While disagreement remains over its necessity, Porter County E911 will begin dispatching police calls for the towns of Chesterton and Porter Wednesday amid improved relations between the towns and county.
Porter County E911 has been dispatching fire and medical for the entire county for some time, but the towns of Chesterton and Porter have maintained their own police dispatch to the consternation of the county.
An officer-involved shooting in Chesterton in June reopened the debate over whether the towns should be part of the county dispatching consortium for their police calls.
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Porter County Central Communications Executive Director Debby Gunn presented an amended standard operating procedure (SOP) for handling and initial dispatch of the towns’ 911 police calls at Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting.
Two separate meetings on March 27 included variations on the following stakeholders: Chesterton Chief of Police Tim Richardson and Porter Chief of Police Dan Dickey, the commissioners, county attorney, Chesterton Assistant Police Chief Cisco Rodriguez, Chesterton Town Council President Erin Collins, D-2nd, and Councilman Dane Lafata, D-3rd, and their council attorney, as well as council members and attorney from Porter.
Gunn told the board that the follow-up meeting with Richardson, Dickey and others had gone well. “We parted on great terms. We actually gave them a tour of the center,” she said.
“I think, overall, everyone is going to be happy,” said Board of Commissioners Vice President Barb Regnitz, R-Center. “It might take a couple of weeks until everyone is comfortable.”
In a phone call Tuesday afternoon, Dickey said, “Overall, we don’t agree with the SOP. Our hands are obviously tied with what the Board of Commissioners are going to approve.”
“We did have a little bit of meaningful discussion and our voices were heard on some sections of the policy that were changed,” he added.
One example of those changes is that officers can now ask follow-up questions en route to a call they’ve been dispatched to, where initially the SOP didn’t allow for that, he said.
Dickey said he was appreciative that Gunn was also agreeable to amending the dispatching software to correctly identify which officer on patrol the call should go to.
“To the layperson, it can be a complex and layered issue,” he said. But when you understand how dispatching works in concert, “you can see how inherently dangerous it (the new SOP) is.”
Dispatchers at the Chesterton/Porter call center will still be engaged in a variety of tasks, from handling walk-ins and clerical duties to entering notes into the Premier One software system and talking on the radio. The SOP just removes the ability of the 911 caller to speak directly to them, Dickey said. “I believe this is a tactic being used by Porter County 911,” he said, to ultimately render “our 911 dispatchers irrelevant.”
In an emailed statement Tuesday afternoon, Richardson said the county is essentially dictating protocols to his department and did not honor a request to pause the April 1 deadline for implementation.
“I don’t know that I would call them pleasant,” he said of the meetings held on the matter, “but I can say that they were professional in our engagement on this issue in trying to reach a solution that was workable for all sides.
“While we are thankful that discussions had begun with county officials, after Chesterton and Porter had submitted ideas in writing for improved efficiency between the centers, there remains a clear push on their end to enact this new Standard Operating Procedure as they see fit, without acknowledging and continuing to work through what Chesterton believes to be operational inefficiencies and safety risks with the amended policy as passed.”
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.