Police dispatch and the Sheriff

There was some discussion at the Select Board meeting and on Curt Brown's blog here about regionalizing the police dispatch function with the Bristol County Sheriff's office providing the service to Dartmouth and surrounding communities. The Dartmouth Finance Committee has done an analysis that showed the police dispatch function is costing the town ...........

............$700,000 per year. That's a huge bill. I think that we need to investigate the possibilty of saving some of that money. Having said that, I have also talked to Chief Pacheco and he has some valid concerns about the effect of regionalizing the service, mainly related to department command and control. Chief Pacheco, to his credit, has agreed to meet with the sheriff and investigate the proposal.