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February 23, 2010

E911 needed in area

Toni Hopper

DUNCAN — Area residents are getting a good education in what it means to have modern conveniences, but there are some things that should never be taken for granted. Like emergency services and the ability to access those services.

About a week ago, just when everyone was becoming comfortable again with the thought of having power back on, it sputtered, spat and finally just went out Wednesday afternoon. It was short lived, but none of us knew for certain when it would return. And that’s when Sheriff Wayne McKinney’s frustrations began building.

The constant jump-start of juice caused the comm center’s generator to fail, he said. McKinney explained that all 911 calls coming into the City of Duncan were rolled over to Marlow’s dispatch center, but the lack of 911 service in the rural unincorporated areas of the county left people without a way to call for help if they needed it. That lasted an hour.

One hour too long in which lives could have been at risk.

As the sheriff said, “You can’t leave the people of this county hanging.”

That’s what it all boils down to, but the people of this county will have to approve a county-wide E-911 system to prevent something like this ever happening again. In September 2005, the issue came before voters, who failed to pass it. In July 2006, it was again on the table for consideration for the November ballot. Again, it was defeated.

What the enhanced 911 offers is the ability for residents anywhere in Stephens County, whether they have a land line or a cell phone, to call 911 and have their calls automatically logged and recorded at the central communications base.

Yet, when people hear that this would include an extra nominal fee on their phone bill, they automatically want to look the other way. Failing to realize that they could be endangering the lives of their own family.

With E-911 services when the comm center went down this month, all calls, not just the city of Duncan, would have rolled directly to the Marlow backup services.

As it is right now, if someone in the county calls 911, it rolls over to somewhere in Oklahoma, but not the local comm center dispatch services.

Case in point — in early 2009, a woman became disoriented on her way to a doctor’s appointment. She called 911 and the receiving dispatch center (unknown where) had to then contact Stephens County, but without E-911, rescuers had a difficult time finding her.

It was cold and getting colder that morning. I remember listening to the search efforts over the scanner while I was at work. They eventually found her. She had crashed her car into a creek area and a smart-thinking deputy discovered her. If the county had an E-911 system, the rescue process would have been much quicker because the cell phone towers would have pinged the location.

From tornadoes to wildfires, blizzards and the rare ice storm of catastrophic portions, all these are good reasons to implement an E-911 system.

I know that if it does come up to be voted on (hopefully this year), I’ll be in line to check yes.



— Toni Hopper is a reporter for The Duncan Banner. She can be reached at 580-255-5354, Ext. 132 or by e-mail at: toni.hopper@duncanbanner.com.

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