Consolidation of 911 Dispatch Channel for Mon Valley Police Offices Suspended

PITTSBURG (KDKA) – The consolidation that was to take place today for eleven police departments in the Mont Valley, where they will use one 911 control channel, has been postponed.

Allegheny County leaders tell KDKA that they have plans to move forward with consolidation, but are postponing it for now. They said that instead of the departments coming to them to share their problems, they went to the media.

Now they plan to hold various meetings with departments in hopes of resolving many issues.

Yesterday, a letter was sent to eleven departments from the head of the emergency department of Allegheny County, Matt Brown. You can read it completely below.

Chiefs:

Earlier in April, we met on the occasion of the upcoming consolidation of the East PD channel, and I continued this meeting with a note outlining these plans and making it available to each of you to answer any questions or concerns. Although no one contacted me directly, some of you turned to the media with issues that were not expressed by ACES. Obviously, more talks remain. Based on this, I will postpone consolidation for a short period of time so we can resolve the issues.

Consolidation of channels will move forward in a future date to be determined, but please note that we may also be forced to consolidate channels, from time to time, on a staff-based basis. As I am sure, you all know that this is a practice that already exists and sometimes happens. In addition, many departments in the Mont Valley are facing similar staffing problems as a number of changes in coverage have been reported over the past few weeks. When you do consolidations across municipal lines, they equally affect our operations.

I will contact you shortly to schedule meetings with us and the Chiefs of the Eastern Police Departments involved. We will be holding meetings at our plant on the moon so we can also discuss radio communications and provide some information about our dispatch operations, as media interviews stressed that people are unaware of the process. No need to reply to this letter. I will contact each of you soon to schedule our first meeting.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Here are eleven areas that will be affected by consolidation:

• McKisport
• Versailles
• White oak
• Penn Greater Allegheny
• Clertan
• Glassport
• View of the port
• Freedom
• Elizabeth Barra
• Elizabeth Township
• Lincoln

When it was announced, the move angered many police departments involved. They feel that if this consolidation had taken place, it would have become a security issue not only for their officers but also for society.