Brentwood Votes to Move Forward to Establish Its Own Police Dispatch Center

During Wednesday nights Brentwood City Council meeting, the Council voted 5-0 to move forward with the creation of a dedicated dispatch center for the residents of Brentwood.

According to Chief Mark Evenson, the process will take 18-24 months and cost the City a one-time cost of $1.5 million plus and estimated $1.83 million annual cost to run the center.  Currently, Brentwood is under contract with the City of Antioch where they pay $845,000 for dispatch services.

Recap of the Council Discussion on the Agenda Item:

“Our relationship with the Antioch Police Department, we have been with them as dispatch partners for over 20-years. I want to publicly recognize the fantastic work the Antioch Police staff has done,” said Chief Evenson. “This is not about them, they have been doing a fantastic job with limited resources for a long time and they should be commended for the job they have done.”

He then explained this was about a dispatch center that is strained on increasing call loads, population, and crime. The demands on Antioch have compromised the services of those people in Brentwood.

Evenson was quick to point out that Brentwood has been preparing and saving for their own dispatch center for a very long time.

“It’s always an issue of when. When can we afford it, and when would be the right time be?” said Evenson. “This is part of the reason for the report.”

He shared that Antioch’s calls for service has increased by 17% while Brentwood has increased by 140% since 2001 which was because of population growth. He also noted Part 1 crime has gone up over 82% while Brentwood has increased 50% since.

While Chief Evenson applauded Antioch again for a job well done given the circumstances, the chief explained issues are resulting in services not being provided to Brentwood.

“One of the issues I want to highlight tonight is the quality of the 9-1-1 services. As you know in a recent incident, a Brentwood resident called 9-1-1 and the dispatch center did not answer the call. Antioch Police acknowledged this did occur due to the system being overload by a large critical incident,” explained Evenson. “Brentwood residents have reported being placed on hold for a long period of time after calling 9-1-1. There have been instances where the non-emergency line has been busy or not answered at all. Residents have complained they have been placed on hold for long period of time when using the non-emergency number. There is a delay in lower priority Brentwood calls being dispatched because of the large amount of high priority calls coming in from Antioch residents.”

While Evenson admitted these higher priority calls need to take priority, he stated the Brentwood calls wait to long and it reduces the quality of 9-1-1 services to Brentwood residents.

“Brentwood residents have reported instances of rudeness by the 9-1-1 operators and this has been a reoccurring theme,” said Evenson.

He shared that the staffing levels at the dispatch center is not adequate noting that there are open positions that have not been filled—noting that with the economic downturn, the Antioch City Council voted to reduce staff, including the police department which impacted Brentwood. With staffing no adequate, calls for service and response times are increased.

He highlighted one major concern was the equipment in Antioch was old and in need of upgrading. Recently, they were notified that the system shut down due to an equipment failure.

“Antioch staff dealt with the issue as best they could, but there is a fear this could happen again,” said Evenson. “There is no indication that Antioch is going to upgrade their equipment anytime soon. The Antioch Dispatch Center was recently audited by the state and they were told they did not have enough 9-1-1 lines and they were ordered to install a new 9-1-1 line and supposed to have it by the end of the year.”

He noted that Brentwood has made several upgrades to its equipment over the last few years, but Antioch has not explaining that they cannot take full advantage of their upgrades until Antioch upgrades their equipment—such as a regional communication system.

“Brentwood now has over $1 million in enhanced radio equipment that we cannot fully utilize,” said Evenson.

Dispatch Options

In examining the different options for dispatch services, staff has identified a total of four. However, only two are actually viable. Staff is recommending that the City move forward with option 2.

1. Remain with the Antioch Police Department. Earlier this year, staff met with Antioch to revise the dispatch agreement. Council and staff wanted specific performance measures included in the contract in order to hold Antioch more accountable for deficiencies in service. Though specific performance measures could not be agreed upon, we were able to establish a number of “service goals” in an effort to address some of the concerns.

   If Council decides to go with this option, staff will continue to work with Antioch to improve the service issues identified in this report. For the 2014/15 FY the City pays $845,459 to Antioch for dispatch services. Assuming a 6% annual cost increase the annual dispatch payment to Antioch projects to reach $1.5 million in fiscal year 2024/25.

2. Establish our own dispatch/communications center. This is the best solution, but the most costly solution. The benefits of having our own dispatch center are outlined below. As you will see in the “Fiscal Impacts” section of this report, it will require approximately 1.5 million in one-time start up costs, and the annual operations budget will increase by approximately 1 million per year. It will take approximately 18 – 24 months to establish the center, and we must provide Antioch with a 12 month notice to sever the contract.

   A Dispatch/Communications Center has been included in the City’s Developer Fee Program since 1999, although previous projections were that the project would be funded in 2019/20. The savings from the refinance of the 2004A&B, 2004C, 2005-1 and 2006-1 CIFP Bonds, which closed in October 2014, will provide the City with additional flexibility to fund the capital costs in the accelerated Dispatch Center timeframe.

