Tag Archives: CenCom

Followup: Has the S’Klallam Tribe paid for 911 services … or not?

Today on the Kitsap Caucus blog, Kitsap Sun reporter Amy Phan follows up the continuing controversy over the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s contract with Kitsap County’s emergency dispatching service. 

The basic gist: when Kitsap County Central Communications (CenCom) switched to a new payment formula for agencies to use it ($50,000 per year to buy 911 services and then pro rated per call over 10,000 calls) the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe didn’t like that prospect.

That leaves the governing board of CenCom, made up of a host of delegates from local agencies, with a choice: turn off their service, or keep it going.

The tribe disputes they’re delinquent in their payments.

“The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribes does not need to arrange catch-up payments,”  Jeromy Sullivan, S’Klallam Tribe chairman, wrote in a Sept. 23 letter to CenCom. “We are already caught up and have paid our fair share of 911 CenCom services.”

For more on the topic, check out Phan’s entry on the caucus blog here.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Kitsap Animal Control Joins County’s 911 System


This just in: The Kitsap Humane Society‘s Animal Rescue division will now dispatch on Kitsap County Central Communications (CENCOM).

That means that those monitoring our area’s police and fire radios will begin to hear animal rescue officers in the commission of their daily duties. They’ll be identified by numbers between 1900 and about 1920, according to Kitsap County Animal Rescue Chief Jake Shapley.

The cost for joining CenCom is about $50,000, but Shapley said animal rescue was paying somewhere in that neighborhood for less-than 24-7 dispatching, their own radio frequency and an answering service for after hours calls. The benefit for the non-profit is knowing that officers that go out to a call at 2 a.m. can radio if they’re in trouble.

“The immediate benefit to us is officer safety,” he said. “I know my guys are safe out there.”

For the public, the benefit is a streamlined system, with animal rescue working alongside law enforcement. Shapley cited an incident last fall when efforts to catch a dangerous dog on the loose in Bremerton couldn’t be coordinated over the radio — a rescue officer had to flag down police as they attempted to catch the dog.

“We’re not off somewhere else anymore,” Shapley said.

CenCom began dispatching to Animal Rescue at 9 a.m. this morning.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post