Is consolidating emergency communications centers right for your agency?

By Bill Campbell

In Pierce County, Washington — a Seattle suburb and the second most populous county in the state — 41 public safety agencies were directed by five separate 911 centers with multiple different dispatch systems. As a result, emergency services struggled to communicate effectively, and police departments failed to efficiently share information with their teams and with fire and rescue agencies.

It was a recipe for disaster. And yet, it became a catalyst for one of the most ambitious change management efforts in public safety history. Recognizing the need for change, Pierce County 911 centers collaborated to increase public safety and invested in technology to consolidate their systems. This systematic approach to transforming an organization’s operations and processes led to the creation of South Sound 911.

Today, instead of five 911 centers, there is one master communications center for the entire county, along with an additional center for Tacoma Fire. All call centers now operate on one, central computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system, a digital tool that can help simplify and improve processes for prime efficiency.

According to the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) and a 2013 market analysis by Deltek, the number of PSAPs nationwide decreased from 7,485 in 2013 to 5,748 in 2021. All over the country — and around the world — public safety answering points (PSAPs) are consolidating and improving their internal structures to better serve their communities.

Other agencies can look to Pierce County as an example of how change management practices are implemented in decades-old public safety solutions. When consolidation is the right choice for agencies, implementing new technologies and unifying their systems can help PSAPs improve their workflows, cut costs and ultimately, better serve their communities.

No “one-size-fits-all” solution

South Sound 911 provides a great model of change management regarding PSAP consolidation. It is an example of how successful consolidation brings multiple centers together by merging staff and unifying them under one dispatch system. But consolidation isn’t a one-size-fits all solution. It’s important for public safety agencies to consider their unique needs and challenges when considering consolidation through change management and find a solution that best fits those needs.

DuPage County, Illinois, for instance, combined 18 PSAPs into two 911 centers, with those two sites using one dispatch system. El Paso County, Texas, built a cutting-edge, employee-centric 911 center which supports not only police, fire and EMS, but also the regional mental health crisis line.

Consolidation does come with challenges that agencies should keep in mind. When multiple centers combine, there are concerns about redundancy and control. Consolidation can mean contracting with a larger county or regional communication center to run the combined operation. Leaders in the agencies involved need to determine just how much they’re comfortable conceding, and then negotiate those points to ensure all parties involved are treated fairly.

It’s recommended to conduct a feasibility study to determine the best way to reduce operating expenses, while still efficiently serving the public. Such a study might advise full consolidation, or it might determine that co-location or centralization is better for that agency’s specific needs.

With co-location, operations are separated by walls or pods, while each agency continues to work separately with their own CAD systems, protocols and staff. Though separate entities, the flow of information is likely to increase when staff is co-located, and co-location can save agencies money through reducing capital operating expenses.

Centralization involves agencies sharing a single location and expensive systems and equipment, while maintaining separate operations. Even operating separately, centralization can offer efficiencies.

Photo/South Sound911

Involve all stakeholders

To be successful, change must be driven by people, not technology. While a consolidated PSAP can mean better technology all around, if it fails to involve employees from the different organizations right from the beginning, it misses out on the organizational support and for the project to succeed. There are many agencies that bought a new CAD system without involving the dispatchers, resulting in a system that didn’t achieve what its users needed leading to widespread frustration and disappointment.

All stakeholders should be involved in the consolidation from the start. Police, fire and EMS teams each need different functionalities from the CAD and supporting systems — which is why it’s critical the system is easily configurable and adaptable enough to serve various agencies. South Sound 911 worked with its vendor to arrange its CAD to meet the needs of all 41 supported agencies and onboarded those agencies into the consolidated system in phases.

Consolidating small operations into one large system can initially be intimidating for employees. However, once they make the transition, employees may find more variety and opportunities for advancement in a larger operation; officers, firefighters and EMS workers using smartphones, tablets and laptops can see what their colleagues are doing, share data and assist each other during incidents in real-time. By consolidating systems, vendors and maintenance contracts under one prime vendor, PSAPs can ultimately serve residents more efficiently while saving taxpayers money.

That said, every agency is different and consolidation or co-location may or may not be the right choice, depending on the circumstances. If the choice is made to consolidate, it’s important to have an experienced partner who can help guide the journey.

About the author

Bill Campbell is senior vice president, public safety, North America, Hexagon’s Safety Infrastructure & Geospatial division.