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EAST PALESTINE -- Increased demands at the local police department have resulted in a need for a more self-sufficient Communications Center, Police Chief Chris Weingart explained Tuesday.
Part of that self sufficiency is the creation of a new Dispatch Supervisor position, which is before Village Council for approval.
Council gave first reading to legislation approving a memorandum of understanding with the police union for the creation of the position on Aug. 24.
A second reading is expected.
"It has always been customary for one of our police supervisors to be assigned the additional duty of being the dispatch supervisor; however, the demands of the current responsibilities that fall on our three police supervisors established a need for the Communications Center to be more self-sufficient and self-administered by an actual dispatcher," Weingart said.
He went on to explain that each of the current police supervisors have numerous assigned duties divided among them but the current supervisor assigned as a dispatch supervisor is also tasked with being the Public Information Officer (PIO).
Weingart said the PIO is an extremely time-consuming and at times high-demanding responsibility due to time requirements to respond to the request.
"Public Information Requests can involve a single request for a copy of an incident report to multitudes of individuals, media outlets, attorneys, etc. requesting many different reports at once. They also now include requests for officer body cam video/audio footage which can be very time consuming to prepare due to having to redact personal information for public release," he said.
As a result, to alleviate an assignment from the PIO he wants to create the Dispatch Supervisor position for one of the three full-time dispatchers to be assigned to.
At a higher pay rate planned for the new position, the dispatcher selected to fill the new role will be promoted to these new duties in addition to continuing to function in their regular dispatching duties as well.
The new Dispatch Supervisor will be responsible for overseeing daily dispatch operations, handling all scheduling matters, developing and continuously updating dispatcher training programs, creating continuing education materials, etc., he said.
He added that filling the supervisory position within the Communications Center itself will greatly assist the department in moving forward with better efficiency and operational goals.
"Each of our three full-time dispatchers have between 16 to 26 years of experience as a dispatcher for the East Palestine Division of Police and are more than qualified to serve as a Dispatch Supervisor," Weingart said.