Improvements to Shores-Farms Dispatch Ahead

residents have been voicing concerns about the service they receive through almost since the consolidation first happened last October.

Some have complained they are not receiving the same level of service they did when the Shores maintained its own dispatch. Others have reported having technical problems in which the dispatcher is unable to hear the caller.

Officials from both cities have met regularly to work on glitches that could not have been anticipated prior to and some changes have been implemented. Among the easier changes is how the dispatchers answer the phones, which now includes the Shores and the Farms.

The problems Shores residents have encountered are not with the 911 emergency line but rather with the non-emergency dispatch line--a distinction Interim City Manager Mark Wollenweber said is important.

In reviewing some of the technical problems reported by dispatchers and Shores callers related to the inability to hear each other, officials found that the Shores phone lines and system is antiquated and has been blamed for such issues.

Wollenweber said this week there are fixes coming to the system in the next few weeks that should alleviate any of the technical glitches. Part of the problem, he said, is that the line being routed to the Farms dispatch center from the Shores is analog and the Farms line receiving it is digital.

There is a need to ensure the equipment is compatible, he said. Additionally, the phone tree system will be straightened out, he said. Even before the conversion to the shared dispatch and possibly dating back to when the panel was struck by lightning last year, the places where a city phone number will ring has been out of sync, Wollenweber said.

For example, the phone number that is for the Parks Department rings at his desk, which can sometimes lead to it taking a longer time to gather the information and re-route the caller to someone who can help with their particular request, he said.

All of those things should be worked out within the next few weeks as there is work currently going on to address them, Wollenweber said.

Additionally, he requests residents who experience a problem to document the day and time they called and possibly more information if necessary, and then to report it to Shores officials.

His request followed a general statement by resident Gloria Anton this week made during public comment portion of a special meeting called to address the council's decision about trying to leave Wayne County.

Anton told the council that she knew several fellow residents who were unhappy with the service they were receiving and said she was asked to hold recently while a dispatcher talked to another caller. She also said she waited for 15 miutes for response versus the previous standard of three miutes. She urged council to do away with the shared dispatch.

Wollenweber told Anton and the audience that without specific information, Shores officials are not able to look into the complaint. However, with a date and time of the call, officials can likely review the interaction and how a request was handled as most calls into a dispatch center a recorded.

Afterward, Wollenweber said part of the process in such a consolidation is ensuring the standards of service are maintained. His guess is that the Farms expectations and standards of response times to calls is similar if not the same as the Shores, but certainly something officials need to ensure and not assume.

Even before Wollenweber was hired as the interim city manager, officials from the Farms and the Shores have been meeting regularly to address concerns and deal with issues as they arise. Those meetings have included the city managers, the directors of public safety as well as the dispatchers, Wollenweber said.