whether the city's needs would be sufficiently met, since the dispatchers outside the city might not be as familiar with Gulfport's geography.

The initial estimate that Chief Vincent received from PCSO to begin full-time dispatch coverage in Gulfport was $115,000 with an annual fee of $85,000.

PCSO provides dispatch and police patrol for 12 municipalities:

• Belleair Beach
• Belleair Bluffs
• Belleair Shore
• Dunedin
• Indian Rocks Beach
• Madeira Beach
• North Redington Beach
• Oldsmar
• Redington Beach
• Safety Harbor
• Seminole
• South Pasadena

It provides part-time police dispatch for three county municipalities that have their own police departments:

• Indian Shores
• Belleair
• Kenneth City

Indian Shores

“We're kind of a hybrid,” said Indian Shores Mayor James Lawrence, who has been involved with city government for 12 years. “We have dispatch at certain hours, and the rest of the time we rent that service from the sheriff's office.”

Indian Shores Police Department mans its own police dispatch from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. Thursday through Sunday. PCSO takes over all police dispatch for all remaining hours yet still takes all 911 emergency calls 24/7 and dispatches patrol officers directly.

“At one time, it saved us quite a bit of money by not having to keep a full-time dispatch,” Lawrence said, adding that the PCSO's rate used to be in the neighborhood of $120 per month (approximately $1,400 per year) until rates went way up several years ago. For the 2010-11 fiscal year, the annual rate had increased to $21,600.

As far as a regional dispatcher's familiarity with a separate municipality, Indian Shores encompasses only one main stretch of Gulf Boulevard without a lot of side streets.

“We're essentially one street,” Lawrence said, “so there aren't any intricate street patterns to make things more confusing.”

Lawrence said Indian Shores intends to continue with the arrangement with PCSO considering the additional cost of salary and benefits for full-time coverage.

“We would like to have our own dispatch 24/7, but even at the higher rate ($21,000) it's still cheaper for us to limit our dispatch hours.”

Belleair

Belleair also has its own police department and uses PCSO on a full-time basis for emergency calls yet mans its non-emergency calls from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m on weekends, according to Town Manager, Micah Maxwell.

 “We use [PCSO] after hours,” Mayor Gary Katica says. “That works really well for us.”

The dispatch arrangement has been going on for about four years and saves the town money, he says, but he couldn't speculate how much. Nonetheless, he thinks it's much more efficient.

“It works really well. If you've been through a big dispatch like Pinellas County, you have people there and there are constantly calls,” he said, noting the difficulty of overnight dispatch in a small town. “I used to be an air traffic controller many years ago, and midnight shifts were always difficult because there's little action. It just works well that way with the PCSO dispatch.”

He said there may occasionally be a problem with a regional dispatcher not knowing particular areas of town but not to the point of concern.

“Once in a while but not any big deal,” he said. “When you're dealing with the public, there will always be somebody that says you should do this or that. You're never going to make everybody happy. We do the best with what we have.”

According to Belleair Town Manager Micah Maxwell, Belleair police dispatch answers the phone from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends with PCSO handling the rest of the hours.

Kenneth City

Kenneth City is the other municipality in Pinellas County that has its own police department yet directs all police calls, including non-emergency, to PCSO, on nights and weekends while maintaining routine dispatch during the day.

Town Clerk Susan Scrogham confirmed that the Kenneth City Police Department operates its dispatch from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. During nights, weekends and holidays, its non-emergency number is forwarded to the PCSO Communications Center.

Clearwater

Clearwater has its own police department and has considered outsourcing its dispatch services as part of discussion in budget hearings, but it has no current plans under consideration.

According to Joelle Castelli, a spokeswoman for the Clearwater Police Department, a proposal had been made to eliminate its police dispatch and go with the county, but the idea never went beyond discussion.

“It would be a lot of staff reduction as well as technology reduction,” she said. “It's not on the front burner right now. It came up in the budget hearings a year ago.”

She figures technological compatibility would be a concern.

“I think the biggest issue we would have is the radio compatibility," she said, and "the delay, if there was any delay in time."

Pinellas Park

Pinellas Park has a budget of $604,000 for salaries and benefits of 15 employees in the dispatch unit (14 dispatchers and one supervisor) for the 2011-12 fiscal year. Although there has been discussion of reducing the budget, it plans to maintain its police dispatch while the county looks at ways to reduce the number of EMS staff.

“We haven't had any consideration as far as the sheriff's department" dispatch, said Tim Caddell, government relations administrator for Pinellas Park. "There's been a lot in the news lately about EMS and fire service. The town is trying to save money by consolidating some of that.”

Caddell echoes the sentiments of many city, police and fire officials throughout the county when it comes to discussion of reducing staff in emergency services.

“We haven't really taken a stand on it,” he says. “We're trying to be pragmatic about it and to do what's best for the county as a whole.”

Pinellas County Sheriff's Office Communications Center

Communications Division Commander Lt. James Bordner says county dispatchers answer calls and 911 calls that are transferred from the Emergency Communications Call Center in Clearwater from Belleair, Kenneth City and Indian Shores 24 hours a day, seven days a week (in addition to other city agreements).

Bordner says according to records, the PCSO began billing Indian Shores and Kenneth City in January 1977 for dispatch services. Bordner says services for Belleair began more recently, but he did not have the exact date.

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The Gulfport City Council is slated to vote Wednesday on the second reading of the operating budget for fiscal 2012, which includes outsourcing Gulfport Police dispatch full-time. The special meeting is at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Gulfport City Hall.