Fargo-Moorhead fixes dispatch glitch

MOORHEAD, Minn. (AP) — Fargo-Moorhead authorities say they have corrected a problem that prevented re-gional dispatchers from immediately alerting Moorhead residents the night of a kidnapping and shootout.

Officials at the Red River Regional Dispatch Center on the night of the April 3 incident did not have the city of Moorhead’s access codes to an emergency communication system that allows for telephone warnings to residents.

Dispatchers tried improvising by using Clay County’s codes. Before phone calls could go out, the suspect, Vincent Paul Degidio Jr., 28, of Moorhead, was in custody. No Moorhead residents were hurt in the incident.

Dispatchers have since been given the codes, said Moorhead Police Chief David Ebinger, who also heads the board that oversees the dispatch center in Fargo.

“Obviously, this was something that should have been in place,” he said.

Center Director Kathy Colvin said Moorhead officials decided about a year ago that the city would be responsible for launching its own alerts through the system. She said the dispatch center was never given the city’s access codes.

Moorhead City Manager Michael Redlinger said now, either the city or the dispatch center can launch an alert. “We would characterize it as an added enhancement,” he said.

Degidio is charged with attempted murder of a police officer and kidnapping in the April 3 incident. Authorities say he abducted a Fargo woman at gunpoint and forced her to drive to Moorhead, where she got away and he was wounded in the shootout with police. He is hospitalized in Fargo.

Ebinger said dispatchers will receive commendations for their work. He said it was a dispatcher who identified Degidio as a suspect based on information provided by the woman.

Fargo police had arrested Degidio in late February after someone spotted him carrying what appeared to be a gun in a North Dakota State University building. The building went into lockdown. The weapon turned out to be a BB gun. Degidio pleaded guilty in March to carrying a concealed weapon.

Tags: lawenforcement