Dispatch Merger
By: Sarah Lovett
Updated: August 19, 2008
Owensboro and Daviess County officials are working to make emergency response time even quicker.
They plan to streamline their individual 911 dispatch services.
Daviess County Sheriff Keith Cain says the 1997 flood and the 2000 tornado are examples of how two individual dispatch centers could have worked better as one.
He credits two fatalities with poor city and county response due to poor organization and miscommunication.
Now the plan is to build a new dispatch center.
The new center may include dispatch services, law enforcement training for western Kentucky and potentially an FBI post.
The county plans to move its dispatch to the Owensboro City Police department if they cant raise the money to build the joint center right away.
The city has already hired an architect and a design team for the center.
City officials say theyve set aside some money for projects like this.
Theres no word on the Countys financial plan.
