Sikeston to take over Scott County 911 services after 911 calls were not being answered

SCOTT COUNTY, Mo. (KBSI) – Sikeston will soon take over Scott County 911 services.

After an agreement was approved by the Sikeston City Council during their meeting held Monday it was agreed that Sikeston will now handle most of the 911 calls in Scott County

The agreement term will last for 5 years that allows Sikeston to handle Scott County 911 calls except those coming from Scott City handled by communications officers at Sikeston Department of Public Safety. 

Currently there are three Scott County Dispatch Centers Sikeston DPS, Scott County Sheriff’s Department and Scott City Police Department.

“This will take the three 911 centers and merge it down to two with one on the north side of the county and one on the south side of the county,” Sikeston DPS Captain Ryan Smith said.

The number of communications officers will increase from nine to 16 with a minimum of three operators working at all times.

“We’ve discussed this and been working with the county commissioners for some time,” said Sikeston Mayor Greg Turnbow.

The new agreement will encompass the Scott County Sheriff’s Department along with five rural fire departments and four rural police departments.
Smith added there is also a dispatch at the Chaffee Police Department that answers police calls but not 911 and another at the Miner Police Department which handles police and fire calls but not 911.
They will remain.
The Scott County Commission approved and signed the agreement on Sept. 24.
Commissioner Danny Tetley was at the meeting and said the decision was a personal one to him.
Tetley said his wife was involved in a car accident days before he took office and when he called the Scott County 911 service there was no answer because the lone dispatcher was on another call about the accident.
While additional dispatchers have been hired in Scott County, Tetley said it made sense to move it to Sikeston with the nice facility at DPS along with the state pushing for not just county consolidation but multi-county consolidation.
“Our employees can come to Sikeston and have the same job with better pay and benefits than what we can provide,” Tetley said. “I was looking out for our county citizens and our county employees. It works out county-wide and works into the plans for the future.”
Turnbow says the service standard would not go down for Sikeston and the funding for Sikeston Citizen’s will remain the same.
According to Turnbow Scott County voters approved a 911 tax two years ago that will pay for the extra cost to the City of Sikeston.
An exact date for when the switch will happen has not yet been set.