CORRECTION: This report has been updated to reflect that there was no discussion of records requests, but rather wrecker requests.
By Melinda J. Overstreet / Glasgow News 1
The majority of Tuesday’s meeting of the Management Control Board for the Barren-Metcalfe Emergency Communications Center was spent reviewing policy and standard operating guidelines updates proposed by a committee that has reviewed them in detail.
The committee was composed of three center supervisors and three dispatchers.
Some portions that were determined to be irrelevant to the dispatch center here, such as items relating to microphones and earpiece covers, had been deleted, while other parts simply had the wording updated and some elements were completely new, said April Dunbar, assistant director of the center and a member of the policy review committee. Some of the new sections related to position descriptions for certain roles within the center, training policies for EMS, law enforcement and fire dispatching, procedures for air ambulance requests, active shooter or standoff/barricaded subject situations and wrecker requests.
Dunbar went through the highlights of the changes and allowed time for the board members to ask questions and/or make other suggestions.
Glasgow Fire Department Chief William Rock II asked about how difficult it would be to change or update these in the future, and Beverly Harbison, director of the ECC, said that any changes just need to be brought before this board for approval.
“You all set the policies and procedures,” she said. “Y’all are the gatekeepers.”
Dunbar and Glasgow Police Chief Jennifer Arbogast each commented about how keeping these documents current is an ongoing effort.
“We have been going by a memo for several years about air medical, so we decided to incorporate that into a policy to go by,” Dunbar said.
Joe Middleton, director of Barren-Metcalfe Emergency Medical Services, proposed deleting one sentence from that section regarding whether other air medical services can be called if one cannot respond due to weather.
More generally with air medical services, if one is simply not available from the Glasgow-based service, currently Air Methods, he suggested allowing their telecommunicators to contact another company simultaneously to learn of their possible ETA while awaiting availability information for other helicopters from Air Methods’ other locations, which may be farther away from where the particular need is at that time.
“Because in that particular situation, the closest aircraft is what matters,” Middleton said, but he noted that wasn’t actually addressed in the proposed document and said he would like input from the dispatch staff who were there about the best way to approach it. Dunbar said she was fine with how he proposed that.
Under the active shooter SOG, Middleton asked for notification of the air medical service to be added, in case they are needed to transport.
Regarding the SOG for wrecker requests, Dunbar said, “We never had a policy for this before. I’d just like to have something in place that we can refer back to in case anybody has any questions.”
Arbogast said it appeared to be as she and Sheriff Kent Keen had discussed with her.
The board unanimously agreed to adopt the document with the identified changes.
“They’ve worked really hard on these policies,” Harbison said. “They took them serious. They’ve met quite often, and I think it’s good that they are the ones being involved in it instead of us just pushing everything out. I think it’s a good learning tool for them.”
Arbogast added, “And it helps them learn the policy, too.”
Harbison said, “Just to recap, we are – I’m gonna knock on wood here – we are fully staffed as of today. We have 16 full-time positions. With April and myself that’s 18. We have two part-timers. We are in need of part-timers.”
She said they have a couple of part-timers but they aren’t available as much as they would like.
This board is required by state law to oversee certain aspects of the dispatch center because its staff members have a certain level of access to state and local crime databases. It is composed of the Glasgow Police Department chief and two other GPD representatives – currently Maj. Terry Flatt and Capt. Justin Kirkpatrick; the fire chief; and the director of Barren-Metcalfe County Emergency Medical Services. All members were present Tuesday, along with a representative from the Barren County Sheriff’s Office.
The regular meetings are at 1 p.m. the first Tuesday of the second month within each quarter, i.e. February, May, August and November, at the dispatch center in Glasgow.
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