One thing that Santa Barbara County’s Board of Supervisors can agree on is that the dispatch center run by the Sheriff’s Office is due for major change.
“The problems that exist at this thing are eerily similar to the problems that exist at the sheriff’s department. I think this thing just needs new management,” 4th District Supervisor Peter Adam said during a July 25 hearing on the matter.
Those issues include “chronic” understaffing, something Sheriff Bill Brown has voiced concerns about numerous times in past—both regarding dispatch and the other departments under the purview of the Sheriff’s Office. But the dispatch center services 911 calls for fire, emergency medical services (EMS), and law enforcement.
The county’s Fire Department and the EMS Agency have voiced concerns for years at the level of services they receive from the Sheriff’s Office and the cost of those services. A couple of the major issues include: the inability to dispatch the closest fire engine or ambulance to an emergency (also known as regional integration, because it involves open communication with city, county, state, and federal public safety agencies) and the interruption of emergency medical calls, when a dispatcher giving a caller potentially life-saving instructions to tide them over until help arrives has to answer another call.
“It is shameful and I’m aghast at the idea that if you get into a health emergency, you better hope you’re in Ventura County,” 1st District Supervisor Das Williams said during the meeting. “That is a crazy idea to articulate. … We can’t dispatch city resources and cities can’t dispatch county resources. We’ve given the sheriff’s department a decade, almost 15 years, to do regional integration and it hasn’t happened. … There’s a problem here.”
The discussion came during a presentation from the DELTAWRX consultant firm regarding a study it did on the dispatch center’s issues and potential fixes. This latest study is the sixth conducted since 2004, according to DELTAWRX’s report.
“Each of the previous initiatives has produced recommendations to improve dispatch operations, provide better cost accounting for dispatch services, and/or enhance the management of the dispatch center,” according to the report. “While changes have been made within the center over the years, and changes continue to be made, EMS and fire continue to be dissatisfied with the overall level of service and accountability they receive from the dispatch center.”
During the presentation, supervisors were given two options—one would be to optimize current operations with a civilian executive director in place where a Sheriff’s Office commander is right now; two would be to have two separate dispatch centers (one for the sheriff and one for fire/EMS). Although option two has a significant cost that comes with it, estimated at $8 million in initial costs and approximately $3 million in ongoing costs, and the county is dealing with a $20 million budget shortfall in the next fiscal year, supervisors unanimously voted to direct staff at bringing back analysis for moving forward with the second option.
Sheriff Bill Brown said he agreed that dispatch center operations could be improved, but that it could be done without wresting control from the Sheriff’s Office, which receives the bulk of calls for service. The report noted that the dispatch center receives about 800 calls per day, 160 of which were calls through 911. Approximately 70 percent of the emergency calls were for law enforcement, as were 90 percent of the calls overall.
“The Sheriff’s Office feels very strongly that the current system, while not perfect, is working very well,” Brown told supervisors. “ … 94 percent of the calls that come in or are handled by the dispatch center concern the Sheriff’s Office. So I think it’s clear that’s where the leadership should be.”
