By Billy Wolfe, Daily Mail Staff
Kanawha County, W. Va. — Dispatchers at Kanawha County Metro 9-1-1 will no longer count on State Police troopers to respond to emergency calls in the unincorporated parts of the county.

Under a new protocol drafted by Sheriff Mike Rutherford’s office, dispatchers at the Metro 9-1-1 headquarters will no longer send out “toss-up” calls. Instead, county deputies will be directly dispatched on all calls in unincorporated parts of the county.

“Toss-ups” are when a dispatcher sends out a call and waits for a nearby officer to take the assignment. Toss-up calls have been the standard protocol at Metro 9-1-1 for at least 10 years.

But Rutherford said he is unhappy with how long it is taking emergency personnel to respond to calls. He believes that moving to a direct dispatch system will improve response times.

“Several seconds or even minutes can go by before somebody calls up on a toss-up call,” he said. “We don’t like that.”

But he stressed that state troopers will not be taken off the system altogether.

“We think this will save a lot of time on all of us,” he said. “But with that being said, if a trooper is out and hears the call and is in the area and wants to take that call, they are totally more than welcome to step in.”

State troopers answer about 10 percent of toss-up calls, Rutherford said. County deputies answer the other 90 percent, he said.

“It’s not a huge change,” Rutherford said of the protocol. “We’re just simply getting the call directly to the deputies.”

Calls to State Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Baylous were not immediately returned.

Rutherford said the change is not in any way meant as a slight to state troopers.

“We feel they are a very valuable asset to the public safety of our county, and under no circumstances would we ever not want them to be of assistance to us,” he said. “We work very closely together and we just basically want to speed up our calls.”

Rutherford stressed that there has not been a specific incident that led to the new protocol.

The Metro 9-1-1 executive board of directors will discuss the new protocol during the next meeting on Nov. 17.

Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper, who also serves as the chairman of the 9-1-1 board, said he “fully supports” the new protocol.

Carper added the item to the agenda for discussion purposes, but officials said they do not believe the item requires a vote of the board. State Police Superintendent Col. T.S. Pack has a representative on the board.

The radio frequency used by Metro 9-1-1 is assigned to the sheriff’s department, Carper said.

In a memo sent to fellow board members Wednesday, Carper said he agrees a change is needed.

“Directly dispatching deputies will eliminate unnecessary waiting for field personnel or supervisors to take the call,” Carper wrote in the memo. “I fully support the sheriff and chief deputy in implementing this protocol. It will be on the agenda for comment and discussion.”

Rutherford said he expects the policy to take effect in about two weeks.

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Contact writer Billy Wolfe at [email protected] or 304/348-4843 

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