Dispatch-center merger is on hold

PROVO — A proposed consolidation of emergency response dispatch centers in Utah County has stalled after a year and a half of discussion between police chiefs, fire chiefs and the Utah County Sheriff's Office.

Utah County Sheriff James Tracy formed a committee of representatives from the five dispatch centers in Utah County — Provo, Orem, Springville, Pleasant Grove and Utah County — to consider requesting a feasibility study for the consolidation, but after a meeting in March, some committee members are saying they're skeptical that a united dispatch unit could be better for their cities and they're reluctant to pursue a study.

Tracy says it's important to do the study anyway, even if the cities ultimately decide not to consolidate.

"Up until Sept. 10, 2001, nobody thought there was a big issue in New York with communication and inter-operability," Tracy said. "On Sept. 12, 2001, we understood there was. Do we want to go to the point where we have a major catastrophe or event where we have failures to then start thinking, 'Maybe we should look at something?' Or should we be proactive and start examining where we are and where we need to be and where we want to be before we have such a catastrophe or event? That's my mind set."

Dispatch centers coordinate fire, police and ambulance services for specific geographic areas, but there is some overlap between boundaries in Utah County. Most cities that share a border have agreements that the closest fire or police agency will respond to an emergency, even if the emergency is technically in the neighboring city's territory.

If a disaster strikes, dispatch centers can tap into other cities' databases or access their own through a neighboring city.

"We're all speaking English, so we'd all go to the same channel and speak clear English, so it's a matter of simply saying, 'This is what I need,"' said Provo Police Lt. J.D. Lougee, who oversees the department's dispatch center. "Sept. 11, 2001, was a huge learning curve for everybody. What one agency was saying to another (then) was a foreign language, but since then we've done a really good job of clarifying things so we all know what's going on."

Still, Tracy says, miscommunications and accidents can occur when cooperation fails and it is unclear which city should respond to which emergency.