By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
At midnight as Sunday rolled into Monday, two police officers stood up from the computer terminals in the Lawrence Township Police Department’s communications center, and two civilian dispatchers from iXP Corp. sat down in their place.
The two iXP Corp. dispatchers assumed their duties at 12:01 a.m. Monday, following Township Council’s decision to award a contract to the company in January. It was awarded a two-year contract, with the option to renew for a total of three years.
The first caller who dialed the Lawrence Township Police Department after the changeover at 2:36 a.m., to report a medical emergency never knew the difference. And that is exactly what Lawrence Township officials had hoped would happen.
Township Council’s decision to privatize the nine civilian telecommunications operators’ jobs laying off the municipal employees was made as a cost-savings measure for the 2013 municipal budget. The iXP Corp. will be paid $719,400 annually. The move also puts police officers back on the street who had been filling in for the dispatchers.
Sunday night, Mayor Jim Kownacki told iXP Corp. officials that it was not an easy decision to make and that he had “many sleepless nights” before the decision was reached, but now he wanted to welcome the company to Lawrence Township.
”To me, this is my home. I want to welcome you to my home,” Mayor Kownacki said.
In response, iXP Corp. Chief Executive Officer William Metro said the company was “thrilled” to be making history in Lawrence Township, which is the first New Jersey municipality to outsource its telecommunications operators, or 911 dispatchers.
Township Council members Stephen Brame, Cathleen Lewis and Michael Powers were also on hand. Mr. Powers said the issue is “really about public safety.” It will allow more police officers to be put back on the street, rather than sitting behind a computer terminal in the communications center, he said.
Meanwhile, Lawrence Consalvos, who is iXP Corp.’s president and chief operating officer, said the 14 dispatchers were ready to go to work. There are nine full-time positions and five part-time positions. The part-time dispatchers will fill in when a full-time employee is sick or on vacation. Two or three dispatchers will be assigned per shift, depending on the workload.
The 14 dispatchers were chosen from among the 400 candidates who applied, Mr. Consalvos said. The 40 finalists all had a background in public safety as firefighters, emergency medical technicians or telecommunications operators.
”This is the best of the bunch,” Mr. Consalvos said.
All of the dispatchers have undergone 160 to 240 hours of training, including telecommunications operations, emergency medical dispatching, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and other technical training. They may take additional training courses, and all will be re-certified periodically.
Prior to starting work, the dispatchers met the police officers and also went for “ride-alongs” with them to become familiar with the officers and the township. The officers and the dispatchers will get to know each other better over time, Mr. Consalvos said.
Chief of Police Daniel Posluszny said that the computer-aided dispatching equipment makes up for the lack of intimate knowledge of the township streets. The ability to multi-task, to take information from callers and then relay it to the police officers, is more important than knowledge of the township, he said.
The police officers have to know the township, Chief Posluszny said. It is not as critical if the dispatchers are not familiar with it, he said, adding that it is important for the dispatchers to be able to ask the right questions of a caller and realize what is happening to the caller.
”The idea is to get (dispatching) done quickly,” Mr. Consalvos said.
Chief Posluszny said the police officers would be “close by” for the first couple of weeks to help the dispatchers. He said he believes there will be some improvement because “iXP lives and breathes public safety.”
The police chief said he was “excited” to have iXP Corp. handle dispatching duties, because it means he can concentrate on the law enforcement side of the Police Department and not be concerned about staffing the communications center.
Mr. Consalvos also held out the possibility that privatizing the telecommunications operations could spread in New Jersey. Lawrence Township will be a model for running a cost-effective and more efficient dispatching service, he said.
Six other towns in Mercer County have expressed interest in joining Lawrence Township in offering privatized police dispatching, he said, adding that it may become profitable for Lawrence Township if it becomes a center for dispatching and charges a fee for the service.
The communications center can handle up to five dispatchers’ desks, and it would be possible to break through a wall to create space for five more .
