By Tom Tolan, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wis.
A group of public officials is on the verge of recommending the consolidation of all the North Shore’s police and fire dispatchers — operations that are now conducted in three different organizations.

The move has been under study since July, said Andy Pederson, Bayside’s village manager, who’s helping coordinate an intergovernmental committee of police, fire and government officials exploring the possible consolidation.

The idea had its beginnings more than a year ago, when Brown Deer, the only North Shore suburb with its own dispatchers, sought estimates from the two existing dispatch operations in the region. The concept got extra impetus when the July 22 flooding forced the other six suburbs to combine their dispatch offices for a week.

But not everybody’s happy with it, as evidenced by a letter from a Brown Deer police union official.

Whitefish Bay, Shorewood and Glendale have one dispatching office, located in the basement of the Whitefish Bay Police Department. These dispatchers also work for the North Shore Fire Department, which serves all seven suburbs.

Bayside also provides police dispatch services for Fox Point and River Hills.

The Whitefish Bay-based center has been around since the early 1990s, a little before the North Shore Fire Department got started. The Bayside arrangement came together between 1999 and 2005.

But Brown Deer dispatchers have remained independent.

Pricey upgrades needed That may have begun to change last year, though, when village officials, working on their budget, discovered they needed to spend more than $200,000 to update their dispatch center, said Carl Krueger, village president. They began to explore whether they could save money by contracting with one of the two combined dispatch centers.

That discussion evolved this summer into the idea of having all seven municipalities pool their dispatchers.

“It makes sense on the surface to consolidate,” Krueger said, citing the experience with the North Shore Fire Department.

Then this summer’s flood temporarily washed out the dispatchers in Whitefish Bay’s basement, and they had to move up to Bayside for about a week while their damaged quarters were repaired.

“Everything went well,” Bayside Police Chief Bruce Resnick said of that week of joint operations. “We didn’t miss any calls. We know we can do it now.” That gave an added boost to the region-wide consolidation talks. As early as next week, Pederson said, the committee that’s been discussing it should produce a report with recommendations to go to government and public safety leaders in all seven municipalities and the regional fire department. Will they all embrace it? In an interview, Brown Deer Police Chief Steven Rinzel, who last spring was described as opposing the idea, was noncommittal, saying he wanted to see what the savings might be.

Meanwhile, Officer Joshua Morgan, president of the Brown Deer police union, which represents the five civilians and three officers trained to do dispatch work there, was critical of the idea. In a Sept. 8 letter to Village Board members, he recommended that instead of consolidating, they vote to upgrade and continue operating the Brown Deer dispatch center.

Morgan could not be reached for comment.

But Krueger said he’s eager to see information on the proposal presented to the Village Board “in an unbiased fashion.” “Yes, I know the union wants to protect jobs,” he said, “but we have budgets to deal with, and a number of deficits.”

About the Author
Contact Tom Tolan of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Wis.)at ttolan@journalsentinel.com.

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