OGDENSBURG, New York (WWNY) – Ogdensburg’s goal of getting St. Lawrence County to handle dispatching its police 911 calls is falling short, according to City Manager Stephen Jellie.
As of July 1, Jellie said 911 police calls on the overnight shift would bypass Ogdensburg and go to county dispatch in Canton.
Later this year, daytime calls would also be sent to Canton.
Jellie says as of right now some police calls that go to Canton are being sent back to Ogdensburg dispatchers during the overnight shift.
The county’s director of emergency services, Matt Denner, says that’s happening sometimes simply because Ogdensburg is staffed for it and his 911 center in Canton is already busy.
“Currently during the day shift and the 3 to 11 shift, we operate on four positions – call takers and dispatchers. All four are quite busy. With the added call volume of Ogdensburg, I don’t really think that the current four positions on certain nights would be able to handle the call volume,” said Denner.
He says the county’s 911 center is set to be renovated, which should help it handle more emergency calls including ones from Ogdensburg. The county is dispatching Ogdensburg’s emergency medical services and fire calls.
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