Muskego Chief Weighs in As Waukesha Delays Decision on Joint Dispatch

Without speaking directly about Muskego's cell 911 battle with the county, Muskego Police Chief Paul Geiszler told Waukesha alderman that Waukesha County has “refused to cooperate with us.”

His remarks came during a Waukesha Common Council meeting Tuesday night, where his voice joined four hours of comment and debate. The council ultimately took no action on whether to consolidate dispatch services with Waukesha County.

They will take up the issue again in a month, much to the dismay of the approximately 200 people who showed for the meeting at . Several aldermen called for more information about dispatch possibilities before making a decision.

In Waukesha the council is as it looks for ways to trim money out of its tight budgets. Joining the county’s dispatch center would save the city on average $14 per household per year during the next 10 years, according to an analysis done by the Waukesha Police Department. However, Geiszler and others maintained that safety is being compromised by having the county handle these calls, citing his experience in Muskego.

“If we are allowed to do what we want to do, we will greatly reduce emergency response time we supply our citizens of Muskego,” he said.

Geiszler said he feels Muskego’s fight against the county to release the 911 cell phone calls to its dispatch center is “politically motivated.”

“They want to build their empire,” Geiszler said. “They want all of the standalone public safety answering points that have their own dispatch center to join their communications center. We told them we are not interested. Our Common Council and our mayor unanimously support what we are trying to accomplish.”

Waukesha Police Chief Russell Jack Tuesday agreed, and warned the aldermen about the repercussions about making a permanent dispatch switch after playing recordings of numerous county dispatch calls that were handled incorrectly.

“Once the egg is out of the shell, you can’t put it back together,” Jack said.

Waukesha County Director of Emergency Preparedness Richard Tuma was present at the meeting but did not speak. County Executive Dan Vrakas was invited to the meeting, but declined to give a presentation. Vrakas is calling on Waukesha to complete an independent study on the dispatch services.

“No one has challenged the credibility of the study’s content,” Jack said. “Instead, they don’t like what it said and the recommendation that followed. Had the study recommended consolidation with WCC, I highly doubt anyone from the county would have any problems with the study.”

Former Waukesha Mayor Carol Lombardi also spoke, and shared a history of the city’s dispatch.

Lombardi told the council “my heart would be broken” if the elected representatives suddenly determined that tax savings took priority over safety.

“We are a big community with many, many needs for emergency calls and services,” Lombardi said.

Dave Carpenter, a retired sheriff’s department deputy who spoke during Jack’s presentation, called the city dispatchers “proactive,” while describing county dispatchers as “reactive.”

The Muskego Police Department to have the 911 cell phone calls given directly to their dispatchers instead of being routed through the county’s dispatch system.

The county has maintained that the response times are not as long as Muskego has stated, and that the likelihood for misrouted calls could also create a delay should Muskego handle its own 911 service for cellular calls.

The Waukesha County Communications Center dispatches for more than two dozen agencies in the area. The analysis done by the reviewed calls at some of those agencies, with the Brookfield Police Department saying it had the most problems with county dispatch.

“Their hands are absolutely tied as to what they can do and how they can do it,” Carpenter said of the county dispatchers.

Residents and business owners also weighed in, with a few in favor of county dispatch because they felt they do as good of a job, but the majority of opinion favored retaining dispatch within the city.

Aldermen Want More Information

Alderwoman Kathleen Cummings received groans from a crowd that favored staying with city dispatch when she spoke about wanting more information about the county dispatch center and explanations about the problematic calls Jack played during his presentation.

Cummings at one point in the meeting said the presentation was “disingenuous at best,” adding that information was given during the presentation that wasn’t previously made available to the aldermen.

“I just don’t think it is responsible to vote tonight,” Cummings said.

“I am comfortable with our own dispatch,” Payne said. “It is very important that the people feel safe, if it is $20 a year or $10 a month or whatever.”

Others said they felt there was enough information to make a decision, but voted to defer the matter to their next meeting in May.