Communications

The Communications staff includes a communications director, 10 full time, and four part time dispatchers. Dispatchers answer and dispatch emergency and non: emergency calls for the following agencies:

  • Sheriff Deputies (including patrols for contracted cities) and Lake Patrol
  • Police Departments including:
    • Carbondale Police
    • Osage City Police
    • Overbrook Police
    • Lyndon Police
    • Burlingame Police
    • Scranton Police
  • Wildlife and Parks and Corp of Engineer Rangers including:
    • Conservation Officers and Game Wardens
    • Pomona and Eisenhower State Park Law Enforcement
    • Melvern and Pomona Lake Park Rangers
  • Fire, EMS, First Responder, and Rescue Departments including:
    • Osage County EMS
    • Osage County Fire District Number 1: Carbondale
    • Osage County Fire District Number 2: Osage City
    • Osage County Fire District Number 3: Melvern/Olivet
    • Osage County Fire District Number 4: Overbrook/Michigan Valley
    • Osage County Fire District Number 5: Lyndon/Vassar
    • Osage County Fire District Number 6: Burlingame
    • Osage County Fire District Number 7: Quenemo
    • Scranton Fire
    • Reading Fire (Lyon County)
    • Lebo Fire (Coffey County)

The Osage County Sheriff's Office utilizes a Next-generation 911 (NG911) system, a multi-site radio system, a computer: aided dispatch system, and other equipment to aid in dispatching responders.

All dispatchers are NCIC certified by the Kansas Highway Patrol. Dispatchers are required to be NCIC certified within six months of employment. They are trained to use the computers to retrieve registrations, driver's license, criminal history, and other types of information through all 50 states and Canada. They also are required to use NCIC to query, enter, and remove persons, vehicles, boats, and articles and other items that are missing, wanted, or stolen.

Dispatchers are also responsible for a number of other duties including: entering all civil process papers, warrants, and citations, and all calls for service into the computers, mailing first class and certified civil papers, making copies of reports to be forwarded to different departments, taking care of protection and restraining orders, monitoring weather conditions, and many other tasks other than just answering and dispatching calls.