Daytona Beach Shores Joins VCSO Dispatch Center

Date Added: January 23, 2005 2:10 pm

Daytona Beach Shores Joins VCSO Dispatch Center

Daytona Beach Shores on Thursday became the eighth city to join a consolidated public safety dispatch center operated by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. The Volusia County Council on Thursday unanimously approved the contract, which takes effect Feb. 1st 

Thursday’s move comes in the wake of studies concluding that centralizing public safety dispatch services results in more efficient emergency response and better coordination of resources. Under the combined system, critical information is rapidly shared with all responding agencies, thereby avoiding the need to routinely transfer 911 calls from agency to agency. The consolidation also is projected to save taxpayers millions of dollars by eliminating the fragmentation and service redundancy that occurs when each agency maintains its own dispatch center. Daytona Beach Shores now joins the cities of Daytona Beach, DeLand, Holly Hill, South Daytona, Orange City, Lake Helen and Oak Hill in contracting with the Sheriff’s Office for public safety dispatching services. The Sheriff’s Office also dispatches for the county’s beach patrol. 

Sheriff Ben Johnson said he was pleased with the latest expansion of the agency’s dispatching services, which are housed out of its Communications Center on Keyton Drive in Daytona Beach. “Sharing services is a more efficient way of doing business,” said Sheriff Johnson. “The citizens who need help will get it quicker. This is good for the entire community.” 

Under the contract approved Thursday, the Sheriff’s Office will dispatch Daytona Beach Shores public safety officers to all police and fire calls within the city. The contract calls for the city to pay $98,558 annually for the service. The initial term of the contract is for 18 months.