Dispatch

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     The Baxter Springs Police Department has a full time dispatch center. The police department dispatch is responsible for dispatching the Baxter Springs Police Department and the Baxter Springs Fire Department. They are also serving as the back-up dispatch for the Cherokee County Sheriff Office in Columbus. This was put in place in case the sheriff office dispatch goes down. So that communications would not cease for the county.

     The dispatch center also is responsible for the activation of the tornado sirens, after hours water leak calls, cable problems, collecting fines, and walk-in's to the police department. The dispatch center is staffed 24 hours a day with three full-time dispatchers and two part-time dispatchers. The Baxter Springs dispatch has a database that interconnects with the municipal court and the officers reporting system. This way all divisions in the department can share the same information from different computers. They also have a state networked computer to access vehicle registration files, driver license files, and criminal history files.