FEBRUARY 26, 2025
Photo – Converse County dispatch center logo – Courtesy Converse County Joint Communication Center
Research on the creation of a single county-wide emergency dispatch center continues to move forward at a slow pace.
At the February 18th Rawlins city council meeting, Vice Mayor Darril Garner reminded city officials that Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken had approached the governing body in March of the previous year to discuss the possibility of bringing all emergency dispatch services under one roof.
Last June, Sheriff Bakken, Rawlins Police Chief Mike Ward, and then Saratoga Police Chief Mike Morris announced the formation of the Combined Dispatch Operations Collaborative Working Group. The purpose of the group is to collect information about the potential benefits and disadvantages of using one dispatch center to cover the entire county.
Despite a promise to hold another public meeting in Rawlins, Vice Mayor Garner said no new information has been released since that time.
Bigfoot99 asked Rawlins Police Chief Mike Ward for an update on the Combined Dispatch Operations Collaborative Working Group. Chief Ward said the group is planning to ask Converse County law enforcement officials about their experience with a combined dispatch center.
Carbon County currently has three separate emergency dispatch centers: the Sheriff’s Office and the Rawlins and Saratoga Police Departments. Staffing issues and the need for costly equipment upgrades caused Sheriff Bakken and Saratoga Police Chief Morris to begin investigating the creation of a single county-wide dispatch center. As the county’s official 911 call center, the Rawlins Police Department was also brought on board.
Chief Ward said the Working Group is focused on Converse and Sweetwater Counties. Both used multiple dispatch centers in the past but switched to a combined system. Information gathered in those counties may benefit Carbon County if the decision is made to go with a similar system.
The Collaborative Working Group proposed creating a joint powers board made up of local law enforcement officers and other participating parties to oversee the proposed combined dispatch center. Chief Ward said the specific operations of the joint powers board have not been clearly defined. The Rawlins police chief expressed doubt that a joint powers board could effectively run a combined dispatch call center in Carbon County.
Chief Ward acknowledged that the research process has lost momentum since last summer’s public meeting in Saratoga. The police chief said arranging meetings between the various law enforcement agencies has been difficult. However, time is not a pressing concern, at least in Rawlins.
In the meantime, the Saratoga Police Department is in talks with the Sheriff’s Office to have the county take over dispatching duties. The town of Encampment has already ended its agreement with Saratoga and signed a contract to have the sheriff handle emergency calls in the southern end of the Platte Valley.
Chief Ward said his upcoming visit to Converse County is simply a fact-finding mission and the Combined Dispatch Operations Collaborative Working Group has no plans to hold another public meeting at this time.
