High praise for an exemplary public safety department with a servant’s heart
File photo: A call taker and a Marion County Fire Rescue dispatcher, who only wanted to be identified by his first name, Nate, works at his station in the Marion County Communications Center at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office in Ocala on Friday, April 5, 2024. Editor’s note: The images on this page have been digitally altered to blur sensitive and protected text displayed on monitors, both in text and displayed on maps in the Marion County Communications Center. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2024.
Marion County Public Safety Communications (PSC) has earned Emergency Police Dispatch (EPD) Accreditation from the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED). PSC thus becomes only the 36th agency in the world to earn this accreditation and joins an elite group of only 28 Triple Accredited Center of Excellence (ACE) Agencies globally.
The members of the PSC team have reason to be proud of what they’ve accomplished in the last five years. They defied their detractors and demonstrated their core values: being always ready to respond to calls for help and being an integral part of getting first responders quickly to the scene of an emergency.
It may sound simple, but it’s not.
“This recognition reflects the exceptional skill, professionalism, and dedication of our telecommunicators — the first, first responders who are the lifeline between those in need and the help they depend on,” Marion County Fire Rescue Chief James Banta said recently. “Their commitment to excellence ensures that every call for service is answered with precision, compassion, and a steadfast focus on protecting our community.”
Banta continued, “Earning Emergency Police Dispatch Accreditation and joining the ranks of only 28 Triple ACE agencies in the nation is a remarkable achievement for Marion County Public Safety Communications.”
As one of the few outsiders who has had the opportunity to spend days observing how our 911 infrastructure works, particularly at the MCPSC center, I concur with Banta.
For those who have read my reporting in the “Gazette” on Marion County’s public safety agencies and understand how granular I tend to drill down on response times and a public safety agency’s capacity, it’s refreshing to be able to offer praise to a department that has pulled itself out of the weeds to become great.
And, I’ll add, their level of transparency only reinforces my confidence.
But to understand this momentous achievement, you need to understand what it took for them to achieve this recognition.
In 2018-19, accusations were flying from the City of Ocala and the Marion County Sheriff’s Office about what they described as subpar dispatch service coming from the PSC’s emergency dispatch center.
Public records indicate the county department at the time had significant staffing and management struggles. In response to the criticism, an independent consultant was hired to review the emergency communications landscape of Marion County and to recommend improvements.
MCSO and Ocala, however, chose not to follow the consultant’s recommendations. However, the county’s call center, which falls under Marion County Fire Rescue, decided to listen to the consultant’s advice.
If you sit next to a county dispatcher, you’ll see that they keep watchful eyes not only what is needed by county first responders but also calls for help within Ocala. Unfortunately, city calls still aren’t shared automatically with the county, even though the county must respond to every call that requires medical help in the city.
That has never materialized because Ocala Police Chief Michael Balken does not believe it is in the city’s best interest to be on the same CAD as Marion County and the MCSO.
It’s a peculiar position for the city to continue to take when the county remains open to being on the same CAD and consolidating 911 infrastructure, which is recommended by nearly every state and national authority on the subject.
Perhaps this historic accreditation for the hard-working staff at PSC will nudge Ocala’s public service leaders toward reconnecting with their county counterparts so that everyone in Marion County can benefit equally from this demonstrated excellence.
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Prior reporting on 911 infrastructure:
Marion County continues to get bad health grades. But who is at the helm to fix? | Ocala Gazette
Siloed agencies pose unnecessary challenges to improving public safety levels | Ocala Gazette
Can emergency personnel locate me through my cellphone? | Ocala Gazette
Providing quality observations to the community takes a lot of time and work | Ocala Gazette
The “first” of the first responders | Ocala Gazette
City of Ocala emergency dispatch continues to struggle | Ocala Gazette
Fatal crash leaves questions about City emergency communications | Ocala Gazette
Update on city emergency response times for fire & medical | Ocala Gazette
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