KSP, 911 split on dispatch proposal

By KENNETH HART
The Independent

ASHLAND April 15, 2007 12:07 am

— A rift appears to be developing between emergency response and law-enforcement agencies in Ashland, Catlettsburg and Boyd County and the local Kentucky State Police post.
At issue: The provision of dispatching service for some of those local agencies.
Members of the board of directors of the Regional Public Safety Communications Center — which currently dispatches for all police, fire and emergency medical service agencies in Boyd County except for the KSP — are upset about a proposal for state police to take over dispatching for county-based departments.
The proposal, which board members say Capt. Lynn Cross, commander of the Ashland post, presented to them at a meeting on Wednesday, would have those agencies — including the sheriff’s department, all volunteer fire departments and Boyd County Emergency Medical Services — being dispatched by the state police.
Boyd County Sheriff Terry Keelin has indicated he is on board with the KSP’s plan and intends to pull his department out of the RPSCC, according to the board.
The leaders of the other RPSCC member agencies have vowed to resist the plan, saying they consider it a power play by the KSP.
Cross said it’s nothing of the sort.
“It was just an offer,” he said in an interview Friday. “We’re not trying to force this on anyone.”
Cross also said the plan was in its exploratory stages and that it was far from certain it would even be feasible to implement it.
“It’s just something we’re taking a look at to see whether it would work,” he said.
Cross said the proposal developed from discussions between him and Keelin, who retired as a KSP sergeant before running for sheriff in 2002.
“For general law-enforcement purposes in Boyd County, it is a great idea to merge the Kentucky State Police and the sheriff’s department to where we can work jointly,” he said.
Cross did acknowledge that his proposal was “not well-received” by the members of the 911 board.
RPSCC officials said it was their understanding one the reasons the KSP wants to become a regional provider of dispatching services is to justify the construction of a new post to replace the one near U.S. 60 in Summit.
Cross acknowledged a new post was part of his long-term plan for the Ashland post and said the EastPark industrial site — which straddles the boundaries of three of the four counties in the post’s coverage area — was a potential location.
He also said expanded dispatching services, with the KSP becoming a regional hub for all four of the counties it covers — Boyd, Carter, Greenup and Lawrence — was a component of the overall plan for a new post.
“I’m just trying to move us forward,” Cross said, adding regional centers like the one he envisions are “the coming thing.”
One major concern 911 board members expressed was that dividing up dispatching responsibilities among two could result in residents having to call different numbers to contact help in the event of emergencies. Countywide 911 dialing, it would seem, would no longer be an option, RPSCC Director Sandy Virgin said.
By law, there can be only one designated 911 provider per county, Virgin said. Whether that designation goes to the RPSCC or the KSP, it would ultimately mean that residents would be able to dial 911 to contact one set of agencies, but would have to dial a seven-digit number to reach the other, she said.
Currently, Boyd has countywide 911 calling. Dialing those numbers puts a caller in touch with the RPSCC, which is able to immediately dispatch help from any of its 15 member agencies.
Theoretically, whichever organization has the 911 designation would be able to transfer calls to the other dispatch center. However, that could mean seconds lost, which can mean the difference between life and death in a crisis situation, RPSCC officials said.
Cross acknowledged the possible loss of countywide 911 calling was a sticking point to the plan. However, Cross said he thought one possible way of resolving it would be a rollover calling system, which would automatic route emergency calls to their proper destinations.
“That would have to be worked out at the technical level,” he said.
Cross said the KSP plan falls under the heading “inter-operability,” which has been a buzzword in emergency response and law enforcement circles since the terror attacks of Sept. 11. What it essentially refers to is the ability of agencies to contact and communicate with one another more efficiently.
The rub, though, is that all of the emergency agencies in Boyd County are already inter-operable and the KSP is the odd man out, so to speak, RPSCC board member Matthew Adkins said.
To that end, Adkins, director of the Ashland Boyd County Catlettsburg Office of Emergency Management, said the 911 board had voted to form a committee to develop a counter-proposal to present to the KSP for the Ashland post to become a member of the RPSCC.
“We believe we could dispatch for them at a lower cost than they can for themselves,” and provide service equal to or better than what the agency is currently getting, Adkins said.
Cross said he didn’t see that happening because “we’ve got counties to worry about other than Boyd.”
Adkins said the board’s biggest concern is local 911 centers are funded by a surcharge on land-line telephone bills and by a tax on wireless phones channeled through a state agency.
Virgin said the surcharge generates about $700,000 a year for the RPSCC. It’s highly questionable whether the center would be able to provide services on the same level it does not should that amount be reduced, she said.
But the board’s major concern is that the KSP’s plan “could drive a wedge in a system that’s working very well,” Adkins said.
Cross, however, said that was not his intent.
“My idea is to share the load with local and state governments so we can all work together,” he said.
KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.