Fresno Emergency Communications Center

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In tough economic times, the Fresno Fire Department has found a way to both save money and improve service.  After an extensive study into their communications program, they found that by consolidating the 911 dispatch for fire and EMS services in the City and County of Fresno, all of the agencies involved could lower their operating costs and improve their efficiency.

City and County of Fresno Consolidate Fire and EMS Communications Center

Prior to the revamping their communications system, the fire department, EMS Services, and law enforcement each had their own communications center and staff.  According to Battalion Chief Tim Henry of the Fresno Fire Department, "We started looking at improving our systems and realized that every 911 call in our county could literally end up with three 911 operators collecting the same information prior to it being dispatched."  This redundancy of information slowed the dispatch process down and was potentially dangerous.

After much planning, the City and County of Fresno consolidated the fire and EMS communications command into one center.  Dan Lynch, Director of EMS Services of Fresno, explains, "The Communications Center is a County facility which was actually built through a partnership with a private provider, and so together with the private provider, who is our contractor who operates or manages the Communications Center, the County of Fresno and the City of Fresno, we basically built in this ability to join forces.  Now you have a County entity and a City entity, a municipal entity, which in most communities, those two don't mix."

Adjusting to Change

Although there were some adjustments to be made with the consolidation, the dispatchers and first responders transitioned well.  Jamie Martin, the Director of Communications for American Ambulance, says, "It was a new mind-set for the dispatchers to get used to taking direction from the field, as opposed to giving it out, so that was a big change for the dispatchers on the line level.  All the dispatchers had to learn fire protocols and how to triage a fire call, what the engine was versus a truck, all of the very basic stuff we started with."

A Successful Consolidation

The consolidation of the Fresno Communications Center has been very successful for Fresno, both economically and with regards to greatly improved response times.  Battalion Chief Henry says, "It's not a duplication of services like we used to have.  When we had our fire dispatch center, we had the overhead and the facility and all the staffing, which was a duplication of what was happening in law enforcement and the EMS side."

Dan Lynch recommends this type of merger to any county or municipality considering a similar move, saying, "If someone were to be on the cusp or considering whether or not they're going to consolidate or not, my answer to them right now is, do it.  I feel strongly about it because I've seen so many success stories and so many benefits to what we've done here to the way the system used to be.  The biggest benefit is not just cost, because cost you could look at money, but cost is also in how your community is served."

Why Fresno Law Enforcement Was Not Included In Communications Merger

In making their decision to consolidate the fire and EMS dispatch, the City and County of Fresno opted not to include law enforcement in the merger due to the fact that law enforcement dispatch involves a much higher level of stress and consequently, there is a significant rate of turnover in staffing.  Officials felt that retaining seasoned dispatchers for the fire and EMS communication center was essential to maintaining the best levels of safety for firefighters and EMS personnel in the field.