NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) - Adams County and Natchez city officials will meet this week to discuss ways to improve and possibly consolidate the area’s 911 service.
Supervisor David Carter tells The Natchez Democrat (https://bit.ly/1mMhD1W ) Tuesday’s meeting at the Adams County Emergency Management office will include city and county law enforcement, fire officials and the county emergency management director.
Currently, all 911 calls are directed to the city of Natchez’s dispatch office, and those located outside the city limits are then transferred to the Adams County Sheriff’s Office for dispatching.
“One of the reasons I would like to have a central dispatch is I think we can get those calls dispatched a little quicker to the county,” Sheriff Chuck Mayfield said.
Sheriff Chuck Mayfield says any centralized dispatch for 911 services would likely have to be at a separate location.
“In our office, the setup right now can expand a little and it could be possibly done there for a little while, but that’s something that we will have discuss at the meeting,” he said.
Carter said he arranged the meeting after a recent discussion of the board of supervisors in which some of the supervisors expressed concerns that city dispatchers might not always dispatch county fire services to the scenes of fires first.
During the discussion, however, former Emergency Management Director Stan Owens said the issue was not one of city versus county dispatch services, but of a need for a consolidated dispatch location to improve public safety communication.
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Information from: The Natchez Democrat, https://www.natchezdemocrat.com/
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