Should you have to call 911 this week, think about those on the other end of the line.

Dispatchers take the calls and send police officers, emergency medical technicians or firefighters to the scene -- whatever is required -- to solve the problem. Law enforcement agencies call them their nervous system, the first responders.

This week is National Telecommunications Week and law enforcement agencies across the country are honoring those who take the calls that alert them of trouble.

Dispatchers see their job as making a difference and helping to keep the peace in the community.

"I love my job," Provo dispatcher Gen White said. "It's the coolest thing ever. I love talking to and helping the citizens. I feel like I'm making a difference."

Five dispatch centers serve Utah Valley -- Orem, Provo, Pleasant Grove, Springville and Utah County, which fields calls for most of the cities in the county and unincorporated areas. As the county grows, the agencies are working together to keep the peace. But they could someday be sent to emergencies by people working under the same roof.

On April 24, representatives from all over the county will meet to discuss whether a feasibility study should be done for a countywide dispatch center.

Now, all the dispatch agencies -- except Provo, which is working on compatibility -- use the same system so they can track crime between cities, said Pleasant Grove/Lindon Capt. Cody Cullimore.

"It's really valuable, we've solved several crimes by just the information available," he said.

Some say as Utah Valley grows in size, a centralized computer system won't be enough. Instead, they will need a central dispatch hub.

"We don't want to see five, six or seven dispatch centers," said Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy. "Every day when something that is on the scale of an armed robbery or high-speed pursuit, we are almost immediately interjurisdictional, so there is a need to coordinate."

In a consolidated dispatch center, cities would likely continue to pay per call, as they do now if they use another city's or the county dispatch service.

Utah County charges $9.50 per call for the service, and that rate will rise to $11.50 on July 1. The rate increased last year, from $6.50.

The county actually pays $17.50 per call and the per-call rate will continue to rise over the next couple of years until it reflects the true cost of the service.

Last year the county dispatch center fielded more than 1 million calls, Tracy said. The cities are only billed for calls that resulted in a case number being assigned. Over 280,000 police calls were billed, and an additional 60,000 for fires and EMS.

All told, member cities paid $680,000 for dispatching services in 2006, while the county spent $1.3 million to provide the service, according to county staffers.

The committee discussing the feasibility could also decide the county's population is not large enough and centralized dispatch should come in the future, Tracy said.

Several cities said they are also investigating the possibility of splitting the dispatch, with one center in south county and another in the north. Any decision would have to be ratified by all participating cities.

If a countywide dispatch is decided upon, the committee could request proposals for construction of a new dispatch center as early as this fall, Tracy said.

"It would take two to three years to build the building and hire the staff and put together a working policy group," he said. "It is a huge undertaking. It is not a simple thing."

Provo police Lt. Jeff Lougee said Provo is in favor of the feasibility study, to determine if that is the direction the county should go.

"There would probably be improved communication between the cities," he said.

But Lougee, who oversees the Provo dispatch center with 22 dispatchers using Google Maps and new technology to track 75 percent of the calls that come in via cell phone, could see some downfalls, too.

"Sometimes, the largeness of anything complicates the process," he said.

Cullimore said he's opposed to the idea of a central dispatch hub because Pleasant Grove residents would lose a service.

"The dispatchers know the town, they know the area," he said of the current system. "Say your center is located in Payson and you have a dispatcher from Payson and you get a call for Pleasant Grove, what's going to happenfi"

Cullimore said the dispatchers in his city know the officers, and they know the people of Pleasant Grove. Covering the county would mean a bigger area for dispatchers and less familiarity.

Several north county cities have said they would like to investigate whether it would be cheaper to have their own dispatch center.

"Once we do this, it would be hard to split it up again, so we are only going to do this if it is necessary, and we need to do it right the first time," Tracy said.

Caleb Warnock contributed to this story.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.