South Daytona Contracts to have Police Dispatch with Sheriff's Office

Date Added: January 22, 2004 2:22 pm

South Daytona Contracts to have Police Dispatch with Sheriff's Office

Efforts to centralize Volusia County’s police dispatching services under the Sheriff’s Office took another step forward Thursday when the County Council approved a multi-year contract with the City of South Daytona. The Sheriff’s Office has set a target date of Feb. 1 to begin dispatching calls to city police units. 

For South Daytona residents, the switchover will be seamless. Emergency 911 calls will be answered 24-hours-a-day by telecommunicators at the Sheriff’s Office’s Communications Center in Daytona Beach. South Daytona now becomes the fourth Volusia County city to contract with the Sheriff’s Office for police dispatching service, joining Orange City, Lake Helen and Oak Hill. Under the administration of Sheriff Ben Johnson, the Sheriff’s Office has supported the merging of dispatch services as a way to save tax dollars and improve communications during public safety calls that often cross jurisdictional boundaries and involve responses from multiple agencies. The Sheriff’s Office recently switched over to an upgraded computer-aided dispatch system and remodeled the radio room at the agency’s Communications Center in Daytona Beach to accommodate the service expansion. 

The term of the South Daytona contract runs through September 2006. The initial contract rate is $74,508. The contract was approved by the South Daytona City Council on Tuesday and then unanimously ratified without discussion at Thursday’s County Council meeting. The County Council also approved four new telecommunicator positions for the Sheriff’s Office to accommodate the increased call volume at the Communications Center. The Sheriff’s Office also dispatches for the county’s Beach Patrol.