Frank Juliano, Staff Writer
Published: 11:17 p.m., Wednesday, January 26, 2011
MILFORD The city's separate dispatch centers for police, fire and medical emergencies means that some 911 calls have to be transferred -- a situation that public safety officials are preparing to address.
"It will be complex and expensive, and we're still working out the logistics,'' Mayor James L. Richetelli Jr. said Tuesday. "It's something that we know we have to get to.''
Right now all 911 calls come into the dispatching center at the fire department headquarters on New Haven Avenue. Callers who need police assistance are transferred to the police department dispatchers, who are about two miles away.
The fire department responds to medical calls with its rescue units, but if an ambulance is needed a third dispatching center is patched in, the Meriden based C-MED.
Officials said Tuesday that 911 calls are responded to quickly, and that there have been no recent complaints. "Under our agreement with American Medical Response, at least two ambulances are located here at all times,'' Richetelli said. "They are dispatched through C-MED, but it doesn't matter where their center is physically located because the ambulances are here.''
But 80 percent of all 911 calls are police-related, Chief Keith Mello said. He predicted that it could cost more than $1 million to set up a central public safety dispatching center. "We have two sets of towers, for police and fire calls,'' he said. "We are trying to get away from having to transfer people when they call 911.''
The city has already made some infrastructure and communications improvements in anticipation of the larger project. A fiber optic network that links 14 municipal buildings is nearly completed, the mayor said.
"We're installing repeaters (to relay signals) all over the city and we are redoing all of the communication software in the police and fire departments,'' he said. A central dispatching system is at least five years away and is not included in the current capital improvement plan.
Dan Worroll, who heads the fire department dispatching center, declined to comment.
Richetelli stressed that the situation involves only the initial 911 calls. "The police and fire departments can talk to each other in the field and through C-MED they can talk directly to the ambulance crew.''
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