Palmer dispatch center understaffed

PALMER -- The Mat-Su area's 911 and police dispatch center in Palmer is understaffed and under-funded for the Valley's current needs, according to Christine Fritz, communications supervisor for the Palmer police department. In a report to the Palmer City Council, Fritz said she currently employs 12 dispatchers and wants to hire three more.

"So tell me, when can I have them?" Fritz asked the council.

Fritz told the council that three new hires would allow her to bring the minimum number of dispatchers per shift up to three. Currently there are a minimum of two dispatchers taking calls at any given time, although the center has enough work stations for three. Fritz would also like to add one radio work station to the center so a fourth dispatcher can take care of calls from police officers and answer 911 calls when necessary.

The Palmer Police dispatch center serves the Palmer and Wasilla police departments, the Houston fire department, the Mat-Su Borough fire and ambulance services, and -- on a limited basis -- the Palmer post of the Alaska State Troopers. The other partners in the arrangement each pay fees to Palmer. Calls for Alaska State Troopers are forwarded to the troopers' own dispatch center at Fort Richardson.

The cooperative arrangement will change over the next couple of years. The city of Wasilla received a $1 million appropriation from the federal government to design and build a new consolidated dispatch center. Former Wasilla police chief Charlie Fannon is heading up the project and has said that Wasilla will ask the federal government for an additional $2 million.

Fritz told the Palmer council that regardless of Wasilla's plans -- which are steered by an intergovernmental committee -- the current situation needs attention. She has said this before, most recently at a city council meeting last February. This time around, Fritz also outlined her concerns in a memo to the council.

"It is my firm belief that the minimum on duty should be three dispatchers at all times, and busy shifts should have four dispatchers scheduled," Fritz wrote.

The last staff increase at the center happened after the Wasilla Police Department was created in 1993 -- the first year the center handled calls for Wasilla PD. The number of 911 calls handled at the center has grown from 12,179 in 1993 to 21,621 in 2001, according to numbers provided by Fritz. The center also handles police officers' requests for information from the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and business line calls for the departments. According to Fritz, those calls outnumber 911 calls at a ratio that could be as high as 10-to-one.

"Those calls also take dispatcher time," Fritz said.

Palmer Mayor Jim Cooper and city manager Tom Healy both said they would meet with the other dispatch center users to talk about increasing funding.