7 February 2024
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Sedgwick County residents will soon have more say in emergency communications.
On Wednesday, the Board of County Commissioners approved the establishment of an Emergency Communications Community Advisory Board. This comes after the Cedric Lofton Community Taskforce recommended creating the board.
“The Emergency Communications Community Advisory Board will serve as a conduit for community engagement and education, and give the community a voice in their 911 services relative to policy, procedures, training, recruitment and retention,” said Sedgwick County in a news release.
According to Sedgwick County, the CAB’s purpose is to make the following recommendations at the request of the BoCC:
On matters of policy and procedures related to the operation of the Emergency Communications Department.
Review and make recommendations on specific emergency communications programs or initiatives.
Study and make recommendations on codes or resolutions proposed by the Emergency Communications Department.
“The establishment of this board will help Emergency Communications close the feedback loop between first-response agencies, Emergency Communications and the community on 911 primary answering point matters,” said Sedgwick County in the news release.
The CAB will consist of 13 voting members. These members will be comprised of representatives from each commission district, the City of Wichita, the City of Derby, a city of the second class and a city of the third class, a youth position, and three “at large” positions.
“We think that this is a great opportunity for our community to have some, of course, voice within this system, to be able to provide input, and then also we really want to leverage this team to help in community outreach and recruitment,” said Elora Forshee, Sedgwick County Emergency Communications director.
International Association of Firefighters Local 135 provided the following statement following the announcement:
Wichita Firefighters Local 135 is encouraged by the development a Citizens Review Board. This board has been in the works since 2021 and over 2 years later has come to fruition. Citizen engagement is always healthy for transparency, improvement and education relating to such an important public safety entity such as Emergency Communications.
We welcome this one of many improvements that must be addressed to be sure the product that the community deserves is what is realized at the end of the day. We are here for them and they deserve the best we can give them.”
Local 135
Right now, Emergency Communications has two advisory boards: the Wichita-Sedgwick County Emergency Communications Advisory Board and the Employee Advisory Board.