4 April 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – If you call 911 while in Sedgwick County, the call will go through to dispatchers per usual, even though they are now taking calls at their backup site at Wichita State University’s Law Enforcement Training Center.
“So thankfully, we have the luxury in Sedgwick County, the honor, to have a backup site that is fully functioning,” said Director of Sedgwick County Emergency Communications Elora Forshee. “And we have, knowing we are going to operate out of it for an extended period of time, we’ve added some more positions out there to make sure that we can stay up with our call volume.”
The decision to move was made so that upgrades to many of the systems can be made.
Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) is one program being upgraded.
The County is also taking this time to rework facilities in the main 911 dispatch center, including adding more workspaces for call takers.
“Having an emergency system that is able to respond to the need and do so in a way that is efficient and timely, that is really critical,” said Forshee. “And there are stories all across the country right now of 20 minutes to two-hour waits when people call 911.”
Forshee says Sedgwick County has not seen those issues and that they continue to hit benchmarks for answering call volumes on time to get help where it needs to go.
But to stay on top of a growing county population with several cities along with Wichita, the computer systems and workspaces are being upgraded.
Think of it as working ahead.
“While we remodel the current site, definitely we are in the midwest where there are tornadoes that happen and there’s fires,” said Forshee. “And we’ve recognized that in Sedgwick County. We have leadership that has invested in making sure we have 9-1-1 services always stay running, and so we are thankful to have that.”
Forshee says while they add workspaces to the main 911 call site, they will also be requesting more full-time positions for 911 call takers.
“We are on time, and we are doing what we need to do for a growing community,” said Forshee.
Forshee expects some of the major computer and software upgrades to go online on April 18.