PART TWO - City of Dothan - Houston County Communications District

Rickey Stokes

Viewed: 1361

Posted by: RStokes
[email protected]
3344006760
Date: Oct 01 2024 11:56 AM

DOTHAN - HOUSTON COUNTY:    This is the second article of explanation of how emergency services works in Dothan - Houston County as far as 911 and dispatch.

Depending on where you are physically at the time of your 911 calls depends on wher that call is routed to. If inside the city limits of Dothan the call goes to Dothan 911. If outside the city limits of Dothan and in Houston County, the 911 call goes to Houston County 911.

If Houston County 911 lines are in use the call will roll to Dothan and same if all of Dothan 911 lines are busy they will roll to Houston County. Should all 911 lines be busy the calls roll to different 911 centers such as Henry County, Ozark - Dale County, Geneva County and so on. The call is attempted to be transferred back to jurisdiction of the agency receiving the call takes the call and then relays the information to the appropriate jurisdiction.

The person answering the 911 call begins with "Where is your emergency?". The reason that is the first question is because if contact is lost with the caller the 911 dispatcher knows where to send help. Might not know exactly what the emergency is but they know where to get someone rolling to. And the 911 staff has the ability after so many seconds to see where the caller is calling from.

The person taking the 911 call is typing the call into the computer as they talk to the caller. In Dothan - Houston County software from Southern Software is the program used for operation of the 911 system. It is integrated with RMS ( Records Management System ) for Dothan Police and Houston County Sheriff Department. This was almost a $ 1 million dollar investment between the City of Dothan - Houston County Communications District, City of Dothan and Houston County. The 911 data integrates into the reports made by law enforcement.

CAD - Computer Aided Dispatch, is what Southern Software is referred to. The calls, when entered, appear in different colors on the screen. The different colors defines the priority. With red being the most important and yellow the least important call.

The person taking the call is often times not the person taking the call. Once the data reaches a certain level it pops up on the screen of the person operating the dispatch radios and they begin dispatching the call. Often times while the call taker is still entering the data in the computer. Some callers get aggravated in saying stop asking questions and get help rolling. Well help is often times rolling because, once again, the person taking the call is not the one dispatching the call.

The 911 Centers are required to have EMD’s ( Emergency Medical Dispatcher’s ) on duty. If the call is one that requires immediate medical intervention, the call taker will begin to step the caller through medical procedures to begin while EMS is responding. Once the EMD begin’s those medical instructions begin that dispatcher is no longer available. That caller is strictly focused on that one call. If the call is a crime in progress that call taker is isolated to that one caller keeping them on the phone with what is going on. The information is put in the computer as talking and the person dispatching is advising responding units.

Dothan 911 dispatches Dothan Fire Department, Dothan Police Department and Pilcher Ambulance to calls within the city limits of Dothan. They also handle calls of mutual aid where requested outside the city limits of Dothan.

Houston County 911 dispatches Houston County Sheriff Deputies, all municipal law enforcement agencies across Houston County ( Kinsey, Webb, , Columbia, Gordon, Ashford, Cottonwood and Taylor ), all 17 Volunteer Fire Departments across Houston County, all 5 Emergency Medical Services across Houston County, and Headland EMS ( Headland EMS responds to EMS calls to Kinsey which is Houston County ).

There is a wall between Dothan 911 and Houston County 911 dispatchers. And the two entities are managed by Dothan Police Chief Will Benny and Houston County Sheriff Donald Valenza.

The 911 funds can only be used for (1) receiving (2) transmitting, and (3) dispatching of emergency calls. The funds can be used for radios for those being dispatched but not the police car, ambulance or firetruck used to respond on. The funds can be used for call takers or dispatchers dispatching emergency 911 calls. The City of Dothan and Houston County funds the dispatch operation. The 911 funds are used for the computers, 911 phone lines, and equipment to receive, dispatch and transmit the emergency calls.

All Dothan Police, Dothan Fire, Dothan Animal Control, Houston County Sheriff Deputies have mobile data terminals with CAD on them where they can read the call. However the City of Dothan - Houston County Communications District Director refuses the law enforcement across Houston County ( Kinsey, Webb, Columbia, Gordon, Ashford, Cottonwood and Taylor ) to have mobile data terminals and EMS across Houston County to have mobile data terminals. With the mobile data terminals they can see the call and read the updates. Often times the county EMS are never advised of the patient information updates and do not have to ability to see them.

A bone of contention, Dothan Animal Control has mobile data terminal but law enforcement and EMS in the county are not allowed mobile data terminals.

Once the emergency is received, dispatched and transmitted by Dothan 911 or Houston County 911, the statutory duty of 911 has been met. Again the staff of Dothan 911 and Houston County 911 is paid entirely by City of Dothan or Houston County.

In some other jurisdictions, such as Geneva County, Ozark - Dale County, the staff are employees of the 911 Board. The municipalities pay a fee for dispatch because when it comes to routine radio dispatch which are non emergency calls, that then falls under the agency for dispatch and not 911. Like Napier Field pays Ozark - Dale County, as I understand, $ 4,000.00 a year while the City of Ozark pays Ozark - Dale County 911 like some $ 65,000.00 a year. But a lot of difference in the volume of calls and officers in Ozark verses Napier Field.

This article is not designed to be critical of any system or the City of Dothan - Houston County Communications District. It is meant to be informative of the system and how things work.

Communications is the most important ingredient to the emergency network system. It is the citizens connection to the emergency services. And the zeal and intelligence each person in the 911 center brings to their job each day can mean the difference in saving lives of citizens and emergency responders. If the 911 call takers do not get all of the information so the call can be painted to those responding, then an emergency responder, law enforcement - fire - EMS might be blind sided and can be injured or killed.

A job that at times moves rapidly. The 911 call taker never knows that they are being faced with when they pick that phone up. And emergencies are never scheduled.

PART THREE WILL BE UPCOMING

CLICK FOR SEPTEMBER 22, 2024 ARTICLE

<- back