Unions Question Consolidation Of 911 Operations;
Cite Central Facility And Its Location As Problems

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

Unions representing police, fire and emergency medical call-takers and dispatchers last week lambasted portions of the city's $1.5-billion plan to overhaul the 911 system and questioned whether it would actually improve public safety.

DAVID ROSENZWEIG: 'Shouldn't be in high-rise.'

Union leaders will meet with city officials July 11 to hear details of the plan, but last week they expressed concern about the wisdom of placing a single center at 11 MetroTech in Brooklyn, within striking distance of the Manhattan Bridge. They also said the plan for a unified call center raised jurisdictional and training issues, as three different sectors of the city work force, represented by three different unions with different wage and benefit scales, purportedly would be sitting side by side by March 2009.

City: More Efficient

City officials said the new plan would drive down emergency response times and streamline a fractured system that can cause confusion and delays.

"11 MetroTech is not a safe building," said Fire Alarm Dispatchers' Benevolent Association President David Rosenzweig. "We should not be in a high-rise building; we should not be in a building 25 feet off of Flatbush Ave. These are basic industry standards."

THOMAS EPPINGER: Easy spot for terrorists.

Mr. Rosenzweig represents the approximately 200 men and women who dispatch personnel and equipment to fire emergencies. He says that their response time of 43 seconds is the fastest in the country. And he argues that the current set-up, which has one state-of-the-art dispatch center located inside a city park in each borough, allows for back-up in case of failure and makes the centers less vulnerable to attack.

'Worst Possible Location'

"If you wanted to pick a place for terrorists to strike," said Thomas Eppinger, President of Local 3621, District Council 37 Uniformed Emergency Medical Service Officers Union, "you come off the Manhattan Bridge, and it's right there. It's the worst place; it should have been in a remote location."

A spokesman for the Mayor's Office said that the plan had been approved by the Police Department's counter-terrorism bureau.

PATRICK BAHNKEN: Can't combine functions.

Several union leaders argued that the planned 911 call center in The Bronx, which is not scheduled to break ground until July 2009, should be in place before consolidating all of the services into one location. They cite the blackout last year and several breakdowns of the system in 1999 as examples of why there needs to be more than one emergency response location.

Mayoral spokesman Jason Post said there would be a back-up plan in place. "There are some 911 operators at One Police Plaza, and that could be expanded," he said.

Personnel Spread Out

Currently, Police Call Technicians and EMS call-takers work in separate locations in Brooklyn. The fire dispatchers are spread out across the five boroughs. The Mayor's plan would put them all on the third floor of 11 MetroTech. If the site in The Bronx is completed as planned, the workers and calls would be split between the two locations. The land for The Bronx building has not yet been purchased by the city.

DC 37 Local 2507 Uniformed Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics President Patrick Bahnken, who represents the medical emergency call-takers, said that while he is open to hearing the proposal, systems that work in other cities may not be appropriate for New York. "Our EMS call volume is greater than the total of the next five cities combined," he said. "Life is never so simple as, 'Let it be written, let it be done.'''

City officials have yet to discuss the plans with the unions, and several labor leaders said they were worried that the unified center would mean combined job responsibilities. Currently, Police Call Technicians are not trained to handle medical and fire emergencies, and vice-versa. EMS call-takers, for example, are trained medical workers, and although they are given a card or flip chart to guide them through various medical situations, Mr. Bahnken argued that their medical training was crucial.

'Card Isn't Enough'

"Our guys give life-saving direction for first aid," he said. "Anyone can read a card that says, 'If a patient says this, then say that,' but there are things not covered by the card."

City officials said that there would still be call-takers with distinct responsibilities. "The police will still answer the phone when you call 911," said Mr. Post.

He said that additional training would be needed, but only for the improved technology used under the new plan. A computer system would connect all three fire, medical and police systems so that when a call came in, the call-taker could enter the information into a computer that all three teams could access. In the current system, a caller may have to repeat him or herself after a 911 operator switches a call over to the appropriate emergency unit. Mr. Post said overall job responsibilities would not change under the new system.

Unions Wait for Details

All of the union leaders said they believed the responsibilities would have to change somewhat, but could not be sure how since they had not been briefed on the plan. The three groups of workers currently have different work-weeks (35 hours in one case, 40 in another) and different pension benefits. The Police Call Technicians are civilians while the EMTs and fire dispatchers have uniformed status.

Eddie Gates, the first assistant director for the clerical division of DC 37, which represents the Police Call Technicians, said he could not comment on the plan since much of what he knew, like other union leaders, came from an article that appeared in The New York Times last week. "The devil is in the details," he said.

Mr. Post said issues would be discussed at the July 11 meeting. "If they have any concerns," he said, "we look forward to hearing them and seeing if we can address them."

But while most of the union leaders said they were open to hearing the city's ideas, they argued that public safety could only benefit by consulting with their members prior to announcing a finalized plan.

"The average time on the job of my officers is 20 years," said Mr. Eppinger. "They do the job every day; management doesn't. Sometimes the workers do have some good ideas; they just have to be allowed to speak about them."