SARPY COUNTY, Nebraska - Sarpy County has taken a significant step toward offering a higher level of service and public safety when it comes to their 911 system. In August, the Sarpy County Emergency Communications successfully merged its 911 phone system with the Omaha metro region that includes Douglas, Washington and Pottawattamie Counties. Sarpy County will now have automatic backup and callers to 911 won't face a possible gap in service even if there is a problem with the county's phone lines.
Previously, Sarpy County dispatchers had to take extra steps to transfer calls when there were problems like power outages or during equipment failure. Now if there is a problem with phone lines, Sarpy County calls will automatically reroute to another dispatch center within the region.
“Sarpy’s no longer an island,” said William Muldoon, Director of the Sarpy County Emergency Communications Department. “There’s now redundancy and there’s other people who can step in to help. With this new system, we don’t leave the public with the phone ringing or with a busy signal.”
The upgrade is also better for first responders because it allows dispatchers to instantly access Sarpy’s computer system and take incoming calls if they are working at another location, like from the regional backup dispatch center in Omaha.
That’s good news for people trying to reach Sarpy’s dispatch center, which in 2018 received 54,924 calls to 911 and another 162,407 non-emergency and administrative calls. Most of the 911 calls - 81 percent - came from people calling on cell phones.