Victoria Hurley-Schubert and Lea Kahn, Staff Writers
Victoria Hurley-Schubert
and Lea KahnStaff Writers
Shared police dispatch service is being examined on three levels in Princeton Borough between the Princetons, between five municipalities and on the county level.
Police departments are the largest budget items in the two municipalities, with more than $8 million, including dispatch, and 60 employees between the two.
Sharing dispatch on any level would save up to $500,000 annually on the borough’s police budget, said Chief David Dudeck.
Dispatching costs the department $342,192 annually in salary, budgeted overtime, shift deferential and uniforms. Benefits, operations and equipment add up to another $150,000 annually.
An entry level dispatcher starts at $48,672 annually in salary and does not include overtime, benefits or uniform. Equipment upgrades would also be saved, he said. There are five full-time dispatchers in the borough. The borough received 20,150 calls for service last year.
Dispatching costs the township department about $434,000 annually in salary, budgeted overtime, longevity and uniforms. Benefits, operations and equipment add up to another $142,000 annually.
An entry level dispatcher starts at $48,698 annually and does not include overtime, benefits or uniform. Equipment upgrades would also be saved, said officer Curtis Berry.
There are five full-time dispatchers and a supervisor in the township. Per diem, part-time dispatchers added to the township’s budget with $43,724 annually. The township received 11,486 calls for service last year.
”I hope the pros would be better response relationships with local police forces and improved relations on mutual aid response and cost savings,” said Borough Council President Kevin Wilkes, who said the cost savings for each model are still being worked out.
”The downside is you won’t have a desk in your town to go and knock on the window. It will be a question of high-quality services over a lower cost for delivery. It doesn’t mean the delivery will be affected, it just means your local access could be impacted,” he said.
As far as which plan he prefers, Mr. Wilkes, who is also chair of the Public Safety Committee, has two.
”Each of the proposals have interesting benefits and should all be considered. My emotional preference would be to team up with Princeton Township and have dispatch for the two local municipalities, but my accountant brain thinks there’s greater savings in the Lawrence Township proposal and we should give that a chance,” he said. “The country proposal is so new, we don’t have any information.”
Between the Princetons
When Chief Dudeck became chief two years ago, the topic first came up due to toughening economic times.
”Everyone thought it would be a good idea to look at shared dispatch,” he said. “They suggested we start with Princeton Township … they didn’t seem as interested in having shared dispatch.”
The issue came up again last year, when Councilman Roger Martindell suggested the borough look for further shared services to decrease costs to taxpayers, and one of those being shared police dispatch.
The issue between the two municipalities is also being looked at by the Joint Shared Services/Consolidation Commission, which is also making its own review of options for shared dispatch, shared police services or a full municipal consolidation.
”If there is full consolidation or shared services of the police departments, that would bring a consolidated dispatch (to the Princetons),” said Chief Dudek. “If not a consolidated or shared police force, how about just shared dispatch?”
In the township, there would be no financial benefits, said Chief Robert Buchanan.
”There is no upside to consolidated dispatch for the township,” he said. “It would increase our workload, so it would mean bringing on additional staff to deal with the call volume, but that cost would be passed onto the borough.”
Details still need to be worked out and looked at, such as costs and technology upgrades, he said.
The township has five full-time dispatchers, including supervisors, with one full time dispatcher on each shift with one supervisor on Monday through Friday.
To meet the needs, “we do currently hire per diems,” said Chief Buchanan. “I double up on the day because of the call volume,” with two people on the desk during peak times of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
If the consolidation shared services movement fails at the polls in November, “I’ll take on dispatch for the two towns, see me in November, I’ll do it,” vowed Chief Buchanan.
But any type of dispatch sharing would be scrutinized.
”I can’t do that to my taxpayers,” he said. “If they don’t like it and said move it back, it costs me a lot of money to move it back and forth.”
The work behind shared dispatch options is far from complete, said Bill Metro, who is heading the police subcommittee of the Joint Shared Services Consolidation Commission.
”We haven’t developed the models for shared dispatch,” he said.
The departments have provided some numbers for what they will be spending on technology in the future, he said.
Regionally
Chief Dudeck took the concept of shared dispatch to the Mercer County police chiefs meeting, where he learned there is a group of chiefs in the area already exploring the idea in Hopewell Township, Pennington, Ewing and Lawrence Township.
Lawrence would house and manage the dispatch center, he said.
”They invited Princeton Borough to join in. There was room for one more department. It was a solid central location and they had the room and they wanted to take the lead role,” said Chief Dudeck. “They already had a study done by the time we got in.”
This option is only being considered by the borough.
The mayors and administrators all support the plan and are currently looking at the costs involved for each municipality.
”The concept would be that each town would pay Lawrence a fee,” said Chief Dudeck. “But there is nothing that has been decided, nothing is set in stone.”
As far as jobs are concerned, no decision has been made, he said.
The dispatchers would have become members of the Lawrence dispatch team. Police dispatchers are not sworn officers, it is a civilian position. “Our hopes are no one would be laid off,” he said.
One of the downsides to this plan is the dispatchers would be pooled and dispatching for all five towns, not just their previous municipality.
On the county level
Mercer County is also in the mix as a proposed site for shared dispatch operations to the Capt. John T. Dempster Sr. Fire Service Training Center, a facility in Lawrence that currently houses county wide fire department dispatch operations (except for Trenton).
”We have the space (at Dempster),” said Brian Hughes, Mercer County executive. “That’s how Mercer County got involved. It went from a seedling idea to Mercer County being involved.”
Mercer County is willing to be involved if the municipalities want it, said Mr. Hughes.
He was not sure of the cost of setting up and staffing a central police dispatch center or the savings involved.
Statewide
On the state level, Gov. Chris Christie is encouraging shared services to achieve efficiencies and save money on behalf of taxpayers, said Hollie A. Gilroy, director of communications, Department of Community Affairs.
”The state provides technical support and services to assist, and will generally be more supportive of applications for discretionary approvals where towns are showing good faith efforts to keep their costs down,” said Ms. Gilroy.
As far as helping with costs, the aid will only come “through indirect costs associated with our in-house technical support that we can provide on a limited basis. We assigned staff to help with the Princetons merger study.”
Is there a plan in place to encourage more shared services statewide?
”DCA continues to focus on encouraging more shared services whether formally or informally because it is both advantageous for local governments and for the taxpayer,” said Ms. Gilroy. “DCA’s Division of Local Government Services has the expertise to help guide a municipality through the process, municipalities have been quite creative in forging these arrangements when the political will exists.”

