WTHR |Beech Grove considers outsourcing 911 calls

Beech Grove considers outsourcing 911 calls

Jennie Runevitch/Eyewitness News

Beech Grove - A proposal from the Beech Grove mayor has stirred up quite a nest. People spoke out against the proposal at a public meeting Wednesday night.

"Your duty, as the government of this city, is to provide public safety first. It trumps all other things," said Lowell Shroyer, Beech Grove resident.

Mayor Joe Wright is suggesting the city outsource its 911 emergency dispatch services to the town of Speedway by mid-2010. The mayor says it's needed to save money. Beech Grove is facing a big budget shortfall. The mayor says it's due to property tax caps.

"The taxpayers said lower my taxes. Lower taxes mean lower revenue. Lower revenue means lower budgets. And that's really the sum of the whole thing," said Mayor Wright.

By outsourcing dispatch to Speedway, Wright says the city would save $400,000. He says the move would also add more dispatchers for the community.

"If we have three dispatchers answering the phones instead of two or one, that's better for Beech Grove," Wright said.

But some say outsourcing dispatch actually endangers public safety. Using people not as familiar with the neighborhoods of Beech Grove, they say, could cause slower response times.

"What control do we have when someone makes a mistake? When someone does a sub-standard job, when the citizens of Beech Grove get less than they've gotten before?" asked Shroyer.

"If you take one leg off a three-legged stool, it's going to fall over and I look at dispatch as being the front line for our police and fire department," said Kathy Coates.

In a city fiercely proud of its autonomy, some fear outsourcing would signal a loss of independence.

"Why not reverse this proposal and let Beech Grove dispatch for Speedway and let Speedway pay us?" asked Warner Wiley.

State Representative John Barnes wants Beech Grove to keep its 911 dispatch center. Barnes appeared with a group of civic leaders Wednesday morning on the steps of Beech Grove City Hall to discuss the importance of keeping the dispatch center in place. Barnes says he'll propose an exemption to state law which mandates counties have no more than two dispatch centers by 2014.