ST. LOUIS — On a recent afternoon, just two dispatchers were tasked with answering all St. Louis 911 and nonemergency police calls for their full eight-hour shifts.
The 911 wait time about 3:30 p.m. that day was eight minutes, with the longest hold time glaring at the dispatchers under a red line on their computer screens.
Waiting callers got the same message on repeat: “You have reached the 911 center for the city of St. Louis. All operators are busy at this time. Please do not hang up. Your call will be answered in the order received.”
When gunshots ring out in a neighborhood, a police scanner can come in handy. News reporters listen to scanner traffic to piece together what is happening. Sometimes residents tune in via cellphone apps.
Now, more and more, that source of information is being cut off. Most law enforcement agencies in San Diego County have encrypted or will encrypt their radio communications, limiting access to real-time information about crimes and other public safety matters…
IONIA — Ionia County is bringing in an experienced candidate to serve as its next director of Central Dispatch.
The Ionia County Board of Commissioners voted 6-0 Tuesday, July 13, to hire Lance Langdon as the next leader of its emergency response center. Langdon formerly served in the same position in Ingham County before retiring and most recently worked in retail as an assistant manager.
“We interviewed three people and unanimously decided that Lance Langdon was the person for the job,” District Two Commissioner Larry Tiejema said Tuesday. “He has a number of years of experience as a 911 director of Ingham County. He helped to consolidate a number of 911s into one unified 911.” …
Cobb County E911 Director Melissa Alterio announced in a news release on the Cobb County website that her department was accredited for the seventh time by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA).
Cobb County E911 was first accredited by CALEA in 2002. Reassessments are conducted every four years.
According to the news release, “Only approximately one percent of over 8,500 communications agencies nationwide can claim the recognition of being a CALEA accredited communications agency.”
Due to the COVID-18 pandemic, the reassessment was conducted virtually on July 15…
South Sound 911’s new regional communications center is set to open its public counter July 20, bringing Pierce County and dispatchers a bigger, more effective space for operations.
The building spans 74,528 square feet and cost $59 million to construct. Construction began in September 2019 and is wrapping up with construction coordinators, electrical and data workers still on site as of Thursday. For Kris McNamar, community relations manager at South Sound 911, seeing a new, centralized building after 17 years of working for the agency is “overwhelming.” … READ MORE
A 2021-22 budget that includes salaries and benefits for 18 full-time dispatchers was approved Tuesday by the Greene County 911 Board of Directors.
Estimates of how much it would cost to fund 16 and 21 full-time dispatchers were also provided by 911 Director Jerry Bird at the request of board members.
Filling open dispatcher positions in the competitive job market was also discussed. The board revised a long-standing policy of not hiring “immediate family members of telecommunicators” to permit hiring relatives as one way of addressing a shortage of qualified candidates…
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.
