First Week of New Dispatch Center Runs Smoothly

A public critique of the new by its board of directors scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday was canceled the night before, due to an illness in a board member’s family.

The critique was to focus on the of the previously separate Creve Coeur, Frontenac, and Town and Country emergency dispatcher centers into the single dispatch center located in the Town and Country Municipal Center. The WCDC has been operational since Monday.

Despite the meeting’s cancellation, Patch was able to speak with WCDC General Manager Bob Heimberger about the WCDC’s transition and first days of operation.   

The transition was really a simple process, Heimberger said.

The only problem, thus far, has been a minor glitch with police radios.   

When an officer on patrol radios into the WCDC, the call must first go to a tower and then through phone lines to the WCDC. The radio calls were initially coming into the WCDC at a decibel level that was lower than acceptable, causing clarity issues. Heimberger said that officers’ voices were coming in “soft.”   

For communication lines used by emergency services, Heimberger said that AT&T has a higher threshold for clarity. “For officer safety, we want to know exactly what they're saying,” he said.    

AT&T had a bad connection in their phone lines at some point between the WCDC and Creve Coeur. Though Heimberger said it took some effort on the part of AT&T employees, they were able to locate the source of the problem and fix it.    

Now that the problem has been identified and fixed, officers who call in from more than 15 miles away are still able to be heard by the WCDC dispatchers “as clear as a bell,” Heimberger said.

Heimberger stressed that at no point were the 911 emergency lines or the nonemergency line affected. He said that, in general, receiving 911 calls takes priority over dispatching. “We never want a 911 call to ring more then twice,” he said. 

Now that the clarity of the radio calls is satisfactory, Heimberger said that the main issue going forward will be the continued integration of three department protocols into one standard protocol.    

“For instance, let’s say there is a wanted alert, Frontenac does it one way and Creve Coeur does it another,” Heimberger said. It is those types of differing methods that will have to sorted out in the WCDC. Even though each of the three municipalities has its own dispatchers at the WCDC, a Town and Country dispatcher might receive a Frontenac officer’s radio call if the Frontenac dispatcher is busy with a citizen’s 911 call. This sort of cooperation is especially suited for times of severe emergency. Heimberger mentioned the recent as an example of when one municipality’s dispatcher might be tied up with 911 calls, and it will be helpful having another dispatcher on hand to handle some of the load.

Town and Country, Creve Coeur and Frontenac residents should still dial 911 for emergencies. The WCDC number for nonemergencies is 314-737-4600.   

Though there has been no official announcement, Heimberger said that the WCDC Board of Directors critique will probably be taking place in about two weeks.