If Brentwood residents or city officials are seeking a positive reason to support a plan that would call for for the Brentwood fire and police departments to transfer emergency dispatching services to the East Central Dispatch Center (ECDC), they need look no further than Maplewood.
“It is effective and efficient,” said Maplewood police chief Steven Kruse. “We are very happy with their service.”
The East Central Dispatch Center (ECDC) is a consolidated effort to provide the public safety communication needs of six municipalities in St. Louis County, including Clayton, Maplewood, Olivette, Richmond Heights, Shrewsbury and Webster Groves. ECDC handles all emergency communications for the fire, police, and emergency medical needs for those cities for the participating cities.
The Brentwood Board of Aldermen is considering joining ECDC and will consider a proposal to so so, possibly at the next aldermanic meeting. The proposal has drawn fire from some current Brentwood dispatchers and from other members of the police department but is supported by Brentwood Fire Chief Ted Jury. Mayor Pat Kelly has also expressed support.
In Maplewood, in-house dispatching was transitioned to ECDC in 2006, according to Kruse. He said the change has been a good one. “They (ECDC dispatchers) are very professional. It has worked well for us.”
Kruse’s opinion is shared by Maplewood fire chief Terry Merrell. He said his department switched to ECDC dispatching about 10 years ago and hasn’t looked back.
“It clearly was an improvement in services,” Merrell said. “It’s so much better. Personally I’ve been very happy with the change.”
Merrell said a big improvement was the ability to have more than one dispatcher on duty at any given time, which often was the case when Maplewood handled its own dispatching needs.
Merrell said Maplewood currently spends $345,000 per year on police and fire department dispatching needs through ECDC.
Both Merrell and Kruse downplayed any issues with a new dispatch service not being familiar with local streets. They said transition from their municipal dispatching to ECDC was very smooth.
“It was really very simple,” Merrell said.
Can someone please tell me how happy anyone could be with this?
Your house is on fire and the fire department gets sent to the wrong house by the dispatcher. This is one of those dispatching centers that covers multiple cities and this is what happens when there’s too much going on and too many calls coming in. Keep our own dispstchers in Brentwood. Safety first!
http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/local/2014/02/07/fire-department-wrong-home-florissant/5290915/
Of course employees are going to say they are “very happy”, what else can they say? That they made a mistake? That it wasn’t a good change? They are afraid of loosing their jobs. I can guarantee they weren’t “very happy” when East Central missed a call from Brentwood as the Sports Attic burned. I can’t imagine the Brentwood Firemen were “very happy” either, that put their lives in danger as well. Was Maplewood on another emergency when Brentwood called for Maplewood? What were the East Central dispatchers doing when a such an important call was made? Has this happened before? Does the Brentwood Fire Chief and board of aldermen find this exceptable? The East Central guy spoke of the benefit of having multiple dispatchers working at one time, how can 3 or 4 dispatchers miss this call? Why are we just hearing about this now? What other call have they missed?
Before the Brentwood BoA make a decision on this, I hope they take the time to talk to the officers, firefighters and EMTs of the municipalities that use this service. In addition, they should talk to the dispatchers who work at the ECDC. If this decision to look into using the ECDC came up in December of last year, why are we rushing into signing a contract? I urge the BoA to take their time and be very open about the process.
Wait a minute, am I understanding this correctly? Are you saying when the Sports Attic caught fire Brentwood asked East Central to dispatch Maplewood fire department and they didn’t?
Yes, and that is verifiable fact.
I was curious about this… we live nearby and my husband was there photographing the scene for hours. So, we just went through all the photos and as it turned out, we couldn’t find a single photo with a firefighter or truck from Maplewood. We did see Brentwood, Webster Groves, Ladue, Rock Hill, U City, Glendale, Richmond Heights, Clayton and even someone from Ferguson, but no Maplewood. If this was because Maplewood was never dispatched, that’s definitely a worrisome concern.
I kinda wonder also, why is it that the opinion of the 25 officers on our streets doesn’t seem to matter? I have had to use the ambulance a few times for my son that has asthma, and they have been at my door in under 1 minute every time. And watching my son gasp for air even a second longer scares me to death and breaks my heart. When there doesn’t seem to be a clear reason why this has to happen. My neice also had to call 911 this fall because she had been sent home from the hospital in early labor and suddenly felt like it was time. They were there in less than 2 minutes,got her out to MoBap, and that baby was in her arms 10 minutes later. Once again, minutes would have caused that outcome to be much different and much more scary then it already was! I guess what confuses me is why can’t it stay the way it is?? If we’re not having a problem here in Brentwood, and almost every single police officer signed a letter to the mayor and BOA asking to keep things the way they are, then why?? If this issue isn’t about the money, and that is what Mayor Kelly has said several times, then WHAT is it about? I love my city for so many reasons. And one of the many reasons is our small town feel. The fact that many of our dispatchers have been here for many years, know the ins and outs of our city, and more importantly, know many of the familys that have to use 911 often and even check up on sick and eldery that they know are at risk. That seems pretty special, going over and above to keep our town feeling like a small town that looks out for one another. It seem that there is some agenda that we aren’t privy to. It’s really disappointing that this is one more issue that feels sneaky and not transparent in reguards to the real reasons this is being so strongly pursued by just a few people. I just don’t get it….Why fix something that is far from broken…seems there is plenty of broken that could be fixed though. Just my opinion, if it even matters.
