News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Algood city officials have resumed discussions on creating their own emergency dispatching system.
Police Chief Dale Armour said Tuesday the biggest hurdle for the city will be obtaining the necessary resources to provide the service.
“We have a radio system frequency already assigned to the city we could use,” Armour said. “Personnel’s going to be an issue. If you’re going to have personnel there 24 hours a day, that’s an expense. We’re looking to put together some numbers for the [City] Council and see where they want to go with it.”
The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office currently conducts dispatching for Algood, Baxter, and Monterey, although all three city governments have considered their own dispatching service as they receive more calls.
Armour updated City Council on where they stand with conducting their own dispatch during Monday’s work session. He said the city recently had a non-emergency hit-and-run call that saw a slight delay in response time in which the caller was placed on hold.
“We had an incident where we had an officer that was right around the area where it had occurred,” Armour said. “When we got into why he didn’t see what had happened, we weren’t dispatched for four minutes after the active call was received by dispatch. If we had gotten it four minutes earlier, there’s a possibility we could’ve caught the guy involved in the hit-and-run.”
Armour said the incident caused some property damage but nobody was injured. He noted that actual emergency calls are never placed on hold by the county’s dispatching or any other.
Algood officials will continue looking into ways to implement their own dispatching service, which would include the city police, street, and water departments.
City Administrator Keith Morrison noted during the February work session the operation would cost an estimated $100,000 a year in payroll alone.
