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Valpo dispatches last call
City's 911 telephone service now merged with county's
operation
BY KEN KOSKY
Date posted online: Friday, February 01, 2008
VALPARAISO | A Valparaiso Police Department dispatcher announced
over the police radio at 3 p.m. Thursday that the
dispatch center in downtown Valparaiso officially is
"10-42" -- the code for ending its tour of duty.
The city dispatchers took care of their last calls Thursday
afternoon. Starting at 3 p.m. Thursday, the county
dispatching center began answering any calls for service
placed in the city. The county center is housed inside
the Porter County Sheriff's Department. The city
decided in July to merge its dispatching service with
the existing county operation to save money and boost
efficiency, but it took months to get all the technology
questions squared away. Dave Sheibels, 911
director for Porter County, said Valparaiso residents
should expect the efficient service to continue and in
many respects will see improvement. The city
police had their dispatch center inside their old police
station at 16 Indiana Ave. Because the city was getting
out of the dispatching business, it didn't build a
dispatch center in the new police station that opened
Dec. 5 at 355 S. Washington St. City dispatchers
have spent the past two months alone in the old station,
waiting for the county to take over. Of the seven
full-time city dispatchers employed when the merger was
announced, only three decided to transfer to the county
dispatch center, Sheibels said. He said he ended up
hiring two new dispatchers to ensure enough personnel.
The merger between Valparaiso and the county means
Portage police have the only other major dispatching
center in the county, although Porter, Chesterton and
Hebron have small dispatching centers. Sheibels said
there could be more mergers if the state mandates it or
the municipalities want it. "It does seem to be a
trend to bring the smaller centers together under one
roof," Sheibels said. Valparaiso Mayor Jon Costas
said the merger saved the city $250,000 it would have
spent to put a dispatch center in the new station and
will save about $200,000 a year in dispatcher salaries.
The county dispatch center was built with future
consolidation in mind, with only four of the eight work
stations in use before the merger. |
