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Published on Friday, October 17, 2003
in the NBC Panama City
A new centralized dispatch office for the Florida Highway Patrol was supposed to alleviate problems. Instead, dispatchers and troopers alike say it's creating them.
The new central dispatch center in Tallahassee has had some growing pains and lots of problems as FHP workers settle in to their new duties. The FHP in the last year or two has closed dispatch centers in Cresvtiew and Marianna. And in the past few weeks centers in Pensacola and Panama City have also been shut down.
When you call the Highway Patrol to report an accident anywhere in the panhandle you are talking to a dispatcher in Tallahassee. Troopers unfamiliar with our area are being sent out by dispatchers also unfamiliar with the area to accidents and some are having a hard time finding their way around.
To add to the confusion the agency is in the process of upgrading their radios to the new 800 megahertz trunking system. It makes most home scanners obsolete. And the dispatchers have to listen to more than over a dozen frequencies to hear calls from the FHP and other state agencies.
Major Randy Brown, the Troop "A" commander, which covers all of this area, admits there are problems and the agency is working to solve them. One other problem is the slow response time. Major Brown says that's because the agency has 250 trooper vacancies right now. There just are not enough troopers to go around.
Some complain response time has been at least and hour and a half to some accidents.
There are also stories of F-H-P central office dispatchers in Tallahassee calling for a tow truck in Pensacola to pick up a car in Panama City and Bay County paramedics being called out to an I-10 traffic accident in another county a hour away.
Major Brown says a new radio system will solve some of the problems. The rest he says are being worked on a case by case basis.
Northwest Florida was the last area in the state to switch to cetralized dispatching. Brown points out that it's working well in other areas of the state.