Study suggests merging 911 call centers

Flathead County panel received draft Tuesday

Flathead County's police and emergency agencies should consolidate dispatch duties in an independent communications center, a draft report recommended.

The Flathead City-County 911 Administrative Board received that and other draft recommendations Tuesday.

The board hired Lisa Durand - a former longtime emergency dispatch official - to study whether the county's current dispatch setup should be overhauled.

Flathead County has four 911 dispatch centers.

Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls each has a 911 center to handle only police calls within their city limits.

The Flathead County Sheriff's Office supervises the fourth 911 center, which handles all city and rural fire and emergency calls in the county and all law-enforcement calls outside the three cities.

Problems exist with the main 911 center handling fire, ambulance and administrative duties and dispatching sheriff's deputies.

Durand and Turner Askew, chairman of the board's long-range planning committee, presented the draft report to the 911 panel. Board members recommend changes in the next several days. The final report is due in a few weeks.

"My summary: We're working, but not well," Askew said.

Changes in the 911 systems must be made sooner or later, he said.

Durand interviewed police, fire, emergency and government officials, dispatchers, computer experts and emergency workers.

"In general, most all interviewees supported a move to consolidate all communication services into an independent 911 center. My observations support such a move," Durand wrote in her draft report.

Nine dispatchers at a time are supposed to be on duty at the four 911 centers. But the number frequently shrinks because of training, off days and the lack of extra dispatchers.

The time lag is greater than it should be from when 911 receives a call to when a vehicle from the proper department arrives at the scene, the report said. This often is due to slow phone lines and the multiple steps required to route calls.

Problems exist with the fire radio system, many rural fire chiefs told Durand. An example is that the Somers firefighters do not receive both paging tones and voice dispatches about 75 percent of the time when called out to an emergency. Some rural departments also report poor radio reception.

Officers, dispatchers, firefighters and emergency workers frequently must monitor other jurisdictions' radio traffic to track what is going on.

Various dispatchers also have clerical, administrative, typing and data-entry duties. They serve as jailers in Columbia Falls and Whitefish, the report said. They also must provide medical instruction by phone before emergency workers arrive at a scene.

Meanwhile, procedures and training need improvement, the report said.

The draft report recommends that:

-An independent, consolidated 911 center on high ground should be established, and a new administrative board should supervise it. A backup facility should be in another city.

Questions exist about such a center's location, backup facility, size, design, budget and funding sources.

-A full-time director should be hired.

-Updated computerized tracking, mapping and records systems should be installed.

-More dispatchers should be hired.

. More training is needed.

. Emergency radio coverage in Flathead County should be studied for upgrading.

-Computer software should be upgraded.