Group conveys dispatch concerns

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
For years, dispatch services provided by Newcastle Police Department have been a concern, according to a group of representatives from the Newcastle City Council, Newcastle Volunteer Fire Department, Weston County Homeland Security, Upton Police Department and several other agencies that use the service. 
On June 16, three people asked the Weston County commissioners to discuss forming a board or committee to help address their concerns. The three were Gilbert Nelson, coordinator of Weston County Emergency Management; Don Steveson, a Newcastle city councilman and volunteer fireman; and Susan Bridge, chief of the Upton Police Department. 
The previous evening during the Newcastle City Council meeting Nelson, Weston County Fire Warden Daniel Tysdal and others approached the council to discuss the potential implementation of a new program, “I Am Responding” to assist the fire departments. The topic had previously been discussed in a police committee meeting. 
Tysdal explained that this program would benefit the departments but Dispatch Supervisor Melissa Stubs said it would be difficult to implement  the changes at this time. 
Police Chief Jim Owens said that his concerns about the implementation involved the ability of the current system at the facility to handle another program. He also expressed concerns about adding further duties to the dispatch staff’s job description. 
According to Commissioner Marty Ertman, issues with the dispatch services have been discussed between the city and county for years, although the topic became mute after several meetings. At the June 16 meeting, the commissioners all expressed support for working with the Newcastle City Council to address the issues and to guarantee that the entities are working together in the community’s best interest. 
“There have been complaints for many years. There has always been an issue. …. We are here with a common goal. I don’t care if you are from the city or county,” Steveson said. “We are all here as one entity to help out. It should not be us against them.” 
Steveson maintained that the group suggested a committee was to allow all entities paying for the services to have a say in how things are done. 
“I have always felt in my mind, if you are getting a service, then you deserve a voice. That is not being done. I have tried to help move that along. I am here to see what we can do as a city to keep the communication line open,” Steveson said. “Every incident I have ever been involved in, the No. 1 complaint is always communication.”
According to Bridge and others at the meeting, the work is worth it if it will address some of the issues with the way the dispatch center is operating. 
Bridge said that she had approached Newcastle Police Chief Jim Owens on different occasions to discuss the issues. She said that one of her concerns is dispatch’s failure to call her or her officer when an ambulance is dispatched to a scene. 
“We have a policy in place, standard operating protocol, saying that the Upton police will be at every fire and ambulance call. That is impossible for us to hear the page because we are not a 24-hour respond,” Bridge said. 
Certain dispatchers claim they cannot drop the Emergency Medical Dispatch narrative that they use during medical calls, she said. 
“It is a very good program, but that ties up your one and only dispatch. … They can’t stop and pick up the phone to call me,” she said.
According to Bridge, she had asked Owens if something could be done to get the dispatchers to relay a quick call to her in order to get Upton police en route to the scene. 
“We got with Daniel Tysdal (Weston County fire warden), and he put us on a program so those calls come to our cells, but there is an eight-minute delay. I don’t know about Newcastle and the rest of the county, but we have some individuals in our community that the ambulance crew should not be going into that house without law enforcement, and they are already on the scene before we can even know that there is a call,” Bridge said.
The problem, Bridge said, is that dispatch could momentarily stop the medical dispatch narrative to give the police a call and that some of the dispatchers have agreed and do so; others refuse. 
“When I speak about this, my understanding is not that they are just bad. They don’t have the staff, and I’ve told Jim that to his face. We don’t have enough people to dispatch for all these agencies, and there are only so many dollars. What do you do with that?” Bridge said. 
Nelson said that another concern involves dispatchers not communicating quickly enough with Weston County sheriff’s deputies during potentially dangerous situations because they are dealing with less dangerous city situations. 
“I think a board would solve these issues. I don’t know if it would solve them all because we all want things we aren’t willing to pay for, but this would give us a voice and a safe place to voice our concerns,” Bridge said. 
Nelson, Steveson and Bridge were given the go ahead from the commissioners to continue to work toward developing a board or a committee to better address and resolve the issues. Commissioner Tony Barton said that the board should serve under the authority of the City Council because it is their dispatch program. 
“This is like two parents having a family of children and because they are fighting, the children suffer. If we can’t overcome our differences to come to an agreement for the people, then we should all go home and get people in here that will. Everyone needs to go home,” Commissioner Tracy Hunt said. “There is no room for failure. This has to succeed, otherwise we are doing a real disservice.”