From The AC Press- Our view: Countywide 911 dispatch needs to be done, and done well

their current dispatch operations and costs. Firefighters, who support the idea, informally collected information from towns, but without enough guidance on what was needed and how to get it.

The county now has sent a more detailed survey to towns.

Municipalities haven't been fully informed what the transition to central dispatch would mean to them. The countywide center's personnel plan, such as it is, wasn't developed with adequate or perhaps any input from municipalities, whose officials are naturally concerned about their employees.

This workforce transition - necessary and crucial to the plan's advantages - would be large and complex. When Atlantic County officials investigated how other counties implemented central dispatch, they should have looked for the best methods to manage this workforce change.

The county also hasn't informed municipalities how the conversion to countywide dispatch would upgrade equipment so communications are seamless between all emergency personnel. The technology issues are substantial, and mishandling them would waste money.

None of these are arguments against a countywide dispatch system, only against poor implementation of it. Nor is the desire of municipal officials to keep control of their own systems and payrolls.

A countywide system would make it far easier to upgrade ever-evolving technology, to control costs and to ensure dependable, secure operation even during natural disasters.

Allowing this crucial emergency service to remain dependent in some towns on barrier island locations, for example, is unacceptable. The next storm could cut people off from the help they need to survive.

The one legitimate argument is whether this time of regional economic struggle and uncertainty is a good time for the project.

Sure, this is another obvious public good that local officials should have done a decade or more ago when it was first considered and public resources were robust. But this is a safety matter and lives are at stake, which trumps concerns about short-term spending.

Atlantic County must soon centralize and improve its dispatch of medical, police and fire services.