Sheriff partners with KSU on 911

OHIO — Portage County Sheriff David Doak has signed a contract with Kent State University for records management and storage to enhance the sheriff’s 911 call handling and response.

The contract calls for the county paying $110,550 up front and a yearly maintenance fee of about $33,520 for KSU  to record, store and manage information from 911 calls to the sheriff’s dispatch center.

The initial fee is for licensing, equipment installation, training and set-up costs.

Doak signed the contract in June and KSU signed it in July.

Commissioners Maureen Frederick and Chris Smeiles said they supported the project goal but had some questions on the contract they saw for the first time Thursday. Commissioner Tommie Jo Marsilio did not attend the session.

JoAnne Townend, Internal Services director, said the contract seems to indicate the county is buying the equipment. Brian Kelley, head of the county information technology office, said the county is only contracting with KSU, but paying for equipment KSU will need to add the county to its mainframe and information management system.

Kelley said contracting with KSU was a bargain. He estimated to own the system would cost the county $600,000 and about $60,000 annually in maintenance.

In August, commissioners okayed Doak’s use of $110,000 in 911 tax money to buy 911 equipment. The board will have to find additional funds to cover the maintenance costs.

Doak said he expects record storage to start in January, followed by dispatcher training on the system in February.

The system will allow sheriff’s dispatchers to cut down on the number of times they handle each call. allowing them to handle a call once instead of four times. In addition to KSU, Aurora, Brimfield and Kent also use the same system.

Doak said the goal is to install mobile data terminals in patrol cars in the future. Once that’s done, dispatchers could see the locations of any patrol car using the system. That would be a major help in emergencies, Major Dennis Missimi said.

The connection with KSU also gives the sheriff’s office a needed backup if the Justice Center loses power, as happened in August when a tree took out power and telephone lines, Missimi said.

Missimi said contracting with Kent “was a lower cost way to get into the best system out there.”

Commissioner Chris Smeiles asked if this was the first step toward a central dispatch system in the county. Doak said “there’s been a lot of talk and little movement” toward that goal. Doak said the contract with KSU, which he signed on June 21, was a necessity.

“I need to take action to protect my agency,” Doak said. He said the system used by KSU is the direction that other agencies are going. I need to do something. There’s too much chaos in that dispatch center. There’s too few people and too many calls,” Doak said.

Read the story here.

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