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Police alter dispatch policies

Hudson-Catskill Newspapers

HUDSON — The Hudson Police Department has made some changes to how it handles dispatcher training, Chief Ellis Richardson told the Register-Star Thursday. The changes stem from concerns aired at Monday’s Police Committee Meeting.

At the meeting, Alderwoman Sheila Ramsey, D-4th Ward, had complained that, after being bothered by a man on the 200 block of Columbia Street, she called the police and received no response; instead, she was told by the dispatcher to file a complaint.

Like Ramsey, Richardson declined to elaborate on the details of the incident, but did say that, in that case, “we dropped the ball.”

Richardson has spoken to Ramsey, and told her that “dispatchers failed to execute proper protocols and procedures in response to calls” in her situation.

In that situation, a dispatcher who was in training took Ramsey’s call.

Richardson has reviewed the tapes, and all other information surrounding the situation, and determined that “had the full-time dispatcher been monitoring the call, the full-time dispatcher could have intervened and made the correct decision regarding proper police response in this incident.”

“Based upon the information I have received, it is my opinion that this is an isolated incident,” Richardson said. “There has been nothing brought forward in the past to substantiate anything otherwise.”

Despite that belief, changes have been implemented in how dispatchers are trained that stand to lessen the chance of such an incident happening again. The biggest change is that full-time dispatchers administering training are now required to listen to all calls, which they were not previously required to do.

Richardson said other administrative actions have also been taken.

In terms of what situations should warrant a police response as opposed to those that would warrant the filing of a report at the station, Richardson said that if the caller faces no immediate threat, and the perpetrator has left the area, he or she may be asked to file a report at the station.

Another change that may come is whether residents will see police response to all calls, or whether the dispatchers will be required to ask callers if they’re requesting to speak to an officer. Richardson says it is yet to be determined which course they will take.

At Monday’s meeting, Richardson also felt there was an “innuendo of us not responding to calls in the Second Ward.” He has provided “concrete proof” to dispute this, including incident logs from all Second Ward calls, broken down by street, that show what each incident entailed, and how many officers responded.

Overall, calls to the Second Ward have made up 830 of the 4,690 calls that HPD has received this year up to July 29, or 18 percent of the year’s calls so far. If a resident has complaints that HPD didn’t respond in a timely fashion, Richardson said he needs exact information, including dates and times, to look into these scenarios to determine what other factors may have been at play to delay the response.

“We have to deal with each incident on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

There are several factors that can affect response time, including how many officers are on duty, what time of day it is, and what other incidents are being responded to at that same time. If someone has been placed under arrest, one officer has to remain at the city jail. In addition, after 10 p.m., it can sometimes be difficult to get a hold of local judges.

“All of this trickles down on response time,” he said, also noting that an officer must always respond to a call because the dispatchers log the time a call is dispatched, and officers have to account for their whereabouts.

How many calls an officer responds to during a shift varies, and can depend on something as simple as the weather, Richardson said. During the summer, the most active shifts encompass the hours between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.

“Our busiest shifts during the summer are not that active during the winter,” he said.

How many officers are on duty at a given time can vary as well. “Every day of the year, on every shift, I have one dispatcher and four officers scheduled to work,” Richardson said. Factors that can affect this plan include sick time, bereavement leave, vacation hours, and personal leave.

As for what the average response time of HPD is, Richardson said to compile such data would require an officer spending a day going through manual logs. HPD’s records management software currently does not have a field where time dispatched and time arrived can be entered.

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