Anderson council mulls rejoining SHASCOM for police dispatch services

Except for a brief period in the mid-1990s, the City of Anderson has always maintained its own police dispatch service.

But that may change soon as the council was scheduled to discuss Tuesday whether to consolidate such services with SHASCOM, a joint dispatching service that since 1995 has served the City of Redding’s police department as well as the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office.

When first considered back in mid-August, such a move raised the ire of the Anderson Police Officers Association. Association President Robert Modine fired off a letter protesting such a move to City Manager Dana Shigley.

“The City is currently seeking information as to the efficacy of contracting out dispatch services to SHASCOM. This move would also require us to contract out certain records functions to the Shasta County Sheriff and/or Redding Police Department. The Anderson Police Officers Association vehemently opposes either such move,” Modine wrote in a letter dated Aug. 12, 2011, and obtained by the Valley Post.

Modine cited “officer safety” as well as “customer service issues” as the reason for maintaining separate dispatch services, the same reasons given when Anderson pulled out of a joint operating agreement with SHASCOM shortly after it started operation “approximately 15 years ago.”

“A move to SHASCOM would likely result in reduced service to our Citizens. The Dispatchers at the Anderson Police Department have a connection with our community that cannot be duplicated in a multi-agency dispatch scenario,” Modine’s letter continues.

“Our Dispatchers provide services above and beyond what other agencies would require . . .. As for officer safety, the Dispatchers are our lifeline. They can be the difference between the successful conclusion of a tactical event, or a tragic conclusion.”

According to Modine, Anderson’s citizens reported “feeling a disconnect when reporting crimes and requesting assistance” from SHASCOM dispatchers, many of whom were the newest employees hired and therefore the least experienced.

Due to Anderson Police Department’s low numbers of personnel per shift and the low numbers of calls for service in Anderson compared to the more heavily populated and larger geographic areas of Redding and Shasta County, “SHASCOM regularly used the Anderson Police Department channel as a training channel for Dispatchers,” Modine claims in the letter.

The City of Anderson unnecessarily spent a large amount of money to join SHASCOM. The City then spent even more money after learning that SHASCOM was not the right choice for our Citizens. With the current economical crisis, it would be unwise for the City to repeat the failures of the previous decade,” the letter continues.

“We hope the City of Anderson seriously considers the decision to contract with SHASCOM and realizes the cost to our community far outweighs any potential cost savings,” Modine concludes in his two-page letter that was copied to all five members of the city council.

However, Shigley counters Modine’s letter in a six-page background analysis conducted for the benefit of the council’s five members, four of whom were not on the council in the 1990s.

“The Anderson Police Department is currently allocated five full-time dispatchers and one lead dispatcher. However, not all positions in the APD dispatch center are currently filled, nor have they been for several years,” Shigley writes in a section titled “Discussion of Problem.”

Even when fully staffed, the dispatch center experiences vacancies in its 24 hour, seven days per week staffing schedule due to vacation, training, injury or sick and medical leaves, Shigley said.

“Currently, we are down to three dispatchers and last weekend we had to operate entirely with SHASCOM dispatchers,” she told the Valley Post.

Since 1996, calls for service have nearly doubled – from 15,318 calls per year in 1996 to 25,132 calls in 2010, Shigley notes in her background briefing, attributing the rise in volume to population increase as well as the proliferation of cell phones and a shifting of responsibility for such calls from the California Highway Patrol to local agencies.

As a result, city staff evaluated four alternatives – from maintaining the status quo to consolidating with SHASCOM.

Maintaining the status quo costs the city $496,000 in the current budget, Shigley notes.

Consolidating and rejoining SHASCOM “would cost $501,000 in the first year and $476,000 in future years,” she notes. The two middle options – hiring more dispatchers or converting two record clerks to take on dispatcher duties – would each cost in excess of $700,000 due to “the significant time necessary to recruit and train the new dispatchers.

Therefore, Shigley is recommending the latter option to rejoin SHASCOM.

“SHASCOM leadership has indicated a desire to hire any trained dispatcher who is displaced in Anderson and desires to transfer,” she states.

The city’s proposal also calls for the creation of a Records Supervisor, who would take up some of the duties currently performed by dispatchers when not involved in service calls. However, consolidating with SHASCOM would require the city to contract with the Shasta County Sheriff for nearly $14,500 per year to handle APD’s after-hours record keeping and handle APD warrants.

“Should the Council direct staff to proceed with this recommendation, we will work with the employees, SHASCOM and the Teamsters (union) to minimize the negative impacts,” Shigley states in her backgrounder.

“SHASCOM has evolved into a much more organized, professional organization than it was when it first started in 1995, so many of the issues that caused APD to move from SHASCOM are not present today,” she concludes in a detailed analysis of Option 4.

The item is up for discussion during the Anderson City Council’s regularly-scheduled 7 p.m. Tuesday meeting. For updates of this story, check the Anderson Valley Post’s website at www.andersonvalleypost.com