Melissa Bour, Warren County Communications Center director, said when someone is having an emergency, that person may not be thinking clearly. However, if they see a text message, they can see it and call the number to clarify the emergency information.
Bour said she meets with other leaders of dispatch centers in the region and said the city of Cincinnati’s dispatch center was the first center to have this text messaging technology.
She said there was a seminar and Warren County staff heard about the text messaging software that was developed by the vendor, PowerDM.
“After we looked into it and had a demonstration, we thought this would work great here as well,” she said.
Warren County implemented the first phase of this project on March 7, allowing the caller to receive updates about their incident while it is active.
Bour said depending on the type of call, the caller will receive a text message confirming their location, letting them know a first response unit is en route, and providing a number with a three-digit reference number they can call if they have additional information.
Not all calls will receive follow-up text messages, and no messages will be sent to calls made from landlines, she said.
“In addition to providing reassurance to a 911 caller in an emergency, it also allows some closure for dispatchers. ”
The next phase of the project starts in April, when a satisfaction and feedback survey will be launched.
“This will allow the caller via text messaging to answer a couple of quick questions about the service they were provided,” she said. “These surveys will be sent to some 911 callers and others that have recently reported or been involved in certain types of incidents.”
Bour said, “Citizens providing feedback can improve the overall morale and quality services as we strive to be the best we can.”
She said Warren County was able to get into a three-year pilot program at a low price.
Bour started as a county dispatcher 22 years ago and has been the center’s director since 2017.
There are three Public Safety Answering Points or 911 dispatch centers in Warren County. PSAPs are facilities assigned the responsibility of receiving 911 calls and, as appropriate, directly dispatching emergency response services or transferring or relaying 911 calls to other public or private safety agencies.
Bour said in 2021, the Warren County Communications Center received 77,972 calls to 911; and 108,650 non-emergency calls. The county dispatch center covers the entire county except for the cities of Franklin and Lebanon, which operate their own dispatch centers. For the month of January 2022, Warren County received 4,832 calls to 911.
In 2021, there were 7,866 calls to 911 in the city of Franklin and 7,057 calls to 911 in the city of Lebanon, according to county records.
Lebanon Police Chief Jeff Mitchell said there are no plans at this time to add this text messaging system, adding “we’re going to take a look at it.”
Franklin Police Chief Adam Colon said it’s something to take a look at but “it’s not on our radar now.”
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