Vrakas Weighs in on Muskego Wireless 911: It’s About Public Safety

(Editor's note:  the following is a release sent to Waukesha Patch from the County Executive's office, which was forwarded to us)

You may have read about the City of Muskego’s desire to receive and dispatch wireless 911 calls currently answered by Waukesha County.  As is often the case, the reports have failed to tell the whole story.  Waukesha County residents living in Muskego, that I was elected to represent, deserve to have all the facts.  I believe having individual municipalities answering wireless 911 calls is not in the best interest of public safety, is a bad idea for Waukesha County and is bad public policy. 

Roughly ten years ago, the State Legislature and the Public Service Commission created a grant to fund a centralized, county-based, enhanced wireless 911 service.  Long after the state grant was exhausted, Waukesha County continued to invest in new 911 technologies.  Today, the Waukesha County Communications (WCC) center is one of the most advanced 911 communications centers in the state and answers all wireless 911 calls in the county. 

Unfortunately, despite these technological advances, not all 911 calls are treated equally.  It depends largely on one thing: your location.    

For the majority of Waukesha County, those communities that contract with the County to dispatch emergency services for both landline and wireless calls, processing a 911 call is seamless.  The WCC receives a call, pinpoints the caller’s location using GPS technology and immediately sends the sheriff’s deputy, police or fire department to the scene.  Then, while help is already on they way, the highly trained WCC staff provides life saving medical information to the caller while simultaneously collecting vital details about the situation to pass along to emergency personnel.  This service, known as Emergency Medical Dispatch or EMD, is not available everywhere.  WCC provides EMD, but most municipalities do not. 

The process is much different if the wireless 911 call originates from a municipality not contracted with the WCC for dispatch services.  For those calls, the WCC locates the caller using GPS, processes vital information, and then transfers the call to a local municipal dispatcher who in turn contacts the appropriate emergency personnel often without providing EMD services. 

So what would happen if a municipality, operating with limited 911 capabilities and no contract with the WCC, like the City of Muskego, started receiving wireless 911 calls?  What would that change mean to a Muskego resident on a cell phone or a wireless user from a surrounding city whose call hits a Muskego 911 tower and dispatcher? 

In many cases, it could mean a busy signal. 

The City of Muskego, which has refused to join the countywide 911 dispatch service, has one dispatcher on duty and only two dedicated wireless 911 lines.  That means that Muskego’s dispatch center can only receive two wireless 911 calls at a time.  We all know that these days, with so many people using wireless phones, dozens of people may simultaneously call 911 at the scene of an accident or during a natural disaster like a tornado.  Muskego dispatch cannot handle that level of call volume and for Muskego residents, and their neighboring municipalities, that should be unacceptable. 

The WCC has a minimum of eight dispatchers on duty at all times.  During busy periods of the day, ten or more people are fielding calls and during anticipated events, like snowstorms or other major events, up to twenty people could be staffing the emergency dispatch center.

Unfortunately, if Muskego answered all wireless 911 calls in the area it would not just affect Muskego residents.  Wireless calls from New Berlin, Vernon, Big Bend, the Town of Waukesha, Brookfield, and even other counties; have hit cell towers in Muskego.  In fact, based on available data, 33% of calls that hit Muskego towers originate outside Muskego.  That means that residents throughout the county could get that same busy signal.  As the County Executive, I find that unacceptable.   

There has been a trend in the last decade or so of businesses and non-profit agencies consolidating, merging and downsizing to reduce costs and become more efficient.  More recently, local governments have found ways to provide shared fire and police services and shrink the size and cost of government. 

Muskego, however, is bucking that trend and is attempting to duplicate a very expensive service that could jeopardize public safety of its neighbors.  If Muskego residents are to get the service they deserve, their community leaders will need to do an about face on wireless 911 and take a serious look at the benefits of joining forces with the Waukesha County dispatch center. 

The city taxpayer would benefit and the whole county would be safer.  To me that is good public policy.