Dispatchers in Washington County will soon have a better ability to record 911 calls and first-responder radio traffic.
John Luther, director of Washington County's Department of Emergency Management, said the county will only have to pay a portion of the $200,000 to $225,000 it will take to provide new recording equipment for public safety answering points at Central Emergency Medical Service, Arkansas State Police and the Fayetteville and Springdale police departments.
Luther said the new recorders will likely be able to incorporate Next Generation 911 technology, which is an initiative aimed at updating the 911 service infrastructure for public emergency communications in a wireless mobile society. In addition to receiving 911 calls, the Next Generation system seeks to allow the public to transmit text messages, images, video and data to 911 centers.
"Computer technology is changing so rapidly," Luther said. "I don't imagine there's any way that this new equipment won't be good for the next five to 10 years. It's still to be seen where (Next Generation) is going, but obviously we're monitoring that and should be able to integrate it."
Luther said the new recording equipment allows dispatchers to record 911 calls in real time. They can be used as evidence in court cases and are also used as training tools for emergency responders and dispatch operators.
"They have instant playback so we can hear what the caller said in the event that there's noise in the background," Luther said.
Much of the cost will be reimbursed through the Emergency Telephone Services Board, which is funded with a 65-cent fee on cell phone bills. The board covers expenses related to cell phones; the county covers costs related to landline calls.
"In this county, about 85 percent of all calls to (answering points) are from cell phones," Luther said. "So technically, Washington County isn't spending that much for the new equipment because the ETS Board will reimburse about 85 percent of the total cost."
Cathy Stocker, lead dispatcher with the Fayetteville Police Department, said the equipment upgrade is a replacement for the dispatch center's existing recorder, which is nearly a decade old.
"We'll be able to pull more information into the recorder than we could with the old one," she said. "There are also some other things that could be done with it as technology continues to change."
Fayetteville Police Chief Greg Tabor said the upgrade from the county will save the department about $43,000 it had set aside to replace recorders. He said the unused funds will be directed toward the department's remodel project for the upstairs renovation and expansion of the briefing room, squad room, supervisor officers and locker room.