U. Police plan to expand dispatch center

University Police is going to expand its cluttered and often hectic dispatch center -- the Operations Room -- to improve service to both police officers and civilians using the police station, University Police Commissioner John Kuprevich said last night. The renovations, which will cost about $10,000, have been proposed for more than two years. Kuprevich said he had not wanted to spend money on University Police's current building, which he describes as "a well-used facility showing its age." Instead, he said he had hoped that the University would provide the Division of Public Safety with a more appropriate building for a large police and security operation. "For us, to move to a different facility was on again and off again, so we would go out and get an estimate [of the cost of renovations to the operations room] if we were going to stay," Kuprevich said. "We got to the point where it was inappropriate to have employees do a difficult job in an environment that made it more difficult." Kuprevich said plans for a new station are not dead, though. The current operations room, which is a little larger than a Quadrangle double, will be expanded by adding a second room to divide the responsibilities of the dispatchers. One room will be used to respond to emergency phone calls and actual dispatching. The second room, will be used to greet "walk-ins" to the station, respond to the University's extensive computerized alarm system and monitor Escort Service, Philadelphia Police bands, various town watch groups and security companies. Currently, all of these operations are done in the same room by three dispatchers. A waiting area will also be created behind the new operations center with "reasonable furniture," as opposed to the scattered fold-out chairs that are there now, Kuprevich said. Kuprevich added that the primary motivation for the renovations is to create an environment that will make it easier for the dispatchers to do their job. "The dispatchers have to be able to manage the recourses," he said. "When you have three and sometimes four people working in the same room that is small, you can be on top of each other. We felt that we had to do something for their well being."

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