Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 1, 1995 TAG: 9503010056
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The breakdown did not jeopardize the E-911 system itself, only the record of conversations between callers and dispatchers.
Monday night, two of Sheriff Ken Phipps' top deputies asked for and received $26,700 to buy a whole new system. The Board of Supervisors approved it as an emergency appropriation, meaning the Sheriff's Office may waive the usual bid procedure. The new system will be in place in a week at the soonest.
Dispatchers began having problems with the E-911 taping system three weeks ago, according to Capt. O.P. Ramsey. The system is important because it tape records several E-911 calls at once. Those tapes can provide important evidence in criminal cases and can be used to defend the county in civil cases.
But the current system is troublesome. For one thing, the tapes must be changed 10 times a day. If a dispatcher is working alone and the tape runs out during an emergency call, it can be seconds or minutes before the tape is changed. Meanwhile, all that's been said in the interim is lost.
The new computerized system would back up the tapes with a hard drive. If a tape ran out, the computer would digitally store recordings until a new tape was loaded.
Meanwhile, Chief Deputy Dan Haga said Monday he will urge the Board of Supervisors to fully fund a new signal-relay radio system and 20 new portable radios the Sheriff's Office says it needs in the wake of communications problems following the fatal shooting of a Christiansburg police officer last year.
County Administrator Betty Thomas has recommended the board pay for less than half the sheriff's $52,900 capital outlay request in the 1995-96 budget, which begins July 1. The $52,900 is made up of two parts: $30,000 for the radio system; and $22,900 for portable radios and chargers. Thomas' budget recommends $24,900 for the first item. The $5,100 she cut included $2,000 for equipment to serve the dog warden and $3,100 in unspecified contingencies.
On the second item, Thomas recommended the Sheriff's Office shift $15,500 from its base budget to buy the portable radios instead of using that money to improve communications in the county jail.
Haga said without full funding, the Sheriff's Office may have to drop one of the signal-relay cells, and thus continue poor radio coverage to a section of the county. He said the Sheriff's Office, with the help of Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, also is pursuing a federal grant to pay for the portable radios.
by CNB