editorials

Ramsey County's merged Emergency Communications Center has come under scrutiny for communications problems of its own. In a few cases, help has been sent to the wrong address or weather sirens have been delayed. Complaints were also logged about the quality of information that call takers and dispatchers relayed to emergency responders.

Those concerns prompted Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher to suggest possible management changes. ECC is now operated by Ramsey County. But if the sheriff's summer review of call handling fails to show improvements, he may move to assume oversight of the center.

Fletcher and some center workers have raised some legitimate issues. Prompt, efficient responses to emergency calls for police, fire and medical emergencies are vitally important. But a jurisdictional dispute is not the way to work out the bugs in the new 911 system. Instead, center workers, the county and the sheriff's department should collaborate to provide proper levels of staffing and training.

Understandably, growing pains occur when operations with different cultures and protocols come together. Similar problems erupted after communications functions were combined in Dakota County; those problems were corrected over time. And the new Ramsey center has exceeded national guidelines for how fast 911 calls should be handled. Last year, the center handled 95 percent of calls within 10 seconds -- five seconds faster than the national standard.

Previously, emergency calls were handled by several different call centers, including ones in St. Paul and Maplewood and within the sheriff's department. The merger began about a year ago; the combined ECC now handles all county emergency calls, except those in White Bear Lake.

Combining operations under county management was a wise move. The various jurisdictions shared the cost of state-of-the-art equipment and produced significant savings for taxpayers. Similar mergers have been happening around the country following tragedies like the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the I-35W bridge collapse. Without question, first responders must have well-coordinated and integrated communications.

Fletcher and some workers initially opposed the merger, and there may be some lingering turf issues. However, the sheriff says he came around to support the combined center and served on its policy board throughout the process. Now he's considering taking back control, depending upon the results of the summer review that will only include suburban communities.

Fletcher believes state statutes allow him to run the center; Ramsey County officials dispute that view. And this is not the first time the sheriff and county officials have failed to see things eye to eye. Several years ago, he threatened to sue the board over funding for his department. In this case, he believes he can secure more funding for the center.

But searching the statutes to see if one county department can take over from another one is counterproductive. Instead, all stakeholders should carefully examine the problems and work together to solve them.