North Providence and Pawtucket Announced Combined Dispatch
Set to Begin on Monday, March 16th
Pawtucket – On March 10th, the Town of North Providence and City of Pawtucket announced combined fire and dispatch services at North Providence’s state-of-the-art Public Safety Complex that are set to begin on Monday, March 16th. The new partnership will save taxpayer dollars, improve services, and modernize emergency response operations.
“I’m happy to be here today to announce the collaboration between the Town of North Providence and City of Pawtucket in merging our fire and rescue dispatch resources. This has been a long time coming,” said Town of North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi during the event. “We are now able to provide better public safety service to our residents to all of our residents while being more efficient. This is the first merger of metro fire departments in the State of Rhode Island, which will be handling approximately 26,000 calls per year. This would not have happened without the collaboration from Mayor Grebien and his team in Pawtucket over the last year and for that I appreciate it.”
“We are pleased to partner with North Providence to transition our dispatch services to their new state-of-the-art Public Safety Complex that will support the long needed technological improvements to the dispatch center,” said Pawtucket Mayor Donald R. Grebien. “These are very exciting times in moving our public safety response to the next level in order to continue to provide our residents with the services that they need and deserve. I thank Mayor Lombardi and his team for their leadership and partnership throughout this process. I also thank the dispatchers for their service to our community, and the Fire Union for working together on this issue.”
“When seconds count, we needed to find a way to improve our Dispatch Centers, and to see what technology can be used to efficiently handle the constant rise in call volume,” said Director of Communications and Technology Ralph Nahigian. “With the new onset of 5g data speeds, as well as the capability of enhanced GPS positioning of 911 calls and the latest technology in Computer Aided Dispatch Systems and Automatic Vehicle location systems, this technology can now allow our Departments to process calls for quicker and safer help. This equals saving more lives.”