Tuscaloosa City moves to create director post to merge fire, police dispatch

Tuscaloosa City staff asked a city committee to approve a new director-level job classification to merge police and fire dispatch into a single Public Safety Communications Division, and a voice vote approved the motion, city staff said.

The request “is a request to adopt a director of public safety communications job classification,” Miss Herbert, a city staff member, said. She said Tuscaloosa Police Department (TPD) and Tuscaloosa Fire Rescue (TFR) dispatch functions are currently run separately and the new director would manage the combined division.

The change is meant to unify radio and dispatch operations for police and fire. Herbert said current dispatch responsibilities are handled by “captain Rister and also captain Rex Adams from the fire department,” and that those functions “function independently.” Under the plan, dispatchers would be cross-trained on both police and fire dispatching. Herbert also said the director post would be a civilian position.

Committee members moved and seconded the request; a voice vote followed and members responded “Aye,” approving the motion. The city did not provide a recorded roll-call tally or an effective date during the discussion.

City staff did not specify an implementation timeline, staffing count for the new division, or whether any additional budget or equipment funding would be required beyond training. The committee discussion focused on creating the position and on the need for dispatcher cross-training; no ordinance, contract number, or statute was cited during the remarks.

Next steps identified in the discussion included establishing the job classification and assigning the director to manage the consolidation; specific deadlines and funding details were not provided during the meeting.