My rebutal to an Erie Times News Editorial

As I was reading the Erie Times News today, I read an editorial on the Erie County 911 Center. Below is the editorial as posted on their website, www.goerie.com.

Published: November 29. 2009 12:01AM

911 center closer to solving its troubles

Probably the best thing about a renewed community focus on the Erie County 911 center is that it's happening in an open, transparent way.

That's essential, because we've got to make this work.

In a story published in the Erie Times-News on Nov. 22, the center's director Chip Love made a number of frank, troubling and, unfortunately, not so surprising disclosures.

Among them were problems related to a $196,500 computer program that prompts 911 call-takers to ask callers a series of lengthy, detailed, scripted questions as if almost to defy common sense. It's easy to imagine that such a built-in problem is downright dangerous in terms of slowing down response time, but it also frustrates or confuses the process of fact gathering.

We have reported at length another very serious problem: the system's computer-aided dispatch system occasionally confuses addresses, leading responders to arrive at perhaps the right street address, but in the wrong municipality. Good grief.

A nearly $500,000 records system designed to transfer criminal records to assist some police agencies has encountered such problems that Millcreek police have put off joining the system, for now.

Another critical problem evident to all is that emergency-dispatch managers, who can't earn overtime, are underpaid, overworked and too few. The problem is, how many is enough and how much should they be paid?

That personnel issue essentially led to the firing of the center's first director, Joe Weindorf, though it's become pretty clear that Weindorf was also in some ways a scapegoat for County Council and other county leaders ignoring their responsibilities to deal with the center's staffing.

Issues of training and scheduling employees to work in roles beyond their training experience have also plagued the operation, according to Love.

These kinds of issues are precisely why the county was right to authorize an outside study by Ebensburg consulting firm L. Robert Kimball & Associates for the center in Summit Township and its 56 employees. This could be the smartest $77,602 the county ever spent.

After touring the facility recently, County Executive-elect Barry Grossman aptly summed up the situation: "Is there enough staff? Are they trained properly? Is the software and equipment doing the job ... those are the three main issues," Grossman said.

That sounds exactly right. There's no time to waste to fully understand the problems and hatch a plan to solve them. Grossman and County Council need to take the consultant's work seriously while insisting we gather research from communities whose 911 centers excel.

It's fortunate we're closer to having a plan to get the center on track. But a lot of important work lies ahead.

 I see a few problems with this article...

First, it seems that they are only pointing blame on technology and staffing levels. Although these are problems, these are not the only problems.

"...problems related to a $196,500 computer program that prompts 911 call-takers to ask callers a series of lengthy, detailed, scripted questions as if almost to defy common sense."

The computer program they are referring to is ProQA. ProQA is software designed by the National Acadamies of Emergency Dispatch (NAED). This group, based out of Salt Lake City, UT is a worldwide organization that helps to standardize emergency call taking, through a list of protocols known as Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD), Emergency Police Dispatch (EPD), and Emergency Fire Dispatch (EFD).

Although I have never used the Fire or Police software, I have used the EMD cards while dispatching at EmergyCare, and I currently use them at East County. The basis of the EMD system is to get what a "determinant", which is the nature and response level of the call, in one minute or less. This is usually easy to do, unless you have a difficult caller (excited caller -- although they teach methods of "taking control of the call" in the course..., language barrier, etc.) I won't go into detail on the system, but for more information on the EMD system, Click here to go to the NAED website. To summarize the system, there are 35 different categories of call, and 6 different levels, from "Omega" and "Alpha" responses (low priority) to "Delta" and "Echo" responses (high priority) calls. This is a great system which helps to determine response levels -- i.e. does an ambulance go with a medic? Without? Lights and siren or not? This system helps make those decisions based on the answers the caller gives the call taker. This is not a bad system, it shouldn't have been immediately taken out of service! Maybe someone with experience in the system should have reviewed how this system is being utilized. Maybe the call taker isn't using the system properly. Of course, when these people have been trained to utilize the computer and not have any input other than that, it makes it difficult for them to make the system work. If the NAED system is so bad, why is it successfully used internationally? 

"...another very serious problem: the system's computer-aided dispatch system occasionally confuses addresses, leading responders to arrive at perhaps the right street address, but in the wrong municipality. Good grief."

Apparently no one at the ETN understands that computer aided dispatch software has to be programmed by humans. Changes can be made, and apparently, no one thought to maybe make the software understand that Route 19 in Summit Township is also known as Peach St -- and that there is NO 9100 block anywhere else in Erie County but in Summit Township! Google it! But, again -- the dispatchers must have been trained not to use common sense, or even get to know the area. Our old CAD system at EmergyCare was GEAC. It was DOS based, but it was one hell of a system. If you only knew a partial name of a street, you could put in the block number and the first three letters of the street and it would go in. If you entered 9100 Rt 19, it would automatically switch to Peach St -- because it was programmed to do that! The CAD is only as good as the information that was put into it. Obviously, someone failed on that one!

"A nearly $500,000 records system designed to transfer criminal records to assist some police agencies has encountered such problems that Millcreek police have put off joining the system, for now."

Can we get more information on this? If they are being so open, what problems? Another tech fail! Where is the ECDOPS I.T. department? This is two strikes against them! If I were in charge of that group, heads would roll if the problem hasn't been fixed by now. Another problem is what is being done? Why has it taken so long?

Then, the article talks about Barry Grossman touring the facilities and basically repeating all of the problems that everyone has known about. Way to go, Barry! You really are a class act! P.S. -- thanks to all of the loser voters who threw their votes away by pulling straight party lever -- the next best thing to not showing up to vote -- you people know who you are!

The problem is that the ECDOPS shot themselves in the foot by telling the municipalities right off the bat that "this isn't going to cost you any money." Of course, the general public and municipal leaders believe this, but anyone who went through elementary school math knows that now the taxpayer isn't going to pay for it on a municipal level, but on a county level -- but they are still paying for it. What they should have done is rather than "taking over" dispatch centers, they should have "absorbed" them, rather than making experienced dispatchers who know the area, re-apply for jobs, they could have paid the base rate ($12.00/hr is what the county thinks the public's safety is worth), plus their insurance, then ask the municipalities to pay the rest of what the dispatcher was making. For example, if a dispatcher made $15.00/hr at the center they were at, ECDOPS would pay $12.00/hr plus the benefits, then the municipality would pay $3.00/hr. Not free, but a hell of a lot cheaper, AND they would have had experienced dispatchers. However, the county also did not want these experienced dispatchers. They wanted new people so that they could train them the way they wanted to be trained. Now that plan has gone down the shitter, they are begging dispatchers with experience to come up there and work. I did apply there at one point as a shift commander, but was told that I didn't qualify because I lacked 1 year of dispatching and 1 year of supervisory experience (they wanted 8 & 3, I had 7 & 2). Now I get asked why I didn't apply just to be a dispatcher? They had their chance, they lost it. Now, I am just biding my time until the Border Patrol calls.  
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To clarify a few points on my post...

My view is that the individual dispatchers are not at fault. They are only as good as the information they are given. It is the responsibility of the upper management, including County Council to give them the tools required to do the job properly. They have not been given those tools, therefore, can be expected to fail when the situation permits.

Also, and the main reason for writing this post -- I love how ETN wrote this editorial -- since we know that they have an un-elected control of Erie County Council!

8:16 PM