DAYTON — As a shooter opened fire in a busy Oregon District, killing nine and injuring 37 others, officers ran to take him down. Behind the scenes, dispatchers began taking calls from people panicking about what they were seeing.
“It’s their calming voice on the other end of the phone or the other end of the radio…that helps everybody get through,” said Capt. Jay Wheeler, commander of the Montgomery County Regional Dispatch Center, which fields calls for Dayton and several other surrounding cities and townships.
Wheeler said it was a female dispatcher who heard the officers call out reports that the shooter was opening fire on innocent people in the busy entertainment district.
Posted: Aug 9, 2019 / 09:44 AM EDT / Updated: Aug 9, 2019 / 03:12 PM EDT
CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – The Citrus County Sheriff’s Office will soon be able to receive text messages sent to 911 for emergencies.
The agency began implementing its text-to-911 service on Friday.
The service is available for use by those who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, or speech impaired. It can also be used in situations, such as domestic altercations, where it’s too dangerous to call 911.
The technology comes after the agency was awarded a $40,158 grant in June from the State of Florida Division of Management Services E9-1-1 Board. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also signed a bill that requires all Florida counties to implement text to 911 services.
“We are excited to begin offering text to 911 services to the citizens of Citrus County,” said Sheriff Mike Prendergast. “The Citrus County Sheriff’s Office strives to best serve every member of our community, and this is another step in the right direction.”
Despite weeks of discussion on consolidating dispatch with the
county, the Common Council instead is moving ahead on a vote to keep
dispatch within the Lockport Police Department.
In a closed-door
meeting with the council Wednesday, Lockport police union president
Kevin Lucinski made an offer to keep dispatch in-house and upgrade the
radio room equipment for a one-time cost of $272,000.
Mayor
Michelle Roman said the union has agreed to make concessions in return
for keeping dispatch, but declined to discuss specifics of the offer
until after Lucinski’s scheduled meeting with the city’s negotiations
committee Friday. Roman said putting the dispatch deal before the
council at its next meeting Aug. 21 “would be ideal.”
Lockport
police have pushed for continuing to handle their own dispatch, arguing
any deal that required the department to share a radio frequency would
put officers at risk, because there would be too much chatter on the
line.
Part of Lincoln County was temporarily left without emergency
communications service July 19 after a sheared fiber cable left
residents unable to use telephone or internet services. Lincoln County
Administrator Carrie Kipfer updated commissioners Aug. 6 on a plan
Emergency Management Agency Director Casey Stevens is developing to
mitigate a future outage.
Stevens is proposing a network of electronic signs directing
residents how to make an emergency call if phone and internet services
fail. “He is working on an MOA (memorandum of understanding) with the
idea of creating a network of county, municipal and local business signs
with a message alerting residents how to contact medical and law
enforcement officials if such a situation occurs,” she said. Kipfer told
commissioners the plan may lead to other local, county and statewide
organizations adopting a similar plan.
HIAWATHA, Kan. (WIBW) — A man armed with a gun in Hiawatha was convinced to surrender to police after speaking to a 911 dispatcher.
The Brown County Sheriff’s Office says their
dispatch received a report of a vehicle theft in progress around 9:26
a.m. Thursday morning. Hiawatha and Kickapoo police responded to the
call.
When officers arrived on Linden Rd., they found the suspect, Gregory Rumph, 31, of Glasgow, Kentucky, armed with a handgun.
Rumph then called 911. The dispatcher developed a rapport with the Rumph and convinced him to surrender to the officers.
Rumph was arrested on felony theft,
aggravated assault and violation of a protection order. Sheriff John
Merchant says other charges are pending based on more investigating by
the Sheriff’s Office.
HILO, Hawaii — Shanna Badon-Dellomes remembers the night last July
when Hawaii County police officer Bronson Kaliloa was shot and killed on
the side of the highway in Mountain View.
The Big Island police dispatcher and trainer was taking incoming
calls for the Puna District when she received an internal call asking
her to send officers to check out an abandoned vehicle off Highway 11.
Badon-Dellomes sent four units. Kaliloa was one of the first to arrive.
What was believed to be a routine check turned into the fatal
shooting of Kaliloa and an islandwide search for suspect, Justin Waiki.
During the entire incident, Badon-Dellomes kept track of all responding
personnel, which included more than 89 officers on her board and
documenting their transmissions.
Learn about current efforts to continue to protect the 4.9 GHz Band for public safety as well as recent filings, key decisions impacting these efforts, and how you can support PSSA’s initiative to protect the 4.9 GHz band for public safety.
