Salt Lake County Plans Its Own 911 Services

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) Calls to 911 in Salt Lake County all stop first at a valley-wide answering service before being transferred to the Sheriff, Unified Fire Authority or city agency with jurisdiction to respond. Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder says it's time to cut out the middleman:

"Just because these calls are redirected, there's an opportunity for dropped calls and poor communication," says Winder. "We want to resolve that. So operationally, this makes a lot of sense to us."

Winder won support from the Salt Lake County Council yesterday to begin the process of separating from the Salt Lake Valley Emergency Communications Center, or VECC. The Unified Fire Authority hopes to follow suit.

Winder says the switch will save money since the County is already equipped to handle 911 calls at the County's Emergency Operations Center. Conversely, cities like Draper, Midvale, Murray and Sandy will end up paying more to have their calls handled by the Valley Emergency Communication Center, says director William Harry:

"We assess all the agencies we dispatch for based on the number of calls," says Harry. "We'll lose some of that assessment and we'll lose some of the 911 funds that will now directly go to the sheriff. But we'll still be sustainable with the coverage that we have."

Salt Lake County's relationship with VECC has long been tenuous. Several members of the County Council now say the decision to join VECC was a bad idea motivated by political pressure. And they say they're eager to reverse it.

Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom. Copyright 2008 KCPW