Kyle city leaders are joining forces with Hays County to form an interlocal emergency communications system.
During its Sept. 5 meeting, the Kyle City Council unanimously voted to approve the Combined Emergency Communication Center Interlocal Cooperative Agreement (CECC).
The purpose of this agreement is to establish an operational and management structure for emergency dispatch services in the area.
“This addresses issues that have been discussed in the county for about ten years now,” said Lon Shell, Hays County chief of staff. “One of those includes getting all of our emergency communications on the same page.”
“This addresses issues that have been discussed in the county for about ten years now ... One of those includes getting all of our emergency communications on the same page.”Lon Shell, Hays County chief of staff
The agreement would bring Kyle emergency services into the same computer aided dispatch systems used across the entire county and establish a combined and co-located emergency operations center.
According to Shell, this would help improve the effectiveness and response times for emergency responders as they would all work from one centralized system.
“There is no greater need than the highest standard for emergency response,” said Scott Sellers, Kyle city manager. “This issue has not been publicly debated but there have been countless hours focused on discussing this issue.”
This would also overhaul the current methods and responsibilities of phone dispatch operators by splitting the current responsibilities into two positions dispatcher and call operator.
This change would allow a call operator to handle and guide emergency situations over the phone while a separate dispatcher would focus on notifying and sending emergency responders.
“This is a community effort to have the greatest standard possible,” Shell said. “It’s not perfect, but it’s head and shoulders above what we have now; this will save lives.”
Buda could soon join the fold for the cooperative venture. Buda Police Chief Bo Kidd said the agreement, which could be voted on by Buda city leaders in the next few meetings, wasn’t so much fulfilling a need, but rather an opportunity to collaborate between the entities to enhance response times.
One of the problems emergency officials currently face is the inability to communicate with each other when emergency calls come in.
Kidd said if a Kyle resident called 911, the dispatcher in Kyle would send a Kyle Police officer to respond, even if a Hays County Sheriff’s Office deputy may be closer to the caller’s location.
The new combined 911 services center will allow dispatchers to see all officers’ positions among the three entities when a call comes in.
That would allow officials to dispatch the closest officer to the scene to assist a resident, thus making response times more efficient.
Kidd said the proposed home of the new combined 911 services center is in San Marcos behind the government center on Wonder World Drive.
Not only will the combined services allow law enforcement and emergency services to respond to incidents more efficiently, but also assist officers with information sharing and a possible cut in costs of operation.
“In my experience combining resources often leads to a cost savings,” Kidd said.
Buda, Kyle and Hays County have been working on the creation of the new combined 911 services center since 2012 when the planning first began, Kidd said.
Kidd said he expects the agenda item to appear at the Buda City Council dais for approval within the next few meetings after the city attorney has fully vetted the agreement.
Timothy Stuckey and Samantha Smith both contributed to this report.
