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Class covers duties of four departments
By Krista Goerte
Published November 5, 2009
Week two of the Citizens Police Academy took participants through emergency communications, the records division, animal control services and crime prevention.
Services Division Lieutenant Burton Golden and dispatchers Julia Harrison and Amber Dobbs presented a first-hand look at how emergency calls are handled for police, fire, emergency medical services, animal control, volunteer fire departments and first responders. The communication division is the call center for all 9-1-1 calls in Lamar County.
The success of the communication division rests solely on the capability of its dispatchers — the true first responders, Golden said.
Using an Automatic Number Identification system and an Automatic Location Identification system, dispatchers can locate a caller from a land line visually on a computer screen. Cell phones are harder for the systems to locate because of a lack of technology on the part of cell phone carriers.
Dispatchers are also responsible for entering information and relaying information from the National Crime Information Center and Texas Crime Information Center, including information relating to stolen vehicles and registrations, missing and wanted persons and court-ordered protective orders.
A large portion of the dispatcher’s job is dealing with the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system, which maps the location of all EMS, police and fire units, in addition to where the emergency call is located. From dispatch, information is sent to emergency units in the field. The system makes recommendations about which units and how many to send to an emergency based on location and availability, but the dispatcher has the final decision about which units should be sent.
CPA participants heard examples of two 9-1-1 calls and were able to see the CAD system as it works between dispatch and a patrol unit.
Alice Webb, records clerk, talked to the group about how the records division is connected to the police department, and the role it plays in helping the individual departments run smoothly and stay organized.
Under the care of Webb and her staff, the records division is responsible for reviewing officer’s reports, providing intelligence, providing records to criminal courts and analyzing and compiling statistics.
“We are the links that are responsible for maintaining every document that is generated throughout the department or received from the public or other agencies,” Webb said.
In addition, the records department is the only department with the authority to release records to the public, and are responsible for knowing what records are considered public records under the Open Records Act.
The records division serves as a fact checker in many cases, making sure names are spelled correctly on reports, dates of birth are accurate and double-checking other facts. Statistics from local crimes are also reported to Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR).
The records division also provides service to the public through local background checks, accident reporting, fingerprinting, incident reporting and open records requests.
Records are kept varying lengths of time for different offenses. From the late 1960s to mid 1960, records were stored on microfilm. From 1996 to May of 2008, records were stored on laser fiche. Since 2008, the records have been stored on the city server.
Matt Birch, crime prevention officer, talked about the different programs promoted by the police department in an effort to reduce crime in the city.
Lamar County Crime Stoppers is one of the biggest local programs, having been in operation in the county since 1986. An international organization, the program is an anonymous tip line where tipsters can receive a monetary reward for coming forward with information. Since its inception locally in 1986, Lamar County Crime Stoppers has led to more than 1,700 arrests and 3,263 cases cleared in addition to the recovery of more than $2 million in stolen property.
Neighborhood Watch is another successful program, with approximately 250 to 300 local homes participating.
The police department also promotes “Lock, Take and Hide,” a program hosted by North East Texas Auto Theft and Burglary Prevention Auto Task Force in an effort to cut down on car burglaries and car theft.
Operation ID, a program of marking property and documenting belongings, is another crime prevention program in place in Paris.
Birch also talked about community information and notification systems in place.
Crime Reports is a Web site listing crime activity in Paris and can be found at www.crimereports.com.
Nixle and CodeRED are both community notification systems made available free to the public. Both systems are used to notify the public about problems such as severe weather, and other important information from the city.
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