Kenilworth, Winnetka and Northfield Could Consolidate Emergency Services

The villages of Kenilworth, Winnetka and Northfield are considering combining their police departments’ emergency dispatch services in order to save money on operating expenses and future technological upgrades.

The move would take about $1.2 million to set up, but save approximately $158,331 each year, according to Elert & Associates Technology Consultants. That would be a 10 percent reduction in costs for the three departments, mostly coming from reduced labor costs.

The three communities began discussing consolidating dispatch services in 2009. In 2011 their respective staffs agreed to hire Elert & Associates to analyze their findings and make a recommendation. Elert Senior Vice President Tom Pavek attended meetings in all three communities to give presentations on his company’s research and advise elected officials to move forward with the plan.

“We should proceed with consolidation,” Pavek said at Monday’s Kenilworth Village Board meeting. “I think we've got a situation where we can do it deliberately and not rush to do it.”

The process is expected to take two years to complete, as a data network must be created to share information between the three villages. The emergency dispatch center would operate out of the , meaning the Northfield and Kenilworth police departments would not be staffed after business hours. Instead, their lobbies would be equipped with phones that would call the dispatch center. Officers could then be deployed to crime scenes, or to meet callers at the police department. Kenilworth trustees agreed that they should look into how many people come to the police department after hours, but Pavek said he expected the number to be low.

“Many people have cell phones, and whether you're standing in the lobby, or driving down the road, or are somewhere in the community, you can get the same service,” he said.

Shared costs would help with technology updates

Pavek said he expected consolidation would slightly improve service, but the biggest advantage for the three communities would come when they decided to upgrade their equipment to incorporate new law enforcement innovations, like receiving emergency text messages or using video surveillance equipment to provide an immediate view of a reported crime.

Kenilworth Trustee Bill Russell said the three small communities would only be able to afford the upgrades by sharing costs. Winnetka Police Chief Patrick L. Kreis said that consolidation would allow the departments to have more people managing emergency dispatch, making it easier for them to monitor all the information coming in.

“When messages are coming in text, video or pictures, the level of interaction is more complicated,” Kreis said. “One of the things that have driven our study is being not only economically sensible, but being prepared so that when the technology is available we'll be in a position to be able to deliver that.”

Kenilworth resident Linda Edson said she didn’t think the savings were enough to warrant consolidation.

“The amount of money you're talking about saving is less than $15 a month per household,” she said. “I think it is important to have something here.”

Kenilworth President Fred Steingraber disagreed, saying the savings would help Kenilworth deal with infrastructure updates.

“In this day and age, 10 percent is not to be laughed at as a savings,” he said. “If we can keep ourselves alive with partners like this and save even this level of money going in, it's a plus for this community. We're going to need to focus a lot more of our dollar resources on streets, storm water and sewers: very big problems we have here that are not going away.”

Staff members from the three villages are expected to begin work on an intergovernmental agreement in January.