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911: Let’s look at
all the options
By Bob Rhoades
I don’t always agree with Mike Stegall on things. On the other
hand when he is headed in the right direction we should all get behind
the cause and help in any way we can. Case in point: the 911
system. I hope that what I’ve seen written so far has been a
consensus vote from all three commissioners. But we don’t have
those facts.
Number one thing Commissioner Mike told the Kiwanis last week was that
state funding might go away for 911. The one thing that we all
forget all the time is that State Money might go away for anything at
any time. So when we get this mess cleaned up, there will
definitely be another one looming on the horizon. We must be
vigilant. The monies that the state puts out are usually
considered to be seed money till we can get a program running
correctly. The key point is that someone is finally looking down
the road more than four months.
911 is a good thing, it gave the people one number to call in an
emergency. Since I was around when it was originally installed in
Greenville and Darke County, I remember a few things from
meetings that I attended. Since that time I’ve traveled the state
of Ohio and seen about as many ways things can be done as
possible. Before we go any farther, let’s clarify one thing about
the combination of Darke County and Greenville dispatch centers, let’s
start here. 911 centers are known as Public Safety Answering
Points (PSAP). Darke County has two PSAP’s which have duplicate
terminals and can transfer calls from one to the other. At the
present time anyone in the city calling 911 for Police, Fire or EMS is
routed to Greenville Dispatch’s PSAP by the phone company, Greenville
Dispatch operates from the offices of the Greenville Police Dept.
The dispatcher also handles any walk in traffic to the GPD.
The rest of the county and villages 911 calls are routed to the county
911 PSAP located at the Darke County Sheriff’s office. Having two
dispatch centers that are redundant guarantees that 99 times out of 100
one of the PSAP’s will be functional. Last year the county system
went down and in about 15 minutes the county dispatchers had relocated
themselves to the city and the transfer was seamless.
All regular phone lines are redundant at both places also. No
calls were missed. You can make your own decision on whether it
should be combined.
The one drawback is that Sheriff Spencer’s budget supports the whole
countywide dispatch system as well as the decision making
process. That doesn’t seem fair does it? The city supports
its 911 PSAP. The 911 center with its PSAP’s and dispatchers
should not be coming out of the Sheriff’s budget. Every entity
using it should be paying for it and supporting a 911 board which runs
the 911 system.
Thirty years ago, Miami County was faced with the same problem.
The approach they took was to form a 911 board that represented all of
the police, fire and EMS departments in the county. They built a
new radio system that accommodated all and built a building to house it
in. The center was started and funded by Miami County with funds
from 1/2% sales tax. All radios of all agencies were replaced at
the time of starting as well. The board instituted a $500.00 fee
for any further radios that were added to the system. This gives
a lot of buying power. It also guarantees that all radios are
purchased through the county and programmed there also. It is totally
funded to date by the county. The board is made up of one county
police chief, the Sheriff, OSP post commander, one county fire chief,
one EMS person, one Twp. trustee and the President of the County
Commission. They hired a director to oversee it and enough
dispatchers to operate the whole county including the cities of Piqua
and Troy. Piqua and Troy both have a desk person on their
stations most of the time taking non-911 complaints. This person
also has access to the radio system for dispatch of police units.
One of the other problem areas that Mike touched on was what he called
Next Gen for communications using fiber optic cable with much of it on
the internet. Fifteen years ago the state of Ohio embarked
on a project called the Multi Agency Radio Communications System or
MARCS as it’s become known. It grew into a system that went on
line about 7 years ago and offered in the beginning, communications
primarily for the Ohio Highway Patrol but soon opened up to other state
agencies. I was involved in this project at the Ohio Department
of Health and responsible for development of the talk groups for all
local health departments and hospitals in the state. The backbone
of the system is over 200 radio towers all over the state of which
there are three in Darke County. They are tied together with a
network of T-1 lines that go from the tower to the State of Ohio
Computer Center in Columbus allowing for seamless communications at any
point in the state. A deputy in Darke County transporting a
prisoner to Lucasville to the penitentiary could remain in contact with
his dispatcher the whole trip. If he had problems, he could also
be in contact with any other sheriff and the State Patrol anywhere in
the state. When the system came on line all 88 sheriff’s
departments in the state received a base radio as did all 88 Emergency
Management Agencies, local health departments and hospitals. That
equipment is in those offices here but rarely used.
Last year, Mercer, Van Wert, Auglaize and Allen counties in this area
put all of their public safety forces on the MARCS system. What
this says is that when Next Gen is mandated in Darke County it will
already exist here. Darke County Health, Wayne Hospital and
Burkettsville Fire Dept. will have access to it (Burkettsville because
their engine house is in Mercer). The state will be footing the
bill for the backbone of the system. I’ve been told by some
officials here that they think it is too costly. It does cost for
each radio that is on line. That is how the system was conceived
and is maintained. The big thing is that we don’t have to
maintain the system anymore, only our own radios. To further that
concept, the more radios that come on line, the less it should cost
each department or service using it. It is hard for me to believe
that if we are going to spend a half a million dollars, we couldn’t get
on MARCS and save about half of that because we don’t have to maintain
the backbone of the system anymore. Beyond that, four counties to
our north are doing it. Maybe we should find out how they are
doing with it! We don’t have to continually shoot ourselves in
the foot. Even if we spent the whole bundle, it’s still a good
deal because as fast as communications are moving, that platform will
be obsolete and the state will have to upgrade the backbone
again. If we are on that system we won’t. This all has to
do with interoperability in times of need. It allows police, fire
and EMS and others to operate on the same platform on different
talkgroups (channels) but also to be combined on the same talkgroups if
needed. In a hunt for a fugitive, all responders could be on the
same talkgroup. It stands to reason that If the three counties
mentioned can do it, we should be able to also.
The Spillman System, you can see it at www.spillman.com, Mike talked
about is an integrated data system that allows for a lot of things to
happen simultaneously in the car, fire apparatus or Medic Unit.
Simply put it is an information management system, a computer aided
dispatch system which already exists in Darke County and a terminal in
each car, fire apparatus or medic if needed. This is already on
line with the MARCS system. All of the stuff that was mentioned
is already available here in Darke County and is being used by the
State Highway Patrol and Ohio Division of Natural Resources
The Jail problem was, is and always will be just that, a problem.
It’s apparent that we can’t build it big enough, and the restrictions
placed on the sheriff to maintain it won’t get any better either.
The problems that exist there now are a perfect case of not having to
accepting the low bid, but that is water under the dam. If it has
to be funded, then that should be a permanent tax that goes on and can
support itself. Fees for prisoners should be charged and no
sunshine be allowed to hit their faces until the fees are paid.
Yup, that is a Catch 22 deal. If they can’t get out, how are they
going to make money to pay it? Probably ought to think about that
beforehand. Maybe it would be a detriment, do you think?
The commissioners are right; they must get ahead of it, but let’s do it
as efficiently as possible. There are a lot of options out there;
we really don’t have a choice but to look at every one of them.
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