Saline County’s 911 dispatch consolidation will improve emergency response

Saline County, Arkansas – With the last addition of Bryant operations, the Saline County Emergency Communications Center is nearing completion of its integration of emergency services and 911 dispatch.

After two years of planning, all parties agree that this consolidation is the best course of action for the people of Bryant and Saline County.

“We’re going to have the most efficient system and the highest performing system that we can. The beautiful thing is this will be of no cost to the taxpayer in regard to increase in taxes or anything to monetize the funding of this 911 center.” Saline County Judge, Matt Brumley said.

Following the 2019 Arkansas Public Safety Act, which stipulated that funding could only be allocated for a single Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) per county, Benton’s dispatch was initially added to the Saline Co. 911 center, which is currently Bryant.

“This has been a work in progress with the city of Benton and Saline Co. for the last two years that includes construction and expansion of our current 911 centers that we are able to consolidate Bryant coming into our center, so it will be turnkey at 10 am next Tuesday when we bring Bryant into our system,” Brumley said.

Benefits of this unification include less dropped calls, transferred calls, and wait times to reach the right emergency rooms.

“It’s great for the citizens of saline co., all of those who travel through saline co. Our dispatchers and our first responders, to be able to do something efficiently, in a high performing manner so those that have emergencies in saline co. Get the quickest and best response that we can possibly do today,” Brumley said.

“At any given time, we will be able to have up to 11 dispatchers at one time. The economy and scale of that is so important to emergencies and when an emergency happens in our county or multiple places in our county the supervisors in that control center and in that communication, center are able to shift the responsibilities of dispatchers to make sure that we have the resources to facilitate the emergency that’s going on in our county,” Brumley said.

Rhonda Sanders, the mayor of Bryant, had input on the merger.

“We all know that when you have a life-threatening emergency that getting help to you as quick as possible can be the difference between life and death,” Sanders said.

“The last year or more has really been a group effort on figuring out how to do this best for citizens and that’s really what we want them to know is we’re trying to do the very best we can for them,” Sanders added.

The consolidation is scheduled for March 5 at 10 a.m., and those concerned say they will closely monitor the process to ensure a seamless transition.