The development of regional emergency dispatch centers will allow municipalities to both save money and implement state-of-the art dispatch protocols.  Regionalizing dispatch centers is an enormous, yet difficult to achieve, opportunity to consolidate services and move away from inefficient, often fragmented, local systems.  

Currently, nearly every city and town has its own dispatch center with all the incumbent labor and capital costs that go along with such a facility.  This model is inefficient because a single staff person may be unoccupied for long periods in between calls, yet unable to respond to multiple calls simultaneously.  Individual cities and towns also find it difficult to pay for state-of-the-art equipment and software or advanced training in Emergency Medical Dispatch protocols.  The state of New Hampshire currently operates with a single dispatch center.

Recent legislation reauthorizing 911 surcharges on all phone lines creates a new revenue stream to fund training and equipment purchases for “Public Safety Answering Points” (dispatch centers).  The legislation also created a separate set of bonus grants available to regional dispatch centers.  This bonus, proportional to the number of municipalities served, can be a strong incentive to regional dispatch.   MAPC is playing a lead role in helping Essex County municipalities to set up a regional emergency dispatch center.  

Municipalities should collaborate with one another to establish regional dispatch centers, with the assistance of MAPC and funding from the State 911 Department within the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.  The legislation also requires the Department to establish certification requirements for enhanced 911 telecommunicators that will include emergency medical dispatch and quality assurance of emergency medical dispatch programs.  MAPC may also be able to play a role in procuring training and quality assurance services for both local and regional dispatch centers. 

8.a    Municipalities should collaborate with MAPC to establish regional emergency dispatch centers

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