News

Two Pennsylvania Cities Might Lose 911 Dispatch Centers

Emily Opilo and Nicole Radzievich

04/15/2015

April 15—The good news: After years of debate, state officials may be closer to passing a law that would increase funding for the cash-strapped 911 dispatch centers across Pennsylvania.

The bad news: 911 centers in Allentown and Bethlehem, the last city-run centers in the state, could be dispatched into oblivion.

The updated Public Safety Emergency Telephone Act, to be voted out of committee Wednesday, would increase 911 surcharges on monthly phone bills to $1.65. Surcharges are now $1.25 for Lehigh Valley landlines and $1 for cellphones.

The portion of the law that used to allow city-run 911 centers to receive funding in the same way a county center does would now direct municipalities to join a county or regional center. The bill also gives counties discretion to channel money to the cities so they can continue running their own centers.

State Rep. Peter Schweyer, D-Lehigh, who sits on the House Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness Committee, where the bill originated, said it threatens public safety in both Bethlehem and Allentown.

The way the bill is drafted, there's no guarantee that the two cities would continue to receive 911 funding from the state, he said. The cities could be forced to spend millions or join up with a county system, he said.

"The commonwealth has spent $1 billion on downtown Allentown [through the Neighborhood Improvement Zone] and now we want to throw public safety, a critical part of that, for a loop?" Schweyer asked.

Rep. Stephen Barrar, a Chester County Republican who proposed the legislation and chairs the committee, did not return a phone call Tuesday seeking a comment.

In addition to pushing the cities into regional centers, the legislation also would create a 911 board that would assist with decisions about the allocation of 911 funding. Representatives from city-run 911 centers would not be eligible to sit on the board.

The proposed bill would also restrict how 911 centers can choose to regionalize. Regional systems are defined as those with two or more counties. An option for two cities to consolidate, as Allentown and Bethlehem have discussed in the past, would not be allowed, Schweyer said.

The legislation comes as the city- and county-run 911 systems have struggled to pay for operations with landline surcharges that have not been updated since 1990 and cellphone fees that haven't changed since 2008.

Last year, Allentown spent $3.3 million on 911 operations, $2.5 million of which was paid for by the state. In Bethlehem, 911 operations cost about $3.2 million, $1.25 million of which comes from surcharges. Another $530,000 comes directly from landline companies. Bethlehem taxpayers are left with a $2.1 million bill. The city raised taxes by 5.3 percent this year in large part to cover that shortfall.

State officials have encouraged centers to regionalize for years to cut costs. In the Lehigh Valley, Allentown and Northampton County have shared a phone system, and Bethlehem is looking to sign on to that deal when its equipment reaches the end of its life.

Lehigh and Northampton counties, Bethlehem and Allentown are about to launch a study on what consolidation or infrastructure sharing would look like.

Bethlehem Mayor Robert Donchez, who called for a joint study on the region's 911 systems, said the legislation affects the city's ability to determine the future of a center he has described as the "backbone" of the city's public safety operations.

Robert Haffner, Bethlehem's 911 director, called exclusion of the cities misguided. He and others spent 21/2 years drafting the 911 rewrite, but learned just three weeks ago that the bill proposed won't include references to the cities.

"I don't think they fully understand the ramifications or the importance of these two centers," Haffner said.

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski said he's very concerned about the proposal. If the city must consolidate its 911 center, it should have the ability to merge with Bethlehem, he said. Both cities have full-time police departments and similar call volumes, he said. Lehigh County's call volume would be doubled with the addition of Allentown's calls, Pawlowski said.

"We're connected at the hip, quite literally," Pawlowski said. "It would make a lot more sense than trying to squash us into a county system. Nothing against Slatington, but the types of calls, volume and dispatch just doesn't make sense [to merge]."

Operations have become intertwined in the cities' public safety strategies, which include a network of cameras monitored by dispatchers who can give officers information about a crime scene before the officers arrive.

Combined, the two cities have 240 cameras, and right now, 911 dispatchers monitor the feeds and dispatch emergency officials as needed.

If the city 911 centers were forced to consolidate, county centers would have to pick up those responsibilities or cities would have to pay for monitoring of the cameras out of their own pockets.

If that operation goes to the county, Bethlehem police Chief Mark DiLuzio said, the city would actually pay $500,000-$600,000 more than it currently does to fund the 911 center, because the city would still have to staff a call center for services the county would not be able to cover. Meanwhile, the city would likely not get any state money for it.

Pawlowski said in-house monitoring of the camera systems in Allentown would cost only a few hundred thousand dollars, but it would hurt response times, he said.

"You're going to have a camera, someone is going to monitor it and then dial the 911 center to have them dispatch," he said.

Allentown City Council will vote on a resolution this week in support of retaining municipal control of the city 911 system.

"Our people know 911," council President Ray O'Connell said. "They can direct a police officer, fireman, EMS. They know the streets. When you go to a county level, there might be a delayed service time."

Lehigh County Executive Tom Muller said the county updated its 911 center in 2007 knowing Allentown's operation could someday be absorbed. The county facility has enough space to handle more operators and equipment, he said. The county would likely hire a portion of Allentown's 911 staff in a merger, and would be willing to monitor the city's camera network, he said.

"We know where Allentown is," Muller said. "Somehow we get a coroner out to scenes, we get a [district attorney] out to these locations. ... We'd be bringing over the same talent from Allentown who I hope know where things are."

Whether the county will be able to afford such an addition will depend on how much funding state legislators build into the law, Muller said.

Robert Mateff Sr., director of Northampton County Emergency Management Services, said just about the only thing the county can't do is monitor the surveillance cameras.

"I think there are more perceived differences than actual differences," he said.

Luis E. Campos, Northampton County director of administration, said the county favors legislation that will enhance the effectiveness of the 911 program.

Mike Hilbert, superintendent of communications in Allentown, said the Lehigh Valley has a long history of innovation with 911. Bethlehem has operated a dispatch center, where people could call for help, since 1934. Allentown opened the first 911 center in Pennsylvania in the 1970s and made the first wireless 911 call in the country in 1997, he said.

"I could almost understand the concern of legislators if we were the last two 911 centers sitting here with tin cans and a string trying to make our systems work," Hilbert said. "But we've done this efficiently and we've done this cost-effectively."