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Falk proposes $578K in 911 Center improvements

Doug Shore  —  8/21/2008 12:53 pm

Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk announced Wednesday that her 2009 budget proposal calls for the county's 911 Center to receive $578,000 in significant improvements.

Falk's budget includes $360,000 for the addition of seven new staff members and another $218,000 for a recently developed dispatching program called "Priority Police Dispatch."

"We are pushing to have the best emergency response system technology has to offer," said Falk.

Falk said the seven new staff members would include four full-time operators and two part-time operators. A quality assurance manager will also be hired to serve as a liaison between the 911 Center and the 85 public agencies that rely on the center's dispatch service.

The new dispatch program is designed to allow 911 operators to quickly prioritize information from callers in order to determine the severity of each emergency.

"The reliable protocols ensure the right law enforcement resources get to the right places in the right amount of time," said Falk of the new system.

Dane County already uses Priority Fire and Medical Dispatch systems. If the new police dispatch system is adopted, Dane County would be the first in the state to have priority dispatch for fire, police and emergency medical services. Falk's budget proposal includes $55,000 to train staff to use the new software.

If approved, Falk's proposals would increase the 911 Center's 2009 budget by about 10 percent over 2008.

Both Falk and the 911 Center have been heavily criticized for the mishandling of an emergency call from UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmerman, who was murdered earlier this year. Zimmerman called 911 from her Doty Street apartment on April 2, but the dispatcher wasn't sure there was an actual emergency, hung up and police were not immediately dispatched. The dispatcher apparently became busy handling other calls and did not return a call to Zimmerman's phone -- a violation of county regulations. Zimmerman was found dead in her apartment later that day.

Her parents, Kevin and Jean Zimmerman of Marshfield, brought a federal lawsuit in June on the center and the former dispatcher. The suit was dropped in late July.

Doug Shore  —  8/21/2008 12:53 pm