Southold Police dispatch equipment is overdue for an upgrade and Police Chief Martin Flatley is looking to fund it with the town’s allotment of 911 surcharge money.
“Our dispatch room is 15 years old and the equipment we have is very outdated,” Flatley told town board members during today’s work session. The department is still using old push-button technology, Flatley said. “Now, everything is done on computers,” he said. “Motorola doesn’t even support most of the equipment we have in that room any more. Any time there’s a repair needed, they have to think outside the box for some way of making it work,” the chief said. Generally radio equipment is replaced every five or six years. “We’ve gotten 15 years out of it.”
Southold Police dispatchers activate two police departments and over 10 fire departments, Flatley said.
Based on quotes the chief got from three vendors last year, the upgrade would cost about $200,000, he said.
Southold gets about $140,000 per year in 911 surcharge funding, Flatley said. He was able to set aside about $77,000 in 911 surcharge money from 2015 and would apply that, along with all or most of the 911 surcharge revenues from 2016 and maybe some portion of the 2017 surcharge funds, to pay for the upgrade.
The 911 surcharge is a fee of 35 cents per access line collected by telephone service providers in Suffolk County on behalf of the county police department, which then distributes it quarterly to the town and village public safety dispatch agencies in proportion to the actual cash collections within their jurisdictions. The funds are required to be used to pay for the costs associated with installing, operating and maintaining the communications equipment needed to provide an enhanced 911 emergency telephone system. Enhanced 911, known as e-911, automatically connects a person dialing 9-1-1 to the local public safety dispatch agency and provides automatic number and location identification.
“The technology we’re looking to put in there, we’re looking to be compatible with Suffolk County’s system so we can jump right into the county’s radio system. We need to have that technology in place,” the chief said.
The county is undertaking a major radio communications upgrade and is pursuing grant money that Southold and the other East End town departments are hoping to get a share of to upgrade their own equipment.
“It’s important to make sure our new equipment is compatible with what the county’s. We don’t want to buy new equipment that will only be good for two years,” Flatley said in an interview after the meeting.
Last year Southold upgraded its in-house operating system to a software called Impact, which though more complicated provides the department with a much higher level of functionality, the chief said. The new software allows headquarters to see in real-time where the department’s cars are on the road and maps out each call, providing officers with navigation. “It’s got a lot of really good functionality,” Flatley said. “We’re happy with it.”
The board agreed that Flatley should pursue an RFP process. Comptroller John Cushman said he would put a resolution in creating the appropriation for a capital fund as of Dec. 31, 2015.
