Sheriff James Cummings
BOURNE – Barnstable County Sheriff Jim Cummings has been named to a statewide working group formed by Governor Charlie Baker.
Their efforts will focus on reducing the amount of stand-alone dispatch operations specific to each town.
Cummings said this will ultimately allow access to improved future technologies by cutting the amount of people necessary to their function.
“There’s 351 cities and towns in the commonwealth, and about 250 public safety answering points – the state of California only has four,” he said.
The Sheriff already oversees the Cape’s only regionalized 911 and emergency dispatch system, which employs around 33 full- and part-time people.
The Cape system could be a model for the discussions at the state’s 911 Department headquarters in Taunton next month, according to Cummings.
He said the future of dispatch centers will rely on reducing unnecessary costs, since today’s technology is more expensive than what has traditionally been used.
His isn’t the only outlook which will be present on the panel, and Cummings said that while having employees who only work in dispatch would likely improve performance, it would take away control from police departments.
The working group’s first meeting is slated for September 10th.
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