Following the approval of the implementation of an automated call-taking system, the county’s Public Safety Communications Center Board addressed the possibility of a countywide 311 system that could perhaps better fulfill the automated system’s intentions.
John Dejung, director of the 911 Center, said though a 311 system could be beneficial, there are a number of factors including cost, coordination of emergency services throughout the county and a substantial amount of planning to be sorted through before anything concrete could be established.
“It’s a whole different tamale,” Dejung said.
He added he wanted to focus on what the county has already put in place and making that more efficient rather than falling prey to what he characterized as a “glacial pace of progress.”
Joel Plant, assistant to Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, said there has been a considerable amount of interest throughout the city government in creating an effective 311 system.
“There is wholesale support at the mayor’s office and [among] many members of the council,” Plant said.
Capt. Carl Gloede of the Madison Police Department said the city has looked at a number of 311 systems around the country for guidance before going forward with any plans. Most of the systems already in place, he said, were not carried out by single cities but were instead done on a countywide or regional basis.
He added when the various dispatching centers and emergency services throughout the county were consolidated in the 1980s, the Dane County 911 Center took on not only the emergency dispatch calls, but additionally all non-emergency calls.
The automated-attendant system was created to address some of these non-emergency calls, but a number of calls are still handled by emergency dispatchers. By having a 311 system in place for all non-emergency calls and the standard 911 system for emergencies, a more efficient handling of calls for service throughout the county could be created.
“But it’s starting to become gray,” Gloede said. “So what we’re looking at is, if the communications center is going to become strictly the 911 Center and dealing only with emergencies, there needs to be something else to fill the gap.”
