Logan County brings major upgrades to the Emergency Call Center

LOGAN COUNTY, Ky. – Calling 911 usually means one of the worst days of someone’s life.

On the other end of that phone call, a dispatcher is doing the best they can to try and get you the help that you need, and now Logan County is prioritizing their dispatchers, setting them up with some much needed updates.

Staffed by just 13 people, the calls can come in thick and fast, sometimes leaving the previous conditions difficult to work in. have basically completely redid the whole department.

“We’ve actually built even from staff. We have built it from basically three of us to full staff. Now we have replaced the phone system, the CAD system, which is computer aided dispatch, the radio system, all the desk, all the furniture, carpet, the whole building basically,” said Ginger Lawrence, the 911 director.

After realizing some of those tough conditions, leaders within Logan County saw a need to update that building.

Everything from new technology, to new carpeting was put in, all in the name of saving as many lives as possible.

“We originally had two stations and we went to four stations, but we only had two desk, so we had two desks that were taken apart to make four desk. So it was kind of just a hodgepodge of whatever we could find to put in here to keep things. And none of the stations were the same,” Lawrence said.

At some point in the past, dispatchers even relied on their own phones to find information as fast as they could. That tech update was a major difference maker, helping dispatchers relay vital information faster to the emergency crews arriving on scene.

“For a long time some of us were, using our phones for Google and things like that to find things to make it where we could do it quicker,” said Lawrence.

And when it comes to saving lives, time is priceless.

“It could be life or death, I mean, it seconds, seconds matter. You never know how how quick something can change,” Lawrence emphasized.