Post Falls To Join Countywide 911 System Enhanced Service Will Send Calls Through Central Dispatch Center In Coeur D’Alene

The Post Falls City Council decided Tuesday night to send fire and medical calls through an enhanced countywide 911 system.

Starting next fall, those emergency calls will go through the central dispatch center in Coeur d’Alene. The city will continue to dispatch its own police.

County officials had asked Post Falls and Rathdrum to participate in the enhanced 911 system. The county will pay for the new system.

All non-emergency calls in Post Falls and Rathdrum will continue to be answered in Post Falls. The new system will allow Post Falls dispatchers to conference with the county’s central dispatchers. In addition, central dispatch can directly provide Post Falls with more information on a specific call.

The agreement occurred because of the city and Kootenai County’s developing partnership, said Police Chief Jim Simmerman.

“I think since this enhanced 911 system, our working relationship has never been better than it is today,” he said.

Enhanced 911 will provide a quicker response time, mapping and other information that benefits residents living outside cities in Kootenai County, Simmerman said.

“The changes will be invisible to the public,” Simmerman said.

A countywide system will eliminate overlapping of responding calls, said Kootenai County Administrator Tom Taggart.

Post Falls’ Police Department is excited about the changes because the new system is cost-effective, Simmerman said. The department, which hopes to build a new police station, is closely watching the bottom line.

Taggart said the new system should be installed by September or October.

The city will receive one-fourth of its residents’ $1 monthly phone line fees, Taggart said. The rest of money will go to Kootenai County.

“We’ll be the experts, … and they can concentrate on dispatching,” Taggart said.

Also on Tuesday, council members participated in a workshop focusing on the city’s wastewater master plan.

Jim Kimball, a consultant from Kimball Engineering, said the system will cost $22.1 million dollars and is essential because of the city’s rapid growth.

This sidebar appeared with the story: NEW 911 Benefits

Benefits of the Enhanced 911 system:

Selective routing

Maps with directions to residences

Information that accesses name, address and phone number

Quicker response times.