ADAMS, Mass. — Give John Pansecchi an address in Adams and in seconds he can explain the quickest way to get there. 

 

It's his job as a dispatcher for police, fire and emergency medical services. He also knows the frequent callers so when a particularly dangerous individual is reported to need assistance, he knows to tell police to take extra care. And when it's person who calls every day with a minor complaint, he knows to talk the individual through it and not bother police. He can even help you fill out a motor vehicle accident report.

 

"This is our career. This is what we do," Pansecchi said on Monday.

 

Pansecchi recently read that for the second time the town is considering getting rid of his position in favor of contracting with the Berkshire County Sheriff's department in hopes to save money. But what he hadn't had a chance to do was explain that his job is more than just answering 911 calls. 

 

"Right now, we're manning the station. People come into the lobby and we're handling that ourselves," said dispatcher Anthony Piscioneri. "There is a lot more that we do than just handle 911 phone calls." 

 

The two dispatchers say the proposal to contract with the Berkshire County Communications Center doesn't make much sense. During the day, Piscioneri says it is the dispatchers who are fielding calls from courts, media, the Department of Children and Families, and dealing with walk-ins looking for motor vehicle crash report forms or for license-to-carry applications. When there is an arrest, it is the dispatchers who run the needed reports to help the officer put together his report and get back out on the street.

 

Pansecchi estimates the Police Department receives more than 30,000 calls to the landline, nearly all of which the dispatchers handle. He says about a third of those including burglar alarms lead to dispatching of emergency services so the line must be monitored. Without dispatchers to do it, it'll have to be an officer or sergeant, they said.

 

"Other than not having arrest powers, we as dispatchers are pretty much capable of doing everything else there," he said.

 

It was a sergeant who in February handled a call to Cherry Street when reports came in that an individual was shooting at state police officers on scene. Pansecchi had the night off and heard the call, drove down to the station and took over the communications so the sergeant could get to the scene for mutual aid.

 

"I came in on my own time and assisted," Pansecchi said. "You are not going to get somebody going to in on their own time at the sheriff's department to do that stuff. That's how we work. If we hear something and we are available, we are going in."

 

All three of the town's full-time dispatchers — Pansecchi, Piscioneri, and Thomas Romaniak — boast of decades living and working in the community and all three serve on the Fire Department. When a call comes in, especially one for the Fire Department, they know exactly what the first responders are going to want and are often ahead of them. Sometimes they'll call in the mutual aid needed without even being asked.

 

"We know basically what is expected and what is going to be required and we can already be working on it," Piscioneri said.

 

When an out-of-town ambulance driver needs to get to an address quickly, that knowledge of the road system will be much more helpful than a GPS unit, they said. They know the dangerous people in the community and they know the ones who call every day. 

 

"We can run a bit of interference for the officers. If a call comes in and it is a name we recognize, a lot of the times we as dispatchers can handle that call right on the phone instead of having to dispatch and officer," Piscioneri said. "The dispatchers from another agency is not going to know those people. The calls that could be handled on the phone, they are going to dispatch and officer, who will be taken out of service."

 

Between the local knowledge and the additional work outside of 911 calls, the dispatchers don't believe there will be much of a savings. 

 

Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco has estimated that the town will save $1.5 million over the next decade by changing dispatch centers. The town currently spends $180,000 on dispatch services, which includes $22,000 paid for through grants, while the county Communications Center has quoted $24,000 a year for the services.

 

But with all of those other calls to handle — not just 911 — the dispatchers say the savings and quality of work won't be nearly as grandiose as the town administrator seems to think. And if there are some savings, it comes at the cost of dispatch time and miscommunication. 

 

"What's difficult to wrap my head around this is that I understand budget issues but most other communities across the country want their officers out on the street especially in a smaller community like ours where we have minimum staffing. Right now there are certain shifts that operate with two officers and a dispatcher. If you eliminate the dispatcher and maintain the station, you are going to have to place a sergeant or an officer there."

 

They estimate that it will cost more than $113,000 in pay to keep the police station open around the clock and be even more expensive if the town needs to use patrolmen or sergeants to man the desk on overtime. Pansecchi says there are some 120 shifts per year that have minimum level of staffing and in many occasions the dispatchers stand in to keep the station running.

 

Otherwise, officers will be pulled off the street to cover the desk when another calls in sick or has a vacation. The two say there are often times when dispatchers are the only ones in the station.

 

"They are not doing away with us. They are doing away with the 911 calls and replacing our bodies with the more expensive police officer," Pansecchi said.

 

Piscioneri says the Adams dispatchers have the exact same capabilities as the sheriff's office such as using the TriTech software to run checks across criminal databases.

 

"We never had the town administrator or any members of the select board come into our dispatch center and see how we operate. I don't know how they can get their information and compare the two," Piscioneri said. "They don't have anything that is any different from what we currently use now." 

 

He says Adams has call volumes that far surpass the rural areas that the sheriff's office currently dispatches for and the types of crime are much more aligned with city life. Without even the additional Adams calls, he says he's fielded calls from Cheshire, which does dispatch through the sheriff's department, asking to run vehicle plates because the sheriff's dispatchers were busy with an incident elsewhere.

 

Adams is the third largest community in Berkshire County by population and by going to a regional dispatch center, it will join Lanesborough and Lenox as the only towns with full-time Police Departments without in-house dispatch. Places like Williamstown, Dalton, and Great Barrington all run their own dispatch centers.

 

On Wednesday, the Board of Selectmen will be holding a workshop meeting at the Adams Visitor's Center to discuss the issue. Mazzucco posted two items — a memorandum and a frequently asked questions — on the town's website. The dispatchers say those documents are misleading and that many questions remain unanswered. They hope to have support at Wednesday's meeting for keeping the dispatchers.