During a crisis, it can be hard for police and firefighters in Dakota County to talk to other departments on their radios. That will change next year when a new system goes online.
By SARAH LEMAGIE
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
Copyright 2006 Star Tribune
It was a major fire.
A townhouse complex under construction in Burnsville’s Heart of the City was burning, and firefighters from four cities rushed to the scene.
But they couldn’t talk to each other on their radios; 911 dispatchers had to shuttle instructions from radio to telephone and back to radio so the departments could communicate during the 2003 blaze.
Such large-scale emergencies are one reason emergency responders across Dakota County are looking forward to the new Dakota Communications Center in Empire Township. The center will combine the police, fire and ambulance communications of Dakota County and 11 south-metro cities. The center broke ground last week and is scheduled to open in August 2007.
It will save money, but it will also allow emergency responders to work more effectively, largely because new 800-megahertz digital radio equipment will make it easier for them to talk to one another.
“When we are all in the same talk group, we will be able to communicate directly with Apple Valley and Lakeville, without playing the old game of telephone and passing it down the line,” said Diane Lind, Burnsville dispatch center communications supervisor.
Today, communication among police or firefighters in neighboring towns is limited, which becomes a problem when emergencies cross city lines.
“We’ve had police chases that would start in Lakeville and end up in Bloomington or Edina along the freeway,” said Steve Mielke, Lakeville city administrator, who is chairman of the new center’s executive committee.
The new system also will make it easier for police in Dakota County to talk with counterparts in Hennepin County, which already switched to the 800-megahertz system.
Emergency responders sometimes use a statewide emergency radio channel to communicate among departments, but that system can overload quickly if multiple emergencies happen at the same time.
“It would be like 40 people taking turns with one cell phone,” said Kent Therkelsen, who recently left his post as Eagan police chief to direct the new center.
The new digital technology allows users to have separate conversations at the same time on the same frequency.
The threat of terrorism has highlighted the need for the project. “In 9/11, they had literally thousands of first responders on too few channels with too small of a pipe,” said Lakeville Police Chief Steve Strachan. “You just create a jam that you can’t deal with.”
Money was motivation
Getting a dozen agencies to cooperate on the center is no small challenge, Therkelsen said. But the timing of the project was convenient: The FCC recently mandated technology updates that would have required most dispatch centers to buy new equipment by 2013.
“We were all facing that common deadline,” Therkelsen said.
Sharing the cost of the upgrades made sense to city leaders.
“It would cost $900,000 of new equipment for Lakeville alone to keep doing business the way we’re doing,” Mielke said.
The $7.35 million center will be funded by county-issued bonds, and $6 million in Homeland Security grants will pay for the radio system.
Cities will share the cost of operating the center. Their contribution will depend upon how many emergency calls they generate.
Under one roof
Now, most Dakota County 911 calls are answered by dispatchers at the sheriff’s office and at police or fire stations in Lakeville, Eagan, Burnsville and Apple Valley. All 62 dispatchers at those centers have been offered jobs at the new center, but Mielke said the center will ultimately pare it down to 48.
Lind, of the Burnsville dispatch center, said she sees pros and cons to the move. After 22 years in Burnsville, “You get to know the city, the geography, and some of the city ordinances.” Plus, she said, working right next to the police department means officers can stop by to tell her, for example, that the medical call she took in the morning resulted in the birth of a healthy baby.
But a central location for dispatchers, she added, will make it easier to do things such as call an ambulance from a neighboring city when a town’s paramedic units are busy.
And Mielke pointed out that with 19 call stations and more dispatchers at one location, dispatchers are less likely to be overwhelmed. “During those heavy times, there will be plenty of help,” he said.