There’s been a lot of outreach lately from Village Hall to residents regarding Public Safety Committee meetings where 911 dispatch consolidation has been discussed. Three such meetings have occurred since September, in addition to at least two Village Board meetings where the Board of Trustees have also discussed the matter.
Turnout for these meetings has been very low. Perhaps residents are resting from the fast and frequent pace of Zoning Board public hearings that ended only last month. Maybe residents understand and approve the move to consolidate. Or, maybe people didn’t have time to read the 145-page “Public Safety Answering Point” report in the midst of the holidays, and who can blame them?
We’ve read the report, as well as other resources available, and have come up with some frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) we’ve heard from residents. They are:
Why has the Village been exploring 911 consolidation?
This is an initiative that now-retired Police Chief Michael Murphy had been advocating for some time. Last year, he convinced the Village Board to investigate opportunities for improvements for 911 services through an experienced independent third-party consulting group.
What are the reasons for consolidating 911 services?
Barrington Hills is one of the very last municipalities left that has not consolidated. Barrington, South Barrington, East Dundee, Carpentersville, Algonquin and many other communities went with consolidation years and decades ago. Keeping up with changing technology demands and investments becomes a very costly proposition for a single community like ours, and by joining with other communities, those costs are dramatically lowered and shared by all participants.
We also have only one 911 dispatcher on duty at any given time. When that one dispatcher is unavailable, 911 calls bounce to another call center. Given response mandates coming from Springfield, we may have to increase staffing sometime in the future to meet guidelines set forth by the state.
Is this all about lowering costs?
No. Cost is certainly an incentive, but the safety of residents appears to be the primary concern.
How would residents’ safety be improved through consolidation?
Our current 911 dispatch center only handles Village Police calls. Any emergency calls for ambulance or fire response are transferred to other call centers for response after information is taken.
This transfer process can take time and sometimes could cause delays, and according to the Barrington Countryside Fire Protection District, a fire doubles in size every minute.
Further, our dispatchers are not trained to deal with the immediate needs of a caller when it comes to a heart attack or other life threatening situations. They must transfer the caller to another 911 center for immediate assistance until help arrives.
If consolidation occurs, will there be no one left manning the village police station dispatch center?
No. Two shifts will be covered by existing personnel to handle non-emergency and administrative calls, in addition to walk-ins needing assistance.
What is “QuadCom” and why are they being considered?
QuadCom is a 911 call center that has been actively serving many of the surrounding communities, in some cases, for decades. They’ve serviced South Barrington since 1991 for police dispatch, East Dundee for police and fire departments, and Carpentersville for police and fire, among other member communities.
Unlike most 911 centers, QuadCom is a membership only service group. We would have to apply for membership among the other nine members. Once a member, Barrington Hills would have a seat at the board and have a vote in any future technology and staffing matters.
Also, the Executive Director, Beth Heitkamp, actually began her career in 1984 in our own Barrington Hills 911 center under then Chief Lamb’s tenure, and she seems to have an undiminished passion for the people of Barrington Hills.
Are QuadCom’s dispatchers ‘better’ than our current staff?
From the standpoint of dedication to their jobs, the answer would have to be no from what we’ve heard. Beth Heitkamp has repeatedly praised our dispatchers in public meetings, and some may ultimately be employed by QuadCom should the consolidation be approved.
The most noteworthy difference in our minds is that QuadCom’s staffs are mostly, if not all CPR-certified, meaning from the first point of contact they can assist the caller in the event of a heart attack from the time between the call and when trained EMT specialists arrive on the scene. Our current dispatchers are not CPR-certified.
Additionally, QuadCom dispatchers stay on the line with residents until emergency personnel arrive at the scene, instead of passing the call to another 911 center, thus keeping the residents apprised of what is occurring and when.
Some village addresses are hard to find, so how will an outside dispatcher know where to direct responders?
Both Barrington Hills and QuadCom have digital mapping systems at their disposal. In QuadCom’s case, they have multiple systems available which are tied to land line and cell phone locations.
Fortunately in the case of Barrington Hills, we have very experienced police officers who know where exactly they need to go with a simple address, and the same can be said for the fire districts serving Barrington Hills. Nonetheless, any new dispatchers will participate in “drive along” education with police officers for visual training.
Do we need to consolidate now to a new call center?
No, but politicians in Springfield are talking about requiring consolidation at some point. If this occurs, our options might be limited instead of having a choice as we do now.
Certain “legacy” software and hardware at our current dispatch center will need to be upgraded this year, and that expense will require a significant six-figure investment of taxpayer dollars to achieve. If a consolidation decision is made after this investment, it is unknown if this can be recouped through resale.
Are there financial benefits to consolidation?
