At the July 23 Commissioners Court meeting, Mark Flathouse, Fort Bend County fire marshal and emergency management coordinator, presented the recommendations from the eight-person committee on how the county could improve its operations, protocols, policies and practices.
The Fort Bend County dispatch system—overseen by the county's sheriff’s office—takes calls from 911 and directs law enforcement, fire and emergency medical services to respond to the emergency. The committee was set up after efforts to implement new software were stalled in March and a change in dispatch protocol was enacted in January, among other concerns from Fort Bend County agencies that use the dispatch center.
“I want to say, there’s a lot of good dispatchers out there, and it is a job that is very tough to do,” Flathouse said. “And I want to say thank you to them. … I want to make sure that [as] the discussions move forward, it’s very important [to recognize] that the job that they’re doing … is very important, not only to me but also to the citizens.”
Committee recommendations
The committee suggested the county hire a consulting firm to help the dispatch center create strategic plans for upgrading infrastructure, technology, software and personnel, according to Flathouse's presentation.
Ideas for increasing efficiency include:
- upgrading the computer-aided dispatch system;
- enhancing training, staffing configurations or certifications for EMS and fire calls; and
- reviewing agreements with agencies that use the county’s dispatch system.
The committee also suggested the county look into whether EMS and fire calls should be directed to a third party or if a standalone dispatch center run independently from law enforcement, fire or EMS should be created.
Ultimately, Flathouse said all of these options need to go through a cost-benefit analysis to determine the best options to pursue.
“[What] the committee’s kind of heartburn over a little bit is it is going to be a financial piece,” Flathouse said. “If we’re going to move to something else, is that a financial thing to work into the budget cycle and work with the sheriff’s office on?”
Immediate needs for the dispatch center include following through with purchasing new dispatching software and radio upgrades that will automate calls and speed up the process for fire and EMS dispatching, Flathouse said. These purchases were included in the 2019 budget or in the capital improvement plan.
“We’d like to move forward as quickly as possible, especially with the end of this budget year, to enhance and support some of the dispatch decisions as we move forward,” Flathouse said.
Because the committee's recommendations were a workshop agenda item for the July 24 meeting, the court could not make a decision to move forward with the purchases, but the commissioners and Judge KP George expressed interested in taking action soon.
