One Week In, Dispatching Center Running Smoothly

So far, so good.

That seems to be the general impression of the first week of operation for the West County Dispatch Center, the joint operation merging law enforcement dispatching services for Creve Coeur, Frontenac and Town and Counry.

“(The transition) was really a simple process,” WCDC General Manager Bob Heimberger said.

The only problem, thus far, has been a minor glitch with police radios.   

When an officer on patrol radios into the WCDC, the call must first go to a tower and then through phone lines to the WCDC. According to Heimberger, the radio calls were initially coming into the WCDC at a decibel level that was lower than acceptable, causing clarity issues. Heimberger said that officers’ voices were coming in “soft.”   

For communication lines used by emergency services, Heimberger said that AT&T has a higher threshold for clarity. “For officer safety, we want to know exactly what they're saying,” he said.    

According to Heimberger, AT&T had a bad connection in their phone lines at some point between the WCDC and Creve Coeur. Though Heimberger said it took some effort on the part of AT&T employees, they were able to locate the source of the problem and fix it.    

Now that the problem has been identified and fixed, officers who call in from more than 15 miles away are still able to be heard by the WCDC dispatchers “as clear as a bell,” Heimberger said.

Heimberger stressed that at no point were the 911 emergency lines or the non-emergency line affected. He said that, in general, receiving 911 calls takes priority over dispatching. “We never want a 911 call to ring more then twice,” he said. 

Now that the clarity of the radio calls is satisfactory, Heimberger said that the main issue going forward will be the continued integration of three department protocols into one standard protocol.    

“For instance, let’s say there is a wanted alert, Frontenac does it one way and Creve Coeur does it another,” Heimberger said. It is those types of differing methods that will have to sorted out in the WCDC. Even though each of the three municipalities has its own dispatchers at the WCDC, a Town and Country dispatcher might receive a Frontenac officer’s radio call if the Frontenac dispatcher is busy with a citizen’s 911 call. This sort of cooperation is especially suited for times of severe emergency. Heimberger mentioned the recent  as an example of when one municipality’s dispatcher might be tied up with 911 calls, and it will be helpful having another dispatcher on hand to handle some of the load.

Town and Country, Creve Coeur and Frontenac residents should still dial 911 for emergencies. The WCDC number for non-emergencies is 314-737-4600.   

A formal critique of the new operation was to have been held Wednesday but was postponed because of a family health problem for one of the WCDC board members. It will likely be rescheduled in the coming weeks.

Though there has been no official announcement, Heimberger said that the WCDC Board of Directors critique will probably be taking place in about two weeks.