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It may seem like ancient history but there was a time when many Luzerne County residents, including municipal leaders, loudly opposed the implementation of a county-wide 911 center 24 years ago. Countless concerns kept coming up, chief of which was loss of local dispatchers who knew the neighborhoods where emergency responders needed to go.
People also got up in arms about the cost, conflict with existing contractual obligations for dispatch services in some municipalities, adequate radio communication coverage and the inevitable requirement to rename some streets to make the system work.
We believe that, despite hiccups, having a county-wide 911 emergency call system has — as predicted — improved responses to emergencies, both for individual police, fire and ambulance companies and for situations that require responses from departments of multiple municipalities.
Done properly, a county-wide 911 system assures professional and consistent handling of calls regardless of the emergency. It helps put all responders on compatible communication systems speeding up interaction when needed. And it gives every municipality — regardless of their financial situation — access to sophisticated computer systems for knowing where a call is coming from and how best to get to it.
But it does need to be regularly updated, and updating systems for an entire county can be costly. That is evident in the current implementation of a new emergency radio communication system across the county. As staff writer Jennifer Learn-Andes reported in Monday’s edition, the new system — with $8 million spent just on mobile and portable equipment for emergency responders — is set to be activated for Wilkes-Barre Fire and Police Wednesday, with the rest of the county included next week.
On paper, the new system sounds like a big advancement. New communication towers in new locations and updated microwaves are expected to substantially increase coverage. The new digital radio system should provide clearer communication and handle the flow of information faster.
It’s all expected to boost emergency radio coverage throughout our largely rural, forest-covered county. In addition, schools are getting base station mobile radios with a panic button that officials can use to send a message instantly if there is an emergency. Reception should improve substantially inside the prison, the Mohegan Sun Casino in Plains Township and the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre Township.
And the contract for the radios requires the company, Motorola, to assure the county has 95% emergency radio coverage 95% of the time.
County Council has yet to decide if it will approve another $3 million — from federal grant money — for further enhancements. Some council members have found it more important to keep arguing about ballot drop boxes and similar issues than to assure public safety.
One of those enhancements, frankly, seems a no-brainer. $1.4 million would add the ability to transmit GPS coordinates of responders, a feature that could speed up responses and, more importantly, increase safety for those responders.
Here’s hoping the new system lives up to, or better yet exceeds, its promises. And here’s hoping County Council starts focusing more on providing and improving such essential services.