CLARIFICATION: This article has been edited post-publishing for clarity. 911 may be dialed from anywhere in Dent County, including within city limits. The calls will be received by a dispatcher at the Dent County Sheriff's Office.
A meeting was held between local law enforcement agencies and city officials May 23 to discuss possible future improvements to Dent County and the City of Salem's 911 services. Salem Police Chief Joe Chase and Dent County Sheriff Bob Wells sat down with The Salem News to discuss the meeting and the potential benefits of the discussion.
“We’re in the first steps of this process. We met yesterday, myself, the sheriff, some of his staff, (city administrator) Sally (Burbridge), the mayor (Greg Parker), (Alderwoman) Kala Sisco, my dispatch supervisor, and a team from Mission Critical,” said Chase. “(Mission Critical) is working with the State of Missouri’s 911 board. There are grant-funding programs available. Part of it is ARPA funding, and another part of it is drawn from the wireless phone charge that the State of Missouri puts on.”
ARPA funding refers to the American Rescue Plan Act, federal funding that was distributed in the wake of the COVID pandemic through a variety of means. Chase said revenue is now being targeted at counties that have a lack of emergency communications infrastructure, and areas with geographical features that make radio or cell phone use difficult.
“They are taking all that revenue, and they’re targeting certain counties in what they call the “black hole” or red counties, for a variety of reasons. A lack of population, lack of tax base, or because of the geography in the counties, it’s hard to do communications.”
Chase said Mission Critical had done a communication system audit to determine the status of the Dent County 911 system.
“They look at ‘How do we upgrade 911 for Dent County?’ They’re looking at an equipment audit of what the Sheriff’s Office has, what we have, and what our system capabilities are,” said Chase.
The grant funding will go toward adding to the capabilities of the Dent County 911 system. Currently, according to Chase and Wells, the Salem Police Department does not have their own 911 dispatch. When someone calls 911 anywhere in Dent County, including the city, the call goes straight to the Sheriff’s Office dispatch. Dispatch then routes the calls to the appropriate agency and facilitates communications between them. According to Wells, the County's dispatch equipment has recently seen major improvements and upgrades.
On the Salem Police's side of things, the improvements will allow calls from within the city limits to automatically route to the city police and would also give both agencies redundancy capabilities in case one dispatch goes down.
“Most of our 911 calls in the city are ambulance calls, that’s our biggest thing,” Wells said. “The city gets calls on their law enforcement (line) already, they just call the police department if they’re in the city. They don’t really call 911, they just call their phone. Our primary deal would be ambulance and fire.”
Said Chase, “(The improved system will) use advanced GIS mapping that would allow us to establish solid perimeters on what’s city and what’s county. The way it is now, every 911 call goes to the county. With this new system and the advanced GIS mapping, the calls inside city limits would come to the city, and it allows for faster response time. In addition, we would be escalating the training for the dispatch staff, to where they would carry a certification and be referred to as EMD’s. They would actually be trained by a medical doctor to provide prearrival instructions on heart attacks, choking, overdose, seizures, car crashes, and bleeding. They would have a reference chart that they could use to interface with the person on the line.”
Another capability of the new system, said Chase, is the ability to text 911.
“Let’s say you’re down on the river, and you’re in a black hole, you can’t get out, and you’re in an emergency, you just text, and it will go straight to Dent County. Then, with that GIS mapping, they can geolocate you,” he said.
Chase said the capability could help people in a variety of situations where making an audible phone call could make things worse, such as domestic violence scenarios.
Chase said the equipment audit was performed, and a plan was being prepared describing recommended upgrades. He said the information would be used in the upcoming grant application.
“We’ll know in a week or two what their recommendations are based on existing infrastructure,” he said. “Then we start moving forward.”
Chase said the grant is a rolling grant, and between the city and county law enforcement entities, a total of $250,000 per year could be applied toward the Dent County 911 system, assuming successful grant applications. He said the grant could be applied for yearly for the next five years.
Wells said the grant funding will provide some extra buying power and assistance in selecting the equipment.
“The state has some buying power that we don’t have,” said Wells. “They think their buying power will help us do things more efficiently than what we’re doing now even if we didn’t change anything, so I think that’s a good thing.”
Chase said the grant is a 10/90 match, meaning the agencies are responsible for 10% of the total amount. However, according to Chase, the two law enforcement agencies can get credit for 911 infrastructure equipment purchased before March of 2020.
Chase said that the improvements would help fulfill a goal he’s had ever since he took over as police chief: To bring 911 capabilities to the City of Salem Police Department.
“When you look at the totality of it, things are getting better. It would be improving things across the board... 911 response, dispatcher capability, remote location situations where you could actually find somebody,” said Chase. “It would be a way to make things better for our area.”
Dispatchers at the Sheriff's Office currently have an average under just five seconds before calls are answered, according to Wells. County dispatch workers noted that currently, all 911 calls in the city or county are answered immediately. The possible improvements would provide redundancy to an already capable system, in case one entity's dispatch went down or was otherwise unable to route calls, according to Wells.
“When you call 911 or text 911, there is always going to be somebody that answers, no matter what,” said Chase.