   There has been some inquiry as to the possibility of bringing on other agencies as clients if we establish our own dispatch center. This idea should be examined in more detail at a later time. The decision to establish our own dispatch center should not be based on what other jurisdictions might do in the future.

3. Contract dispatch services with the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office. This option is cost prohibitive. All police agencies have their own Records Management System (RMS) and Computer Aided Dispatch system (CAD). These systems must be the same to share a dispatch center. Brentwood and Antioch use a company called DATA911. The Sheriff’s Office uses a company called Tiburon. They use completely different products. A Tiburon system equivalent to our fully customized Data911 system would cost approximately $2 million dollars, with an estimated annual maintenance fee of $100,000. The police department has over fifteen years invested in customizing our

   Data911 system to meet the needs of the City. An example of this is our Data911 system’s interface with the Mobile Digital Video, Vievu body cameras, Coplogic on-line reports, Live Scan, Crime Analysis, and Public Crime Mapping Site.

   The Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office provides dispatching service to Contra Costa Animal Control, Danville Police Department, Lafayette Police Department, Los Medanos College Police Department, Moraga Police Department, Pittsburg Police Department, Oakley Police Department, Orinda Police Department, Rio Vista Police Department, San Ramon Police Department, and their own Sheriff’s Office. A number of these agencies contract with the County for law enforcement and dispatch services, while the other agencies contract with the County for dispatch services only. There is a concern that if our department contracted dispatch services with the Sheriff’s Office we would experience some of the same issues of concern we are currently experiencing with Antioch Dispatch.

   The estimated annual dispatching fee for the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office is $700,000.

4. Contract dispatch services with the Pleasant Hill Police Department. Outside of Brentwood and Antioch, Pleasant Hill is the only other agency in the entire region that uses DATA911 and shares the same RMS and CAD systems. They do have their own dispatch center. Pleasant Hill is a smaller city than Brentwood and has a smaller police department. We reached out to them last year to see if they would have any interest in providing dispatch services for the City of Brentwood. After reviewing some numbers, Pleasant Hill communicated to us that they had no interest in bringing us on as a client.

Evenson stated that staff is recommending Option 2: Establish our own dispatch/communications center.

“This is the best solution, but it’s the most costly option,” said Evenson. “It will require approximately $1.5 million in one-time start-up costs, and the annual operations budget will increase by $1 million per year. It will take 18-245 months to establish the center and must provide Antioch with a 12-month notice to severe the contract”

He explained by going to their own dispatch center, residents of Brentwood would always receive priority treatment. They would have control over hiring and staffing. He also highlighted 9-1-1 calls would be dispatched faster because they would only handle Brentwood calls which increase response times.

Gene Clare asked about the issue of calling 9-1-1 with cell phones and difference of improvement with our own dispatch center with cell phones.

Evenson explained that in the past, anyone who dialed 9-1-1 in Brentwood would go to CHP. That has been fixed so when they call it now goes to Antioch. If Brentwood calls from land-line or cellphone it will go to the Brentwood dispatch center.

Taylor asked they are paying $845k to Antioch and the cost in the future.

Finance stated it escalates at 6% each year and would reach $950k in 2-years. It will take Brentwood 16-years to reach the $1.83 million, but to be fair, the $1.8 million will not stay stagnant and will also escalate, but there escalation would be 4%.

Taylor stated he was concerned about the border between Antioch and Brentwood.

“What really concerns me Chief is our borders because I do not know how we would do coordination with Antioch who is right there who have certain elements right there,” said Taylor. “I want to make sure for the safety of our officers, we have something right there to buffer that zone. I do not want any blank areas in Brentwood for gods sake. We do not want to say can you hear me now as I do not think that would work.”

Evenson said we support you 100% on that and they do not want that either.

“One of the disadvantages I outlined was there was going to be some decrease in coordination if we go away from them. However, we will still have availability to scan their channels and have coordination with them when we need to. We just need to make sure we put in the effort to improve that and not have any problems. We are dedicated to do that,” said Evenson.

Public Comments:

Steve Smith – I just realized this evening there is an impact if were are talking about serious delays in picking up 9-1-1 calls because Antioch is the primary access point. Any delay there results in delay for fire and ambulance response because we can’t even begin to work it until they do their initial check to understand if it’s a fire or medical—before transferring it over. That initial delay is becoming intolerable.

Public Speaker (No name given) – my understanding is that Antioch does not have any phone lines dedicated to Brentwood so when I call the lines are tied up. There is no one from Brentwood recognizing Brentwood or separating it from Antioch. On a cell phone, it goes to Antioch, it doesn’t delegate its from Brentwood.

Taylor requests 9-1-1 clarification: Evenson said the state dictates the number of lines a dispatch center should have per population.

Public Speaker (no name given) – I can tell you personally as a resident in the past 12 months has probably dropped a dozen of my phone calls whether I am calling on behalf of the downtown businesses or for an emergency. Someone running across the rooftops doing things in alleys they shouldn’t be or for my own personal residents, a dozen calls have dropped. Numerous times I’ve dialed 8-9 times getting a busy signal. If there is a question of whether or not we can provide better service than the City of Antioch, I have all the faith that this police can do a better job. Might it be a large expense at this time, yes, probably, is it going to be more expensive than allowing Antioch to continue, probably, but are the citizens of Brentwood worth it. Is it time, is it past time? Yes! My vote would be to move forward with our own dispatch center. Absolutely!

