The Mill Creek Police Department is switching its 911 dispatch service provider at the start of next year.
Other cities also are considering changing providers, but likely will wait until the dust settles from a countywide radio system upgrade that will be phased in over the next several months.
Police and firefighters in nine cities and Snohomish County expect to be switched to the new 800-megahertz emergency communications system by the end of the year. The new technology makes it easier for emergency workers and dispatchers to talk to each other without fear the airwaves will be busy.
Mill Creek has contracted its dispatch service with Everett-based SNOPAC since its beginning in 1983.
SNOPAC is the largest dispatch service provider in Snohomish County, serving 39 agencies and processing more than 500,000 calls per year, SNOPAC Director Tom Howell said.
SNOPAC’s largest agencies are the Everett Police Department and the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office. Mill Creek Police Chief Bob Crannell said changing to a smaller, more-localized dispatch center could help his department.
“I don’t have any heartburn with SNOPAC,” Crannell said. “Just, operationally, they’ve had to change, and their ability to deliver services and our needs don’t really align anymore.”
Last week, the Mill Creek City Council gave Crannell permission to negotiate a contract with another dispatch center. Crannell gave a six-month notice of intent to terminate its contract with SNOPAC in July.
Starting Jan. 1, Mountlake Terrace-based SNOCOM will likely be providing that service. Crannell said the change will give the public better and quicker service.
SNOCOM serves the cities of Lynnwood, Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace, Brier and Woodway, and handled nearly 92,000 calls last year, SNOCOM Director Steve Perry said.
Both dispatch centers are public entities that are supported by the cities they serve through inter-local agreements. Both dispatch centers were opened in the mid-1970s when emergency service providers realized that centralized dispatch would be better than dozens of individual dispatch centers for each agency in the county. The city of Marysville, however, kept its own dispatch center, which it has run for about 60 years.
The change in dispatch providers comes with an increase in price. SNOPAC would have cost about $90,000 for the coming year, while SNOCOM will run about $107,000, Crannell said.
“I’m all about saving money,” Crannell said. “But cheaper isn’t always better.”
A more-customized level of service, less competition on airwaves and some extra data-entry work that SNOCOM provides make up the difference, he noted.
With the larger SNOPAC, “we might be dealing with traffic from 10 different cities,” he said.
SNOCOM, on the other hand, might match Mill Creek up on a workspace with Lynnwood or Edmonds, or a pair of smaller cities, he said.
Perry said there has been talk of bringing Mill Creek into the fold for several years, and the timing of the move could be a result of the countywide system change.
“Before … there would have been costs associated with changing,” he said.
There have been reports that other cities are considering a similar switch.
“Monroe and Sultan were discussing it,” Howell said, noting those cities’ concerns were based on higher costs for service.
Perry said such talk is normal.
“It happens every year,” he said. “It’s not unusual to get inquiries from other agencies. This year has been no different.”
Victor Balta is a reporter with The Herald in Everett. Herald reporter Katherine Schiffner contributed to this report.
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