St. Vincent’s SWIM Across the Sound

The Union and the City met last week and resolved a long-standing problem that was created by moving the dispatchers out of the Police Department chain of command and into the Fire Department.  Over the years there were several issues that were caused by the lack of coordination in this change.  We reached an agreement regarding this problem that requires the City to use the Calls for Service committee (already established) to review and prioritize all calls for service we handle.  This prioritization will then be reviewed by the Chief and submitted to the Emergency Communications Director. 

Also, the Dispatchers are all advised that they are subject to the lawful orders of police supervisors pertaining to police matters.  The Dispatchers are not in control of the police officers, the Police Department's policies and procedures, phones or radios.  If you have any problems with a dispatcher on the police-side, follow your chain of command and document the incident.  They have acknowledged that they must complye with a police supervisors' orders and have signed off on it.  In the future, if there is a problem with a police-side dispatcher being insubordinate to a police supervisor, they can be disciplined.