Ky. County Public Schools to Install 9-1-1 Center Alarm

July 16--The 911 oversight board discussed a proposal from Daviess County Public Schools on Tuesday to install an alarm system in the dispatch center that would alert dispatchers if there was a potential emergency in one of the county schools.

The plan calls for a dispatcher to receive an alert when a panic button is pressed at one of the county schools.

Currently, if a panic button is pressed, an alert goes to the school board office. When such an alert is received, the school board office calls 911 and the school, said DCPS spokeswoman Lora Wimsatt.

"It's not for, 'We need more ice in the cafe,' " Wimsatt said. "It's, 'We need help right now.' " If the same alert system were installed in the dispatch center, dispatchers could send deputies to the school before officials in the school board office called 911, Wimsatt said.

School board office officials would still call 911 to relay information, Wimsatt said.

Assistant City Attorney Steve Lynn said city ordinances prohibit devices that initiate telephone calls, or send recorded messages, to 911.

But Wimsatt said the system is not a telephone call.

Board member Major Tim Clothier of the Owensboro Police Department said in the past, dispatch contained similar alarm systems from local businesses. The alarms would indicate the business, but would not give dispatchers any other information.

"We never knew what was going on" when an alarm sounded, Clothier said. "We were never talking to a person."

OPD Assistant Chief Jeff Speed asked if allowing the school district to install the alert system at dispatch would create an opening for other organizations to do the same.

Lynn said the current ordinance does not allow any alarm systems in dispatch, but the ordinance could be amended to permit alarms from the school systems.

Speed said that if an alert were received from a school, responding deputies and officers "would still be going blind" until they received information from the school office.

Major J.D. Marksberry, chief deputy of the Daviess County Sheriff's Department, said deputies would want all the information they could get on an alert, but would respond regardless.

Wimsatt said there could be incidents when a person is alone in the office, is confronted by angry parent or person and cannot call dispatch to request help.

"That irate parent might be standing right in front of you, and it's hard to say, 'Hold that thought while I call 911,' " Wimsatt said. "It's just a fast, immediate thing they can hit, and they'll know help is on the way now."

The board directed Lynn to research the ordinance and speak with city officials about their thoughts on allowing alarm systems in the dispatch center.

James Mayse, 691-7303, jmayse@messenger-inquirer.com

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