Editorial: The advantages of a joint dispatch

Published on August 29, 2008

The town of Amherst and the University of Massachusetts reached an important agreement last year that allowed their police departments to share patrols and respond to incidents in the campus area. It would be a logical extension of that agreement for the two agencies to share 911 dispatch services, and a good case can also be made for including the town of Hadley in the venture.

The proposal to have the three jurisdictions share the 911 response comes at a time when the Legislature is considering a bill that would provide financial incentives to towns that regionalize their emergency dispatch services.

It's also an idea that Amherst Police Chief Charles Scherpa has been touting for the last five years.

Regionalization of municipal services offers the potential for cost-savings through the reduction of administrative overhead and employees costs. It's an even more attractive proposition at a time when many municipalities throughout the Pioneer Valley are struggling to keep their budgets in balance.

There are other reasons why it's worth studying the idea of having UMass, Amherst and Hadley operate aside from the cost savings. They are similar areas with similar concerns and, at times, they share overlapping student-related problems. There's also reason to believe that the new dispatch service would provide more staffing flexibility. As Scherpa points out, the dispatcher's job is stressful and there's a high turnover rate; in addition, a larger staff would make it easier to have an employee fill in when a regularly scheduled dispatch worker is unavailable because of vacation or sick time. It would also enable the three jurisdictions to keep pace with the rising number of 911 calls.

Scherpa also believes that a combined dispatch operation could sell its services to other small towns sometime in the future.

Hadley Select Board member Daniel Dudkiewicz has raised one objection to the proposed merger. He worries that a dispatcher from UMass or Amherst might place a lower priority on responding to calls in Hadley.

In our opinion, that shouldn't be a hard objection to overcome. As Scherpa points out, there aren't a lot of judgment calls made in responding to emergency calls; rather, the dispatchers follow established policies on emergency calls.

Hadley has been considering operating its own ambulance service, rather than continuing to contract with Amherst, but it's unlikely that would have any impact on a joint dispatch service. This is an idea worth considering, and we hope the kind of turf battles that have prevented towns from cooperating on this kind of effort in the past don't preclude an agreement that could potentially benefit everyone involved.