Metro eyes new communications center

If all goes as planned, January 2000 will see Metro Police dispatchers move into a new, more efficient communications center -- the department's $7 million solution to its overburdened 911 system that handles more than 2 million calls a year.

The new site -- a 7.5-acre parcel of land at Russell Road and Decatur Boulevard donated to Metro by the county -- will save the department both time and money in the long run, authorities say.

In the interim, though, Metro's challenge is to keep going with what it has -- a cramped dispatch center where a team of 179 people hustles to stay on top of crime despite 12-year-old equipment.

"Being the fastest-growing city in the nation, it is more cost-effective for us to purchase new equipment to handle calls faster than to hire more people," said Deputy Chief Richard McKee, who has overseen the communications center the past 18 months after three years there as a captain.

"Our facility is at maximum capacity to install consoles. We can't add any more."

What's known as the Metro Com building opened in 1986 at a site then comfortably removed from city congestion and away from its first location in city hall's basement. Today, casino and housing developments are practically swallowing up the neutral-toned compound at Russell and Las Vegas Boulevard.

"The center was built about the same time as the Spaghetti Bowl was considered efficient for the amount of traffic it needed to handle," McKee said. "Our biggest difficulty is the existing center has to stay operational until we flip the switch at the new building."

Currently there are 23 stations at which employees can answer calls. Of those, 16 consoles are solely for handling 911 calls and seven are for radio communications through which officers are logged on, logged off and dispatched to calls.

Metro will keep just seven radio consoles in the new building, but will boost its number of 911 consoles to 46. A panel of lights and knobs that operators currently use to work the radio will be replaced with a touch-screen monitor.

As much as 2,000 square feet of extra space will be left to add additional consoles in future years.

The new building is being funded through the budget process and not a ballot initiative. Metro estimates construction and new equipment will cost between $6 million and $7 million; staffing and training will be extra.

Metro has contracted with an architect, and the new site's dirt lot has undergone studies on such issues as environmental impact, drainage, threat to tortoise life, power and water.

The new center has been Sheriff Jerry Keller's top priority this year, but his efforts were slammed Tuesday at a news conference held outside Metro Com by Chuck Lee, who aims to oust Keller from office in the coming election.

Lee says that Metro's problem would be handled best, and sooner, by keeping the present work site, doubling the work stations and reducing operators' 16-week training period.

Metro's plan would virtually triple the work stations. McKee said he is hesitant to reduce operators' training time -- a period the department views as critical for people handling life-and-death calls.

"This is a complex issue requiring complex solutions," Keller said, defending the center. "Our plan is different from (Lee's proposal) because ours is based on reality and not an assumption."

"It is a crisis," Keller said. "One call that goes unanswered is a crisis ... but there is no magic wand and no magic word to make it happen sooner."

Lee insists that Metro takes as long as 43 seconds to respond to 911 calls.

Between June 1 and July 6, Metro's stats reveal that dispatchers averaged 22.5 seconds to respond to 911 calls. That time period includes July 4 -- the day of the year that consistently produces the most 911 calls, McKee said.

A total of 144,468 calls for service came through Metro during that period -- 3,439 calls per day. July 4 alone had 4,477 calls -- 30 percent more than normal.

Metro estimates that as much as 40 percent of its 911 calls are not emergencies. Efforts are progressing toward establishing a 311 non-emergency number to ease the burden.

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