Yes. As with any consolidation, there are always economies realized by a joining a common group with a shared goal, which in this case is enhanced emergency response to residents.
After the initial membership investment to QuadCom is recouped, the average cost annually for 911 dispatch services to taxpayers will decrease from $168 per capita to under $50. This equates to a projected $6 million savings over 15 years to taxpayers.
Based on our review of all the information that has been presented on the topic, including the recently released recordings of the Public Safety Committee meeting, we believe that 911 consolidation will benefit Village residents in a number of ways, and this move does not come without endorsement and praise from neighboring communities.
Still, there are a few detractors, but their arguments seem more partisan based than substantive. However, most of their concerns seemed to have been allayed at the recent Public Safety Committee meetings.
Our Village Board will take this matter up again during this evening’s regular board meeting. We hope that politics is put aside and that a constructive dialog can occur which will result in improving public safety in Barrington Hills.
– The Observer
Very few things in government are a “no brainer”; but when it comes to VBH 911 system and whether to transfer these responsibilities to QuadCom, this appears to be truly a “no brainer”..
Having attended a prior 911 meeting and after reading liturature on the subject, there appears to be no financia savings or reduction of risk for VBH to maintain its own system, just additional cost to taxpayers. The question is why did VBH embark on having its own 911 system in the first place when the trend of municipalities was clearly to do the opposite with most opting for regional service?
QuadCom is cheaper and all dispatchers are trained to handle all emergencies. The trend has been in Illinois for an extended period of time now for municipalities to sign on with regional 911 systems, Given today’s technology of pin point mapping and potential regional threats, signing on with regional operator makes even more sense..
The redundancy in VBH 911 system poses unnessary risk to VBH residents at greater cost. In other words, my understanding is that certain medical emergency calls into VBH 911 system have to be re-routed to QuadCom because VBH dispatchers are not licensed to handle certain medical emergencies (ie. heart attacks and choking). In effect, our 911 system slows response time down because on these emergency medical calls, they have to be re-routed to a qualified dispatcher.
BOT member Gohl said VBH 911 system brings greater customer service to non-emergency callers in VBH. This is not the function of a 911 system. Further, Government is not a “for profit” enterprise nor does it concern itself with repeat business or customer loyalty.
I do not pretend to have any great knowledge in this area, I am just relaying my observations and thoughts from what I have taken away from 911 meeting, answers to my questions and liturature.
I hope someone makes a compelling argument why VBH should continue to operate its own 911 system. VBH is likely to see dispatchers unionize in the foreseeable future increasing costs and making future switch mo to regional servicer more difficult if not impossible. Under Quadcom it is estimated VBH taxpayers will save 3 Million Dollars over 10 years with no compromise on service.
One final note, I understand municipalities that operate their own 911 system lease out its service to other municipalities in order to defray costs to local taxpayers. VBH Board has never successfully done this requiring our stagnant tax base of approximately 1400 residential taxpayers to pay full ride. This makes no sense. Leasing the system to other municipalities should have been something done by VBH Board when the system was first implemented. BACOG could have helped in this fashion by cobbling BACOG municipalities together to lease from VBH system. This would have gone a long way in justifying annual fee charged by BACOG to VBH.
My conversation with one of VBH dispatchers is that they would love to see VBH system tied into more municipalities. This would make for less downtime and provide greater justification for system equating to job secuirty. VBH has a work force which says give us more to do, but for many years VBH Board did nothing. Now VBH finds itself with an obsolete (immediately invest money to upgrade computer hardware and software) overpriced system with under utilized labor force.
The 911 system is symptomatic of an arrogance which has been plaguing “Save 5 Acres” dominated Board n/k/a [S]pend [O]ur [S]avings for many years and that is the attitude, we are VBH we can afford it. Once onlyl has to review the Board’s marketing to the electorate and subsequent referendum to remove police pension from IMRF.
With the continued advances in technology in all areas of our lives it is obvious that our desire to implement computerized gadgetry is here to stay. We are country in love with our smartphones and coming soon our village will transition to smart meters to better provide us with accurate and immediate information on our electricity consumption. Is it great that meter readers are replaced? No not always. in many instances, there will be casualties due to technological upgrades. This is a fact of life in our modern world.
The clock is ticking on this issue, and it is absolutely alright to agree to disagree but for how long and why? Continued study and debate will slow the transition for unspecified amount of time, putting us further behind other communities who already have made this transition.
Dispatchers who are currently working for the village will be facing some unfortunate changes, and in many instances job losses brought about by our ever-changing computerized and tech savvy world. Should they receive medical training to handle medical emergencies instead of Quadcom?
And it is true, that our unlimited desire to spend every tax dollar isn’t always a solution to a problem. Many village residents should realize that compromise and consolidation aren’t always a four letter word!