In a 45 minute presentation to the Genesee County Enhanced 9-1-1 Operations Board, Director of Emergency Communications, Steve Sharpe laid out the plan that APCO International recommended in upgrading fire and police protocol for dispatchers on Thursday morning.
APCO International is an organization of public safety communications professionals that supports the needs of public safety communications practitioners by providing expertise, professional development, technical assistance, advocacy and outreach.
Sharpe was looking to begin implementing changes to dispatch protocol for fire and police dispatchers over the next year using a Statewide Interoperability Communications Grant that has been extended into early 2019.
The protocol for EMS calls have been in place since the early 2000’s.
“We’ve been looking into protocols for dispatching for EMS, Police and Fire and we’ve had one company, APCO, offer an option,” says Robert Yungfleisch, Chairman of the 9-1-1 Operation Board.
After the presentation, the 9-1-1 Board went into Executive Session for about 30 minutes to discuss their options and listen to what dispatchers thought of the proposed plan.
In a unanimous vote, the Board decided against using APCO International as the vendor in the process. Coordinator of Emergency Management Services, Tim Yaeger, made a motion not to support the purchase of Priority Dispatch Software and City of Batavia Police Chief Shawn Heubusch seconded the motion.
“The Board’s decision means we are not going to pursue this,” says Sheriff Sheron.
“We have to come out of this room united and we have not done that.”
Out of 62 counties in NYS, only Jefferson County was using the APCO product. Jefferson County only made it applicable for new hires only and veteran dispatchers were exempt from using the new fire and police protocols which creates a more lengthy script when answering fire and police calls, according to dispatchers.
“That was our concern, it was only being used in one county out of 62 counties and we weren’t too thrilled, says Yungfleisch.
“Plus the questions they were going to have to ask goes beyond what we feel that need to be asked, it was kind of time consuming on the initial call and you don’t have that time to ask a lot of questions.”
Yungfleisch says the APCO product is for larger areas like NYC and Buffalo and Genesee County does not have that many agencies with a lot of cars.
“We are still going to look at policy and procedure, but we are going to get a county group together instead of hiring a company. We want to get dispatchers, fire, EMS, police agencies , the County, Public Works and Probation involved.”
EMS protocol also will be looked at since things have changed since the year 2000.
“There are calls now that we didn’t have back then, you didn’t have terrorist threats, it was a different world.”
Sheriff Sheron asked Sharpe if the grant money could be used for a new radio tower in the Bethany/ Alexander area.
“It could be used towards that,” says Sharpe.
“Whether or not we can get to a property and decision quick enough for that I do not know the answer to that. We used it for LeRoy’s tower, so don’t see why it would not be allowed.”
The grant is open until early 2019.
Also presented along with the APCO recommendation was a plan to combine all law enforcement channels into one talk group and encrypt it for structural awareness and officer safety.
Currently there are three different talk groups and one secure channel.
Sharpe says with the rise in multi agency incidents involving weapons, law enforcement should be able to hear everything in a one stop shop without having to go through several dispatchers.
“Officers can be assured their communications are always protected.”
Sharpe says media does not need to hear everything the officers say and media would still be able to monitor priority dispatch.
Currently, Law Enforcement has been using a secure encrypted channel when they want their communication to be private. It is being used on a case by case basis depending on the incident.
Yungfleisch says that was part of the plan, but since the APCO option is out, streamlining law enforcement is also out.
“If you had only one person doing the dispatch for the City, LeRoy, State Police and Sheriff’s office, you would have to hire 3-4 more dispatchers just for law enforcement. In this small of a county you have a budget to follow so that would never happen. It is going to remain the way it is for now,” says Yungfleisch.
The 9-1-1 Operations Board meets monthly and will discuss more about where to use the grant money next month. Creating a local group to look into the policy and procedures probably won’t take place until after an Assistant Director of Emergency Communications is hired after the Civil Service exam in October. That position has been budgeted, but has not been filled as of yet.