Emergency Dispatchers' Performance Criticized at Public Safety Commission Meeting

Montville Police Lt. Leonard Bunnell lit into the on-the-job performance of the town's emergency dispatchers during Monday's meeting of the Montville Public Safety Commission, citing a number of areas in which he said written procedures were not being consistently followed.

In his initial statement, presented as part of the department heads' report, Bunnell requested that the commission send the emergency dispatchers' telephone-answering procedure to the Town Council for action because it was not being followed "entirely and consistently."

Fire Marshal Ray Occhialini, who oversees the town dispatchers, responded that it was "a matter of opinion" as to whether the dispatchers were following procedures and that he was "tired of seeing this on the agenda every month."

"One dispatcher can only do so much,"  Occhialini said. He went on to say that he did not believe it was an issue to go on to the town council or be brought before the commission and that "This is just another step (toward) an organized police department."

In response, Bunnell said he was looking for help and cooperation, and that it was "foolishness" to think that his criticism of the dispatchers was "a ploy to change the police services in this town."

The responsibility of answering calls for the police department was added to  dispatchers' duties in October. Before that, only calls for fire and medical emergencies were handled by the staff of one part-time and three full-time  dispatchers.

Later in the meeting, Bunnell cited a number of specific duties that he said were "not being done" by dispatchers, including answering the police phone line for routine calls, logging in call information in the department's Computer Aided Dispatch system, and keeping the door to the dispatchers' room accessible to other authorized personnel.

He also said that the problems did not exist with all dispatchers on all shifts but he did say that on one shift no CAD entries at all were made for an entire month.

When asked to respond to Bunnell's statements, Occhialiani initially declined, but then spoke in defense of the dispatchers.

Citing emergency call activity last Saturday, Occhialini said, "My dispatcher couldn't answer the phone even if he wanted to. He had an ambulance call after ambulance call after ambulance call after ambulance call. He left at noon and the next guy comes in. He has a deer rescue."

Occhialini went on to state that police personnel were also available at times and could field routine calls for police. "There's only so much you can do with one person there most of the time. Look at my fire logs. I do agree sometimes it's not busy, but somebody else is in the building too.  Occhialini also suggested that the day shift police secretary could carry help with CAD entries. "She doesn't make any CAD entries, maybe we need to start."

The commisson members voted unanimously to move the issue to the town council for action.

In other matters, Bunnell requested a starting date of Jan. 10 for the town's newly recruited police officer, to allow for orientation. 

When the new hire is added, it will bring police department staffing up to 23 uniformed officers.

Bunnell also reported that plans for the communications system for the new public safety complex were moving along on schedule.