CEDAR LAKE -- More questions than answers surround the state-mandated plan for countywide consolidation of emergency dispatch centers, and police officials are concerned about the economic and service issues the move may create for the town.
The Police Commission authorized Police Chief Roger A. Patz to send a letter to elected state officials who serve constituents in the area, the Lake County Council and Lake County Board of Commissioners, and people who attended a meeting last month on the matter held by the Police Commission.
Patz said the letter recommends changing the definition of call center to a 911 answering point instead of all public safety communications.
Local law enforcement already employs a system that can do that at little added expense and it would allow communities to keep the community service aspect of their dispatch operations.
Officials have also requested to be placed on the Lake County Council agenda Wednesday.
Patz did not know if that request yet was granted.
"We are hoping to at least let them know there are some serious questions here that have not been looked at and need to be looked at by someone ... The bottom line is we really believe one size does not fit all," Patz said.
One concern is how the new system will impact service to residents.
The Cedar Lake Police Department has one dispatcher at the window 24 hours a day. Along with handling calls, that person provides police reports, monitors the town hall's surveillance cameras, deals with walk-ins and monitors access to the evidence room, along with other functions.
Patz said those functions still need to be performed, but if dispatchers are moved along with the revenue that supports them, the town will need to find a way to hire additional employees, and that will be an added expense.
"The Police Department is a community nerve center," he said.
He also has concerns about how much the town will have to pay to buy in to the new system.
Now, the town and police department own their dispatch and radio equipment.
Preliminary estimates for the buy-in have ranged between $700,000 and $750,000, an amount three times the annual budget for the town's dispatch services.
"We might feel differently if we had some clear answers on anything," Patz said.
Patz said he is not against the idea of consolidation in theory and cited examples that have worked such as the Northwest Indiana Law Enforcement Academy, the Major Crimes Task Force and a partnership for a shooting range between Lowell and Cedar Lake.
But he has concerns the effort hasn't taken into account the different nature of the communities in Lake County.
"There's 17 individual communities in Lake County and each is absolutely different from the next, each has a different code of ordinances. What makes everybody think we all do dispatching the same way? Police work in Gary is 100 percent different than it is in Cedar Lake. The training and application of the law may be the same, but it is a different form of policing," he said.
Town administrator Ian Nicolini said it is too early to tell if the system will have its intended effect, saving taxpayer dollars.
"It has become difficult to assess how much money you can save when it costs significantly more at least in the early stages," Nicolini said.