Excerpts from the Chicagotribune.com:

Outsourcing 911 service in November has saved Bolingbrook $319,000 while maintaining excellent response times, officials say. Instead of staffing its own call center, the village is now one of 21 entities under the umbrella of the Western Will County Communication Center, or Wescom.

“The consolidation worked for us, financially, on both the police and fire sides,” said Thomas Ross, Bolingbrook public safety director who serves as chief of both departments. “We’ve calculated that it’s about 22 percent less expensive than running our own 911 call center.”

Nineteen full-time positions with the accompanying overhead of pay benefits were eliminated, but Wescom immediately hired many of those workrs. With a population of more than 73,000, Bolingbrook employs 113 police officers and 86 firefighters.

…  the transition to Wescom was seamless, in part because both used similar telecommunications equipment. Bolingbrook has become Wescom’s busiest client for police calls and second-busiest for fire response, behind Lockport.

Officials say 911 response times have remained steady with increased efficiency through economies of scale.

 

Tags: Bolingbrook Fire Department, Bolingbrook public safety director, outsourcing of the 911 emergency dispatch services, Thomas Ross, Western Will County Communication Center, Western Will County Communication Center (WESCOM)