Council Discussion

Clare: Although I am concerned about the financial issues the city is facing and we have several competing capital project/interests, however, public safety is our number 1 priority therefore I would be in full support of moving forward with the development of our own dispatch center.

Stonebarger: The finance committee looked at this 12-18 months, we were renegotiating the contract with the City of Antioch and some of the items we wanted in there was the level of service/quality of service reports that we could monitor and there was no way for them to do that. So there was some serious concern. During that same time, we had some serious concerns with staffing that probably a priority over this and moved forward after renegotiation to buy us some time.

When we went out from National Night out I was riding with Lt. Silva and we arrived at a group of 30-40 people and this was their single most important issue… a month ago we received an email about an incident and it would be really difficult to live with, I think that was the impetus that got this ball rolling as fast as it did.

I have four kids and if my kid was not breathing and I was online with dispatch and I couldn’t get through, it was busy or hung up on it would be extremely difficult to say the least. Regarding financial component, the finance has done a great job in planning and that is a prioritization of how we want to spend our money. We can always find the money and we will have to sacrifice something else…. I think we have a responsibly to find that $1 million dollars even with the challenge of potentially reduced general fund revenue.

He noted that there will be challenges with both added and decreasing money going into the general fund plus the potentially $19 million Brentwood that they are in a lawsuit with the State of California.

I do not think there is any doubt this is where we are going to get to, its probably a little quicker than we thought 12-18 months ago, but I do not think there is any doubt that this is where we need to go or have to go. We have to find a way to have the least impact of service levels as a city, but we have a responsibility to be the most efficient and productive and most safe police department that we can be and this will be a much needed improvement.

This is worth about 3-cops so that is a million dollars, I try and put it in those terms when I look at this general fund money and that is the appropriate way to spend that money. It makes our citizens safer and it makes our cops safer. It makes our community safer so I think we need to move forward.

I hope we can bridge any type of concern we have with Antioch and I think we can work together. They have a good group of people and they have just been in an unfortunate situation where some time ago they took their eye off the ball on public safety and they really can’t catch up.

We are in that position now where if we take our eye off public safety, in 10-15 years we won’t be able to catch up. It’s our responsibility to find the money to fund it.

Barr: I would agree the time is a little sooner than we all planned, but the fact that Antioch dispatch center is overrun with calls and our residents are not getting the service they deserve. I am willing to roll up our sleeves and figure out how to pay for this. I think the residents of Brentwood expect us to do this work and I know we are capable of doing it. I know this is speeding up the process we all planned, this is the time to move forward and get it done.

Bryant: this is something that is really important to all of us, but there are a couple of things that have been made clear just watching our neighbors and the challenges they are going through. Public safety is the lynch pin to determine which way the community is going to go. If you want to have the level of quality of life, quality of business, quality of education, then you are going to have to make it a place where people feel safe living.

One of the ways that we can do that is to provide better communication and 9-1-1 public safety hear with this dispatch center…. I am sure if you took a cross section of our community, you would be able to find many many many people who have very similar experiences that the community has talked about today. I know that I have, fortunately a there was not a life involved when I made my calls, but who knows how many times there was where we had similar situation that we have not heard about which brings up a concern when you are looking at financing something like this because it’s important to sustain it for a very long time.

There is a potential cost that we have not talked about which is a litigation cost would be in my mind would be a certainty where we had a loss of life and someone held the city accountable for that. Having addressed this, being made publicly aware of the limitations of the 9-1-1 challenges that we have currently with our contract with Antioch it seems like to be a very realistic consideration to think that the overall cost for the next 5-years of having this could potentially be reasonably a cost to the city in some litigation. I think that all of the comments that have been made before, I absolutely agree with. We absolutely cannot kick the can down the road any further.

I have been riding with our officers over several years and it was clear that their personal safety was at personal risk because their inability to get information in a timely manner. It may just be seconds, but if you can’t be in contact with information you need in seconds let me tell you it’s very uncomfortable feeling and that is what our officers deal with on a daily basis.

When we have the ability to fix it, we better fix it. The community expects it and my question has always been what are the lives our family members are worth. What are the lives of our officers worth?… I appreciate the outstanding work Antioch has done, but you can only do so much with what they have, but its not going to be improving, it’s only going to get worse so we need to fix it.

Taylor: It looks like we are on the same boat chief. Public safety is probably number 1 in our city, the safety of our constituents, our officers the city has always well respected and treated the officers as friends. The city demands and should get total safety issues and that should be a main priority. I am on board and I am sure our officers will be very pleased with us proceeding. It’s going to take some work and good management with your department and we want to do it right. The last thing we want to do is scape a corner with this on the table. We have facility so I think we are going to proceed.

Council votes 5-0 to move forward with the creation of its own dispatch center.