By Joshua Phelps
The Scene staff
Students who call the number for Forest Park police may be surprised to learn that its calls are being answered by a dispatcher on the Florissant Valley campus.
Dispatch operations for St. Louis Community College’s four campuses and two education centers have been consolidated as part of a larger police reorganization plan that was developed five years ago.
“We’re one college,” said Capt. Benjamin Talley, who is stationed at Florissant Valley. “Having three dispatch centers for one police department for the college makes no logistical sense.”
Each campus continues to have its own staff of police officers, who dispatchers call if their services are needed by students, faculty, staff or visitors.
Dispatchers at Florissant Valley began answering Forest Park police calls on Jan. 6.
Interim President Julie Fickas doesn’t expect the change to cause any safety problems at Forest Park. She said she has called police before and after the consolidation, and response times were the same.
“It’s just streamlining things,” Fickas said. “Essentially, you have a police station in a city that reaches out and dispatches all over the place. 911 is a centralized location that reaches out all over a region. That’s kind of the same idea.”
Talley called the dispatch transition “seamless” and said most Forest Park students, faculty and staff won’t know the difference.
Some people question whether dispatchers 10 miles away can be as effective when they don’t have regular contact with Forest Park students and aren’t as familiar with campus buildings, activities or personnel.
Culinary arts student Ariel Oakley, 23, doesn’t like the change.
“When I call the police, I want them to answer the phone,” she said. “I don’t want it to be routed somewhere.”
General transfer student Jonathan Clayton, 21, has a different view. He said he feels safe on the Forest Park campus, and he doesn’t see a problem with the dispatch consolidation.
“It’ll save money, and it’ll serve students better,” he said.
No one was laid off as part of the dispatch consolidation, according to Alfred Adkins, STLCC director of public safety and emergency management.
“They’ve just been relocated,” he said. “They have the same job functions. They’ve just been relocated from Meramec and Forest Park to one central location at Florissant Valley.”
The Forest Park campus has a staff of nine police officers this semester, the same as last semester.
The college gave the dispatch consolidation a green light in the spring of 2017, when Adkins joined the district.
“This is not just something that popped up yesterday,” Talley said.
STLCC police and dispatchers at campuses and education centers are communicating through the St. Louis Area Trunked Emergency Radio (SLATER) system, which includes repeaters at each location.
The SLATER system also is being used by police, fire departments and emergency medical service personnel throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area.
“It has allowed us to work as one agency,” Talley said. “It’s what we are.”
Talley said response times have improved since the college adopted the SLATER system late last year and that dispatch consolidation has allowed the police department to be more efficient with resources and officers to spend more time in the field.
“Now our dispatchers are working 24/7, and that allows us to monitor fire and burglar alarms and other things the dispatcher has to do,” he said.