Since we first hosted a joint meeting of Perry County and City of Perryville dispatchers and local law enforcement much has taken place, and been considered in thoughtful detail, of how do we best provide 911 dispatch services to our community.
We have met with Alan Wells, Director at St Francois County Joint Communications Center 911 (SFC911), and members of his team on multiple occasions to discuss their operations, equipment, and services as they would specifically benefit Perry County citizens. We have met with Johnson Communications Services, Inc. (our current communications equipment advisor), representatives of the Department of Public Safety. and consulted with Mission Critical Partners about their review of the services provided by SFC911. We have physically visited the St. Francois County Dispatch Center, visited with their dispatchers, and observed their operations firsthand. We have discussed our options with Chief Hunt and Sheriff Klaus on numerous occasions and taken their feedback into consideration. We have taken input from countless individuals in our community. We have researched what other communities are doing with dispatch regionally, statewide and, in some cases, across this great nation. At this point, we feel we have researched this matter thoroughly and are ready to move forward with what we believe is the best solution for the Community.
A summary of the options under consideration are as follows:
Option 1. The baseline option is to continue providing 911 services to our community, as has been done for most of four decades, each department operating its own dispatch. The collective cost of this option is estimated to be more than $1.2 million per year. This model has never been practical, lacks efficiency, and has cost our taxpayers millions of dollars in duplicated services over the years.
Option 2. The County and City of Perryville agreed to merge dispatch operations into a single department, managed by a 911 Board. This option comes at an estimated cost of more than $850,000, and falls short in several key areas, the biggest of which is the lack of bench strength as is typically found in a small department. According to Mission Critical Partners and our colleagues across the state, SFC911 leadership team’s expertise is unmatched, and they are well known and well respected throughout the State of Missouri for the high-quality service they provide. Additionally, there would also be upfront costs of approximately $350,000 to buildout the dispatch space in the new justice center money which could otherwise be dedicated to other aspects of the building.
Option 3. An alternative idea of asking SFC911 to create, manage, and operate a satellite location of their center for Perry County, in Perry County, has been considered. We have been told the cost for this option will exceed that of Option No. 2, and comes at an estimated cost exceeding $1 million, but would provide a new level of depth and expert leadership for the department going forward. While originally a consideration, this is not a viable administrative option at this time it because would require the creation of duplicate supervisory positions in Perry County that are already in place in St. Francois County, Additionally, doing so “eats up” much of the opportunity for savings.
Option 4. Merging our dispatch operations with SFC911was first considered in 2017 when the County ultimately decided to contract with SFC911 to utilize their back-end dispatch equipment. At that time, user cell phone geo-location technology had not yet advanced to a point of reliability that community leadership found acceptable. Geolocation is now a NextGen911 universal standard aiding service providers enroute to emergencies. This option comes at the cost of $545,000, is the most cost effective and efficient option for the community and adheres to the state and national trends of merging dispatch departments. We have visited St. Francois County, met with their leadership team and users of the service, and are absolutely convinced this is a viable option for effective, efficient dispatch service to provide our citizens with the best available 911 services going forward.
After all our research, it is our intention to move forward with Option No. 4 and merge our operations with St. Francois County.
Initially, there was much discussion about the possibility of asking the community to support a new tax, essentially designed to allow dispatch to remain local. We do not feel increased spending is the best solution for our community. Asking our community to support a new tax is something we take very seriously and have only pursued when there was no other viable option to support a community project. At this point, the truth is simple, we believe we can do better with the money you have already entrusted us with, and we can use it to provide improved resources and advanced technology. Looking to the future is the solution. The option of merging with SFC911 also allows us to incur annual savings, and in turn, invest those resources in other critical services for our community. SFC911 has requested 12 months to fully prepare for our integration and, in the coming weeks, we will enter into an agreement to fully integrate into their dispatch operations.
Mission Critical Partners has estimated our current cost per call to be roughly $147. The national average for 911 services holds closer to $40 per call. The combined purchasing power in SFC911 allows us to provide better technology to the community at a lower cost. It also allows us to better keep pace in the future as new technologies becomes available. This includes technology we do not currently have here in Perry County, things like text-to-911 and geolocation on all phone calls (both traditional land lines and cell phone calls). If we choose to operate locally, we will, as we do today, struggle to pay for new technology, and we will continue to be a step behind that of our neighboring counties and communities.
The new technology that becomes available to us through SFC911 means that a dispatcher will know precisely where a caller is at, even when the caller themselves does not. Regardless of what local landmarks the caller, or the responder, does or doesn’t know. Additionally, SFC911 will have as many as nine dispatchers working most shifts. This is in comparison to times when we have two or fewer working in our local call centers. Contracting with SFC911 moves us technologically forward, provides advanced services to our users and citizens, and does so at a lower cost.
Finally, it is important to note again that our review indicated an estimated 54 percent of current dispatch incidents are for emergency medical services. Going forward, calls for medical service will be dispatched through Mercy Hospital. This potential reduction in demand for services is yet another challenge for us in operating an efficient and modern but still local dispatch center. The reality is there is simply no way for us to achieve the level of efficiency needed to provide the best services without joining a larger regional entity.
In conclusion, it is also important our community understand SFC911 currently serves as the backup agency for our community and has done so since we virtually merged our back-end dispatch equipment with St. Francois County in 2017. In fact, every single 911 dispatch call made in Perry County is currently routed through the equipment located in SFC911’s Communications Center. Those calls are then re-routed to Perry County and, in calls for City of Perryville, routed a third time by a county dispatcher to City of Perryville Dispatch.
As our backup agency, SFC911 has dispatched our Perry County 911 calls in the past. This happens when our local dispatch offices are without fiber service. When those situations occur, our calls are transferred seamlessly and without issue to SFC911 until local service can be restored. This model has worked in the past and will work in the future.
The idea of the Perry County Joint Justice Center was built on a promise to provide improved, efficient, effective operations for the citizens we are called to serve. As we have tirelessly worked on this once-in-a-century community project, operations have been at the forefront of virtually every discussion. Efficient service delivery and available technology have been considered at every step and our “Stronger Together” mantra and collaboration between agencies has yielded efficiencies beyond our expectations.
This new model of service delivery offers our community opportunities to deliver services in ways not considered, or even possible, before but, because of advancements in technology, are fully possible now. The annual savings realized, through contracting with SFC911 for dispatch services, will allow the City and County to fund other expenses needed such as clerical and jail support. It will allow keep salaries and benefits attractive and competitive for both the City and County. We have seen what the future of dispatch looks like both statewide and nationally. We have contacted state and national experts and solicited their impartial advice. We have already identified positions for many of the affected employees and others who will be impacted by this decision. Those not retained will be provided with an attractive severance package. We are prepared to take this next step in our community’s future and wholly ask for the support from our constituents as we move forward.
Perry County Commission
Perryville Board of Aldermen
