Calls for service increasing: Stutsman County has 3,000 more calls in 2012 than year before

Talk about it

Calls for service and 911 calls in Stutsman County increased in 2012, and there will probably be more in 2013.

“We’re seeing a tremendous increase in our calls for service, and in talking with Chad (Kaiser, Stutsman County sheriff) and Scott (Edinger, Jamestown police chief), I’ll tell you we haven’t even close to plateaued with these numbers,” said Jerry Bergquist, Stutsman County emergency manager and 911 coordinator, at a Tuesday meeting of the Stutsman County Commission. “We’re on the rise.”

In 2012, the Stutsman County Communications Center received 29,051 calls for dispatch, compared to 26,068 in 2011. The agency dispatched most often was the Jamestown Police Department, with 17,186 calls, followed by the Stutsman County Sheriff’s Office with 8,175 calls, and then Jamestown Ambulance, with 1,725 calls.

“In 2012 ... the jump you see from the police department’s perspective is an honest-to-goodness increase,” Bergquist said, noting that the number of calls for Jamestown police increased by 1,351 in 2012.

That translates to more than three additional calls a day than the previous year for the Jamestown Police Department.

“We are seeing a definite increase,” said Kaiser, indicating the sheriff’s office was also answering more calls.

The number of calls to 911 shot up too, from 5,457 in 2011 to 6,372 in 2012, with about 73 percent of calls coming from cellphones in both years.

“Definitely, we are much busier than we have ever been,” Bergquist said.

He warned that the increase in calls for law enforcement and other services would be translated into additional cases in court, additional social services cases and more, in the future.

The Stutsman County Commission also agreed to allow Barnes County to utilize the Richland/Stutsman counties’ 911 equipment infrastructure to operate its own communications center. Richland and Stutsman counties now share a single 911 system split between two locations, and will eventually be able to serve as backups to each other.

In order for Barnes County to use the Richland/Stutsman equipment, Barnes County will pay $26,204, to be split between the other two counties.

Barnes County will continue to run its own dispatch center, however.

In other news Tuesday, the commission:

* accepted a bid of $328,884.70 for work on Stutsman County Road 62 from Lakeview Excavating of Valley City, and RTS Shearing’s $541,700.75 bid for two projects on the county road west of Streeter. Both projects are road grade raises, and the county will pay for 20 percent and the state of North Dakota the remainder. Interstate Engineering will engineer the projects.

* allowed tax abatements for two properties, one of which had been incorrectly classified as commercial property. The other was an unfinished house that had been valued at $163,900 and is considered finished. Its value was decreased to $140,100 for tax purposes.

* approved a request from Stutsman County Correctional Center Administrator Tracey Trapp to purchase a new van for transporting prisoners for $19,400.

* agreed that Casey Bradley, the county auditor/chief operating officer, should request proposals for an automated teller machine in the Law Enforcement Center. Inmates at the county jail will no longer be permitted to carry cash, and the ATM will help facilitate money transfers for bonds and other purchases.

Sun reporter Kari Lucin can be reached at 701-952-8453 or by email at klucin@jamestownsun.com

Tags: local news, law enforcement, news