Must of been an emergency meeting today at the fire house. Let me guess, this article about “Chiefs being very happy with ECDC” was planned for damage control because you couldn’t keep it quiet and now you have some very vocal residents totally opposed to outsourcing to ECDC. What I find most interesting is that you live in Webster, you work in Clayton but you seem to know an awful lot about Brentwood politics and their Aldermen.
I live in Brentwood, I work in Earth City but I could never tell you anything about other cities Aldermen, especially who they are married to. Interesting Brandon… I think you’re absolutely right. Joshua isn’t really who he claims to be!
Does anyone else get the feeling that this johsua’s real name is Pat?
Brilliant! Call KSDK and let them know…ASAP. I’m sure they will report it.
Fear mongering Brandon… Sooner or later you will run out of “…those are opinions from two men”. They happen to be responsible for the whole city’s safety!! Try Clayton, Webster, Richmond Heights, Shrewsbury, Olivette… Heck, try some fire chiefs and personnel. The life saving is on the fire side, Brandon. What are you trying to get everyone to believe? That everyone is a liar? What do all these other people have to gain? Have you ever been in a fraternity…a union? People fall in line to try and protect jobs (or, their friends)…over, and over and over. On the safety aspect, you cannot demonstrate ANYTHING inferior, except for heresay. Police chiefs and fire chiefs… The professional chiefs are responsible to the whole community. Why would THEY put everything on the line if they weren’t COMPLETELY satisfied.
So you are, in fact, calling our police officers lyers? Speaking of what do people have to gain? What do I have to gain. I am not on either of the departments, nor did I know any of the dispatchers before this. The only thing I have to gain is my safety and yours if this doesn’t pass. I used to be an emergency medical dispatcher. I know first hand how bad this has the potential to be.
Police Chief, Fire Chief, Lawyer…apparently, dispatcher and hapless protester…..with a finger on the pulse of the community. Where do you find the time? The Police and Fire Chief’s from Clayton, Maplewood, Richmond Heights, Webster Groves, Olivette, Shrewsbury and Brentwood (both of who recommended moving to ECDC) are obviously all wrong and know nothing about operating their respective departments. You have missed your calling just working as a protester. You should expect their call soon to get more recommendations as to how to run their departments. You seem to have much more knowledge than professionals who are actually in the business. I live in Webster and work in Clayton, I made a point of speaking with police officers from both communities (6 total) to get their opinion on this issue. To a man each was satisfied with the service ECDC provided. So strap on your cardboard sign and get back at it, you’ve got a lot of work to do.j
People without a logical response resort to name calling and personal attacks.
You live in Webster and work in Clayton, so why do you even feel the need to voice your opinion on the matter? And still nobody has dared to answer, are the Brentwood Police Officers lyers?
Not name calling, just a personal observation. And my response was very logical, it makes sense to me that you would not understand that. Think about it, if all of those Chief’s use the dispatch service that must mean they are satisfied with the service. Very logical. The illogical response is to keep arguing against actual experts without any facts to back you up. And yes, it is my opinion that the police officers in Brentwood are being less than truthful, and they are manipulating their so called “facts” to fit their needs and to cater to the whims of an Alderwoman and her police officer husband. As far as me commenting on happenings in another town, well first I have an opinion, second, isn’t the point of this so called “news” site simply to stir up controversy since they can’t find any real news to report? Oh…and the word is lair. Finally, you need a better sign, the cardboard and sharpie was hard to read.
Also, police and fire departments are immune to lawsuits from slow or lack of response. Since ECDC is a nonprofit cooperative of police and fire departments, that immunity would extend to them.
Brandon…Obviously you are passionate about this. But common sense should tell you if it routinely took an additional 15 min to get to a call, they would be out of bussiness from all the lawsuits!! Stick to facts!!
I call that a fact, because the police officers said so. So I ask, are the police officers lying. Nobody ever said that every call, or even most calls take that long. But, in Brentwood, it never takes that long. All it takes is for that to happen one time for someone to die.
This is really very misleading. Those are the opinions of two men. They have the right to their own opinion, but unless the Brentwood police officers are lying, they are mostly not shared by the officers working the streets. Our police officers have said that they have spoken with officers from other municipalities served by ECDC and they generally don’t like it. They say that it routinely takes ECDC 5-15 minutes to put a call out on the radio after it has been routed to them. ECDC also lost the call (never dispatched Maplewood fire) when Brentwood dispatchers contacted them for mutual assistance for the Sports Attic fire. We in Brentwood deserve better than that.
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