Spokane County Proposition One is asking voters for a Renewal Sales and Use Tax for Emergency Communications Systems and Facilities.
The Spokane County Communications Center is a busy place with emergency operators taking both 911 calls, as well as Crime Check calls for less threatening emergencies. This call center has been in place since 2008, and was funded by one tenth of one percent added to sales tax in the county. The center collects information from callers, and then coordinates response by police, sheriffs, and fire personnel.
Now voters are being asked to continue the tax to fund the communications system, as well as to continue the Crime Check program, which is a forty six percent of all public safety phone calls.
Spokane Valley Fire Chief, Bryan Collins explains that until the system was funded in 2008, agencies like his could not communicate directly with others, like the sheriff’s office or police: “We were often at the scene of calls together. And us and them, fire and police being able to communicate ahead of that call, during and after that call, via the radio system is just a world of differences when we had to do that stuff face to face.”
Spokane police department Major, Eric Olsen says continued funding, if the tax is approved, will help for future expansion of the AVL system, which provides real-time info on all vehicle locations: “As we continue to expand the system, Prop One would help fund that, it would give us the ability to track things like dump trucks. And you ask ‘why dump trucks?’ Well when you have things like Windstorm and other things where you need big equipment, we want to be able to track that and get that into the proper locations as well.”
Future planned improvements also include expanding the county’s ALERT system, which notifies citizens of emergencies in their area via telephone.
If the tax renewal fails at the polls, one immediate casualty would be the Crime Check program which handles over 240,000 calls per year. Sixty-five percent of the Crime Check budget is paid for by the tax. In addition, the various agencies that use the communications center would have to find a way to finance its operation through their own individual budgets.
The ballots for Spokane county Proposition one have already been mailed out. The election is April 25th.
