The Capitol Police force has seen a rise in calls since its number of law enforcement officers increased from 70 to 100, according to the commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety.
Sean Tindall, who heads the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, did not have any data about the number of additional calls but chalked it up to the attention the Capitol Police force has received in recent months.
“We’ve been talking a lot about additional (Capitol Police) officers and our desire to assist the Jackson Police Department,” he said.
Tindall said he has heard reports about how a caller to 911 was given the number of Capitol Police and told to call it instead of getting the help needed, but he has no proof that is true.
Capitol Police dispatch is not tied into JPD, Tindall said, but Capitol Police Chief Bo Luckey and his staff contacted AT&T and had a switch installed at JPD dispatch so calls can be transferred to the Capitol Police more efficiently.
JPD dispatch can press a button and have a call specifically sent to Capitol Police, he said.
“Capitol Police are working on several easier ways that citizens can contact us directly,” Tindall said.
Capitol Police has a communications center staffed by five dispatchers that is a 24/7 operation responsible for answering and initiating all calls with the Capitol Complex Improvement District. Dispatchers assigned to that center monitor numerous surveillance camera systems, fire, burglary, panic and intrusion alarm system as well as door access card systems for several state office buildings.
The communications center provides contact between the dispatchers and law enforcement officers on patrol in the Capitol Complex Improvement District as well as providing access to the FBI National Crimes Information Center for vehicle registration and wanted person’s inquiries.
“Once we reach 150 officers, we hope to have 14 dispatchers in total,” Tindall said.
JPD dispatchers answer about 8,000 to 10,000 calls each week and calls not answered by JPD automatically roll over to the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office, then to the Byram Police Department and the Clinton Police Department, said JPD Deputy Chief Tyrone Buckley.
Hinds County, the city of Jackson, the city of Byram and the city of Clinton fund their own dispatch equipment and employees. “There’s no one size fits all when it comes to equipment,” said District 1 Hinds County Supervisor Robert Graham, who worked in dispatch communications for 25 years and trains dispatchers across the country.
Lack of personnel to answer calls or simultaneous emergencies that occur are among reasons why calls roll over. “You need to have bodies in a chair answering the calls,” Graham said.
The National Emergency Number Association standard is to answer 911 calls by the second ring and administrative calls by the third ring, Graham said.
“The goal is to have all calls answered by the fourth ring,” he said. “No matter what it should be answered by the fourth ring.”
Twenty-five seconds will have passed if a call is answered on the fifth ring. “If it rings 10 times it’s still less than a minute,” he said.
Many callers grow anxious if dispatch takes more time to answer a call during an emergency, Graham said, and that’s understandable. “Every second means something,” he said.
A call answered by a dispatcher connects to a computer-aided dispatch system with automated call distribution, meaning a call is assigned to the next available communications employee who can answer it.
“There are four things the person who answers the call can tell,” Graham said. “They can tell the time the person called in, the time the dispatcher answered the call, the time the call was transferred if was transferred to an ambulance source and the time the call was dispatched.
“Once a call has been dispatched, you can tell the time the emergency vehicle first arrived on the scene. Finally, you can tell what time the call was actually cleared.”
Plans are in place to double the number of Capitol Police officers to 150 by the end of 2023 and fully equip them with what they need to do their job. The 2022 legislative session provided funding for additional Capitol Police officers, which will allow JPD to focus its efforts outside of the Capitol Complex Improvement District and elsewhere in the city as needed.
David Blount, who represents District 29 in the Mississippi Senate, said increasing the number of Capitol Police officers so they can respond to calls in the district and allow JPD officers to focus their attention in other parts of the city was a priority of the Jackson legislative delegation during the 2022 session.
“The point is that every officer working for Capitol Police in a defined area allows JPD to employ greater resources elsewhere in the city,” he said.
Blount said he appreciates the efforts of JPD, but the department is underfunded and needs additional officers. “This is a way to get more officers on the street,” he said.
A memorandum of understanding is not required so that the Capitol Police and JPD work together, Tindall said.
“There have been talks of entering one in the future that will not affect what calls are handled by who or which agencies will enforce which statutes, but instead this memorandum of understanding would be an agreement on how the two agencies will assist one another with resources,” he said. “The Mississippi Department of Public Safety is looking forward to working with the city of Jackson to soon finalize a memorandum of understanding.”
