On 12/12/19, the Bates County Sheriff’s Office went live with the new location of their dispatch center. The new dispatch center currently has two dispatch consoles with the ability to expand to four consoles as the need arises. Prior to today, the dispatchers where housed in the jail control room and held multi-job functions that included 911 operations, radio operations and operation of jail functions and door controls.
The new center is located within the new addition of the jail. With the move it allows the communication staff to concentrate on the needs of the citizens that call the Sheriff’s Office or the multiple First Responder agencies that Bates County dispatches for.
“This is an exciting day for our citizens. Approximately a year and a half ago, I brought members of the fire departments and law enforcement agencies together to identify best practices to improve dispatch services to our county. Together we identified strengths and weaknesses that we could work on at the Sheriff’s Office dispatch. Employee work load and retention was identified as a priority. This move and improvement to the work environment for a very high stress job is a big part of what the team recommended.” Sheriff Anderson says. “We will continue to strive for excellence and to meet the communities expectations of the services that we provide”
Currently the Sheriffs Office dispatches for themselves, Adrian Police, Adrian Fire and on a limited bases Rockville Fire and Foster Fire along with answering all 911 calls for the county except the City of Butler. The dispatch center dispatches approximately 16,000 calls for service each year with almost approximately 45,000 total phone calls being passed through the center each year.
