News

August 27, 2010

County handling Kingston calls

Residents should only call 911 for police, fire and emergencies.

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
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The Luzerne County 911 takeover of emergency calls and dispatching in Kingston has been finalized, county officials announced Thursday.

Kingston residents are reminded to only call 911 for any police, fire and other emergency calls starting Sept. 1.

Borough residents and businesses could always call 911 for emergencies, but they also had the option of calling a Kingston dispatcher directly at 287-6911.

Hazleton is now the only municipality that has not turned over all of its dispatching to 911, according to the county. The county 911 department handles Hazleton fire and emergency services dispatching but not police.

Dispatching includes the processing of a call and summoning of police to a scene. Calls to 911 for Hazleton police are forwarded to the city for dispatching.

The demand for state-mandated training and technical standards prompted Kingston to turn over dispatching to the county, officials said.

A county press release issued Thursday says response times in Kingston should show “marked improvement” because calls will no longer be “processed and then handed off to Kingston for dispatch.”

Kingston Mayor Jim Haggerty said he is confident 911 will “do a good job” with dispatching, but he stressed that the response time was typically three to four minutes when the task was handled in-house.

“The response time can’t be any faster than it was when people called Kingston directly,” Haggerty said.

The county’s release says 911 operators may start summoning emergency responders as soon as the location and nature of the emergency are determined, even though the operators remain on the phone to gather additional information and offer instructions to the callers.

“All dispatchers are trained in talking callers through CPR, bleeding control, childbirth or virtually any other emergency. Unlike the singular staffing at Kingston, the county maintains a minimum staff of 12 certified telecommunicators serving the 76 municipalities of Luzerne County,” the release says.

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