911 Issue Brought Up Again, Riles Some on Council

It’s an issue that hasn’t gone away.

In March, the Dunwoody City Council made a decision to go with ChatComm as a 911 service provider.

Councilman Danny Ross, a vocal proponent of staying with DeKalb County 911 service, has brought the issue up several times since that decision was made.

Monday, Ross put the matter on the council agenda again.

Ross has been troubled by issues about fire and EMS calls. ChatComm will be answering all calls, but fire and EMS calls will be transferred to DeKalb County, which dispatches both of those services.

ChatComm will handle police calls, which make up more than 90 percent of the 911 calls in Dunwoody.

Monday, Ross pointed out that the CAD to CAD interface, which would help connect the databases between ChatComm and DeKalb County to allow the immediate transfer of information on fire and EMS calls between the two services and streamlining that dispatching process, has not been completed.

In the meantime, ChatComm will transfer calls that come into the call center to DeKalb county dispatch through what is called a one button transfer – meaning once the ChatComm operator figures out it is a fire or EMS call, they will stay on the line with the caller, but transfer the call into the DeKalb county system.

Currently, Chamblee and Doraville use the one button transfer method.

Ross said that not having that interface puts lives in danger.

“It’s important that we get these calls done as quickly as we can every time,” he said.

He said one button transfer prolongs the 911 calls and puts people at risk.

Ross also worried Monday that with that slowed response, insurance companies will put Dunwoody on a lower tier for its safety ratings, pushing up home insurance costs.

City Manager Warren Hutmacher pointed out that of the insurance company rating system, only about 3 percent deals with emergency call operators.

Hutmacher said ChatComm has hired ten people that will be working with Dunwoody, and are going to start working to get to know the Dunwoody Police Department over the next few months.

“The only area we’ve got slippage is with the CAD to CAD,” he said.

Hutmacher said the companies involved said the integration would be easy to do, but that the company set to make the integration has a large backdrop of work.

He hopes that issue is resolved by the first quarter of 2012.

Ross said that such an interconnection has never been done.

Ross argued that because the CAD to CAD system won’t be in place on Oct. 3, that the council should postpone the city’s contract with ChatComm, which is set to start that day and defer its start until the CAD to CAD system is in place.

“It’s not a sense of urgency to get this thing done Oct. 3,” Ross said. “The sense of urgency is to get this done right.”

Ross’ argument was met with dissonance.

Robert Wittenstein said that DeKalb’s 911 system has been broken for the last decade and while progress might be being made, it still isn’t up to par.

“I am sympathetic to the view that there may be some risks associated with going with ChatComm and not having CAD to CAD,” he said. “But I’m absolutely convinced that every day we stay with DeKalb is a day of Russian roulette.”

John Heneghan and Mayor Ken Wright agreed.

The discussion ended with some contentious words, after Ross, who has brought up the issue several times since a , which he voted against.

Ross said he will keep bringing up the issue until he feels the system working as it should or his term ends, which will happen on Dec. 31.

Wright said he thinks the council needs to find a way to be able to move forward on such issues.

“We need to decide as a council, for folks that are on the other side of a positive vote, whether they can continuously bring up items because it can through complete havoc into operations of this city,” he said.

Wright said he’d talked to another mayor about how to handle such a situation.

“You can see how some boards go haywire, because all it takes one and it just goes haywire,” he said, telling Ross that the repetitive issue was annoying him.

Ross again tried to speak.

“Danny, we’re done,” Wright said.