Atlantic County Is NJ’s Last Holdout on Centralized 911 Dispatch. Byrnes Wants Another Push

County commissioner says she wants to revive a long-debated consolidation effort as officials weigh costs, technology and concerns about fragmented emergency communications

ATLANTIC COUNTY — Atlantic County has studied it, debated it and tried it before.

Now Atlantic County Commissioner June Byrnes says she wants another push toward countywide emergency dispatch, an issue that has lingered for years as the county remains the last in New Jersey without some form of centralized system.

“We need to revisit countywide dispatch,” Byrnes said Thursday during an appearance on Off The Press with Scott Cronick on WOND.

Byrnes, who is seeking reelection this year, identified the issue when Cronick asked what she hopes to accomplish if given another three-year term.

She said she has already begun seeking opinions from the people who would be directly affected.

“I've been out talking to a lot of our first responders and getting their opinions about it,” Byrnes said. “And I'd like to see that come to fruition.”

For Byrnes, dispatch is part of a larger question about whether Atlantic County's municipalities could save money by sharing more government services.

“I'd like to see more and more consolidation in as many ways as we possibly can,” she said. “Taxes are just outrageous and we have to figure out ways to make that burden less for all of us.”

Atlantic County stands alone

Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson confirmed the unusual position the county finds itself in when he presented his 2026 budget in March.

“Last year we completed a feasibility study for fire/EMS centralized dispatch,” Levinson said in the budget message. “Ideally, it makes sense to have a single system that would include police and be accessible to all partners, but there is continued resistance.”

Levinson said previous efforts were unsuccessful and that Atlantic County is now the only county in New Jersey without some form of centralized dispatch.

“Sharing our resources helps reduce those costs but our towns must have the will,” Levinson said.

That history makes Byrnes' comments significant. She isn't proposing an entirely new concept. She's calling for another attempt at something county officials have been unable to bring across the finish line.

County already paid to study the idea

The latest effort has gone well beyond informal discussion.

Atlantic County commissioned ADCOMM Engineering LLC to complete a Fire/EMS Dispatch Feasibility Study and a separate Centralized Dispatch Cost Analysis.

The findings were formally presented Dec. 1, 2025, to police, fire and EMS representatives and municipal officials. The county subsequently made both studies available for public review and comment.

The study itself was funded with a $147,000 state Local Efficiency Achievement Program grant obtained by Atlantic County. Thirteen municipalities had adopted resolutions supporting the feasibility study after requests from the Atlantic County Fire Chiefs Association, Atlantic County Firefighters Association and Atlantic County EMS Association, according to the county.

At the time that funding was announced, Levinson said Atlantic County had tried centralization previously but believed there was renewed support from the fire and EMS communities.

The question now is whether support for studying consolidation can translate into enough municipal support to actually implement it.

13 separate dispatch centers

One of the central issues identified during the review is the fragmented nature of emergency communications in Atlantic County.

The county has 13 Public Safety Answering Points, or PSAPs, handling emergency communications.

Minutes from an October 2025 meeting of the Atlantic County Firefighters' Association describe some of the problems presented to county officials as part of the study.

According to those minutes, officials were told that cellphone calls can be routed to different PSAPs depending upon which tower receives the call. With 13 PSAPs operating in Atlantic County, that has created instances of initial dispatch confusion when different communities have streets with similar names.

The presentation also described major incidents in which seven to nine dispatch centers may have to be contacted to get mutual-aid units moving, according to the association's minutes.

The firefighters' association stressed that the discussion was about making the system more efficient and uniform — not criticizing the dispatchers currently doing the work.

The stated goal, according to the minutes, was to reduce and eventually eliminate the fragmented systems now operating throughout the county.

That gives the centralization debate a dimension beyond potential taxpayer savings.

In a major fire or other emergency that crosses municipal boundaries, the question becomes whether having multiple communications centers involved creates unnecessary steps before help reaches the scene.

Next Generation 911 adds urgency

The county is also confronting the transition to Next Generation 911, or NG911, which requires new technology and equipment.

That transition is one of the reasons Levinson argues consolidation should again be considered.

“As technology and equipment change, they become more cost prohibitive for local governments,” he said in his March budget message.

Rather than every municipality independently absorbing the cost of increasingly sophisticated emergency communications technology, proponents argue that equipment, personnel and infrastructure could potentially be shared.

But centralization would represent a significant change for communities accustomed to controlling their own police, fire and EMS communications.

And Atlantic County has encountered that resistance before.

Home rule remains a hurdle

New Jersey's tradition of municipal home rule has complicated shared-services efforts across the state, and Atlantic County has not been immune.

Levinson made his frustration clear in his budget address, pointing not only to dispatch but to another county consolidation effort.

The Central Municipal Court of Atlantic County began operating in 2022 as a shared-services initiative.

Only nine of Atlantic County's 23 municipalities participate.

Yet according to figures released by the county, those nine municipalities saved an average of 44% in 2025, or approximately $1.27 million combined.

Since the court's creation, participating municipalities have saved their taxpayers more than $5.5 million, according to Atlantic County.

“The Central Municipal Court of Atlantic County stands as a model throughout the state,” Levinson said in his budget message. “Its success should breed further success and yet we are unable to convince others to join.”

He blamed what he called “archaic home rule” for some municipalities' reluctance to consolidate services.

A municipal court and an emergency dispatch center are vastly different operations, however.

Dispatch involves police officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel responding to potentially life-or-death calls, making concerns about local knowledge, staffing, procedures and control especially significant.

The court savings therefore don't establish what municipalities would save through centralized dispatch. But they do provide a real-world Atlantic County example of a service the county says became less expensive after municipalities agreed to consolidate.

Regional dispatch is already happening

Centralized public-safety communications are also not entirely foreign to Atlantic County.

Several municipalities already share dispatch services rather than operating completely independently.

For example, Galloway Township's Communications Unit currently handles public-safety communications covering Galloway, Mullica Township, Port Republic and Absecon, encompassing about 187 square miles, according to the Galloway Township Police Department.

The center handles emergency and non-emergency calls and dispatches police, fire and EMS resources across multiple jurisdictions.

That demonstrates that municipal borders do not necessarily have to correspond with dispatch boundaries.

The much more difficult question is whether that concept can be expanded across Atlantic County.

Byrnes: More consolidation could ease taxes

Byrnes' push comes as Atlantic County and its municipalities confront rising costs for everything from employee compensation to health benefits and technology.

Atlantic County already participates in more than 320 shared-service agreements involving the county, municipalities and its public authorities, according to the county's shared-services office.

Byrnes says she wants to go further.

Her comments also fit with a theme she raised elsewhere during her interview with Cronick: maintaining county infrastructure while trying to control spending and debt.

Discussing roads and other county responsibilities, Byrnes said officials have to continually coordinate projects among different municipalities and agencies.

“It's just time and management and budget,” she said. “It's not kicking the can down the road. It's just trying to keep on top of each — the entire county infrastructure.”

Centralized dispatch may present a similar challenge.

The feasibility studies have been completed. First responders and municipalities have been brought into the discussion. Some regional dispatching already occurs within Atlantic County.

But the county still doesn't have a centralized system.

Byrnes says she wants that conversation reopened.

“We need to revisit countywide dispatch,” she said.

Whether Atlantic County's municipalities are finally willing to consolidate may determine whether this attempt ends differently from the ones that came before.

June Byrnes made her comments on “Off The Press with Scott Cronick” on WOND (weekdays, 4-6pm).