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# Firemen to assess dispatch center
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/firemen-to-assess-dispatch-center/
- Published: 2008-05-28T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T19:43:24.000Z
- Author: Melody Hanatani
- Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Regional fire dispatch center resulting in slower responses*

PUBLIC SAFETY FACILITY More than a year after the Santa Monica Fire Department merged its dispatch center with Los Angeles, city officials are beginning to evaluate the performance of a new system that has drawn some criticism for service quality and slower response times.

The SMFD contracted the Los Angeles Fire Department Regional Dispatch Center in January 2007 to handle all 911 calls, expanding the capability to address emergency situations in Santa Monica where the fire department in the past only had one dispatcher per 12-hour shift.

Santa Monica fire officials spent nearly two years evaluating nine different options to enhance dispatch services, including increasing staffing at the local Communications Center and creating a joint center with the Beverly Hills and Culver City fire departments.

The Los Angeles regional dispatch center was the only one that met all of Santa Monica’s needs, according to SMFD Chief Jim Hone.

The switch to a regional dispatch center also allowed the SMFD to acquire $2.4 million in unmatched Homeland Security grant funds to purchase a new fire station alerting system and radios. The grant also offsets the first 18 months of the regional dispatch contract.

The contract for the current fiscal year is estimated at approximately $611,000\. Prior to 2005, the cost to operate the SMFD Communication Center was approximately $551,000.

While the new dispatch center has alleviated some of the burdens placed on the one dispatch officer, it has created some concerns for its slower response time and in the accuracy of the emergency situations that are relayed to the SMFD.

The lengthened response time, estimated at 30 seconds longer than when the calls were handled directly by the SMFD, is attributed to a different system utilized by the regional center, which runs an Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) program.

The EMD requires the dispatcher to run through a series of preset questions to determine the nature of the medical emergency, providing the caller with some instructions for patient care while help is on the way.

The dispatchers at the SMFD were not EMD-certified when the transition to the regional center occurred.

“They’re taking a certain amount of time to do a certain amount of (questioning),” Hone said. “They’re dispatching quickly as they process.”

The EMD system also raises another concern with the accuracy in the type of the calls being reported back to the SMFD. Several members of the fire department have complained that the current system is too vague.

“If a caller has a history of heart problems, this becomes the descriptor used by the call taker even if that is not the current problem,” according to a staff report by the fire department.

A review of the system for a one-month period found that there is a 78 percent accuracy rate.

The regional dispatch center is in the process of resolving the problem by employing a new software program.

The SMFD is proposing to form a committee to reevaluate the other eight dispatch options, comparing them to the level of service and capabilities of the Los Angeles regional dispatch center.

The evaluation is expected to take up to a year.

“It’s good to evaluate where you are to make sure what you’re doing what is best for the community,” Hone said.

Fire officials point out that operational costs would be higher if the SMFD continued to handle calls from its own Communication Center, estimating the budget would’ve been around $700,000.

“Either way we’re still financially ahead of what we would have been, and with more capability,” Deputy Fire Chief Bruce Davis said.

Several City Councilmembers have raised concerns about the evaluation’s estimated duration.

“I’ve heard anecdotal concerns that our historically superlative level of fire and para-medic dispatch service, of which our fire-fighters are justifiably proud, may not be matched by the regional system,” Councilmember Kevin McKeown said. “When resident safety and even lives hang on matters of seconds, I want to make sure routing calls regionally doesn’t invite confusion about local addresses, or other potential delays.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 28, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/052808.pdf?ref=smdp.com)