County dispatch stretches its legs

By Donna Hales
Phoenix Staff Writer

June 21, 2009 10:26 pm

— Calling a Muskogee County Sheriff’s dispatcher no longer means you call the jail and wait for a possible connection.
Dedicated phone lines in new digs at the Muskogee County Courthouse ensure if the public calls the wrong agency for help, dispatchers will connect them immediately with the proper authorities.
“It’s a lot quicker for the public,” said Roy Banks, communications director for the sheriff’s office.
When dispatch was at the jail, the jail phones were ringing constantly, and getting patched through to dispatch was not a simple matter.
Dispatchers are no longer crammed into a small room about the size of a large closet.
Now, one dispatcher can check warrants on one of five new computers or do a background check for a deputy in the field while another dispatcher takes calls. The new office is about 32 feet by 15 feet and cost “probably less than $10,000,” said Muskogee County Sheriff Charles Pearson.
And the days are gone of not being able to use the fax machine (which was on another floor) if you should be the only dispatcher on duty. A new fax is in the room.
Through a state system available in the new office via computer, a dispatcher can get a hard copy of any warrant issued.
They can tell almost immediately if a suspect has ever been in jail and obtain current addresses. They have impound logs on the computers.
County dispatchers field calls for small county towns, including Warner, Webbers Falls, Porum, Haskell, Braggs — “everybody but Fort Gibson.”
Cherokee and Creek Nation units get their information here when they’re in the vicinity, said Banks said.
The new office is in a safe, secure place in the courthouse, but they aren’t publicizing where in the courthouse. They want to continue to be safe and secure, Pearson said.
The room has a generator and weather won’t affect dispatch services, Banks said.
Banks, who has a long career in law enforcement communications through the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, was instrumental in most plans for the new office, Pearson said.
When Banks first went to work for Pearson almost two years ago, there were so few dispatchers that two women were owed just under 500 hours each in comp time.
Now there are enough to cover shifts, cutting out most comp time and double shifts.
The busiest time for dispatch on weekends starts about 6 p.m. Friday until 2 a.m. Saturday, Banks said. Saturday and Sunday are busiest between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., he said.
Pearson said Banks has researched it all and used that knowledge to come up with new staffing schedules.
Dispatch can now view halls in the courthouse from equipment in their office, which is a safety factor for the public and courthouse employees, officials said.
Pearson or Banks can monitor the radio log via an Internet connection from their laptop computers. They know what’s going on in the county regardless of where they are.
A system allows deputies in the field to see pictures of suspects from a special cell phone hookup in the new dispatch office.
Efficiency is at a new level.
“It’s not as hectic — no traffic coming in an out or jail paging system in the background. There’s no logjam of calls — no dropped calls,” Pearson said.
“We’re ready for just about anything, Banks said.

Reach Donna Hales at 684-2923 or dhales @muskogeephoenix.com

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