Emergency dispatch services for the city of Guadalupe will switch hands to take advantage of the state-of-the-art equipment installed in Santa Maria.
The Santa Maria City Council recently approved a contract to provide dispatch services for police, fire and medical emergencies in the small city at the northwestern edge of Santa Barbara County.
Dispatch services will be provided by the Santa Maria Police Department, which has created a new centralized dispatch center in its 3-year-old police station on West Betteravia Road.
Guadalupe once had its own emergency dispatchers, but the City Council voted to end the local service in a money-saving move in the 1990s.
Since that decision 25 years ago, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department has provided dispatch services for Guadalupe.
For Santa Maria emergency dispatch services, Guadalupe will pay more than $73,600 annually, slightly higher than the city currently pays.
“The return is a state-of-the-art communication system that is reliable with high-quality audio reception,” Public Safety Director Gary Hoving said. “That increase in quality improves officer safety as our requests for assistance and need for additional resources will be heard by the communications center.”
The city has had an outstanding relationship with the Sheriff’s Department’s Communication Center and its “exceptionally well qualified staff,” Hoving said.
“What we are seeking is, and believe this contract will attain, is a service through high-quality dispatch professionals combined with a greatly improved radio infrastructure,” Hoving said. “In addition, the new system supports mobile-data (computers) terminals in the car to further streamline the information flow.”
The Guadalupe City Council approved the switch during a meeting last month, where Hoving described the “deplorable” sight of an officer standing with his radio over his head in an effort to get reception.
When Santa Maria opened its new police station, the facility included state-of-the-art systems able to support the combined radio, 9-1-1, and data requirements of Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties’ public safety agencies, city representatives said.
“The operational impact to the city of Santa Maria’s dispatch center for providing the requested dispatch services is nominal; however, the positive impact that the Guadalupe residents and first responders will experience from receiving enhanced dispatch services from the city of Santa Maria are immeasurable,” Santa Maria City Manager Jason Stilwell said.
“The use of advanced communications systems reduces response time, increases officer and firefighter safety, and enables regional emergency response radio communications interoperability amongst all users.”
Due to required training and other matters, the change in dispatching service providers may take a few months to occur, but the switch, once implemented, should not be noticeable to 9-1-1 callers in Guadalupe.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.