Tulsa County Sheriff's Office to use COVID-19 funds to complete its own 911 call center

The Sheriff’s Office currently shares the city’s 911 call center. The new facility will be built inside a 911 center building that was begun by former Sheriff Stanley Glanz in 2014 but never completed.

The long-time sheriff had envisioned that the project at 6094 E. 66th St. North would also include a training center, but cost overruns and other problems halted the project.

“The building is already there. The walls are built. The area has already been established. We’re just going to finish that part of it,” said Sheriff Vic Regalado.

Construction is expected to begin next week and be completed by the end of the year.

Regalado said the project meets federal government requirements for COVID-19 relief spending under the federal CARES Act.

“During the pandemic, we found that we were exposed sharing a 911 center with Tulsa PD, EMSA, fire,” Regalado said. “There were cases of cross contamination. We had several employees test positive for COVID.”

Another factor that played into the county’s decision to complete its own 911 center was that the Tulsa Police Department’s COVID-related policies for the 911 center don’t always apply well to the sheriff’s 911 operation, Regalado said.

“So when we had a COVID-positive individual, everybody had to go on quarantine that may or may not have come into contact with that individual,” he said. “With our small amount of numbers, you can see where that had a huge negative impact on our operations at the 911 center.

“From a pandemic standpoint, it is not constructed in such a manner that provides for social distancing or cross contamination. At any given time on the floor, there are 35 or 40 people, and you’re all talking.”

The Sheriff’s Office said four of its 911 employees have tested positive for COVID-19 and that another 12 have been sent home to quarantine due to possible COVID exposure.

Four emergency response providers operate in the city’s Public Safety Center: Tulsa Police Department, Tulsa Fire Department, EMSA and the Sheriff’s Office.

Nineteen Sheriff’s Office employees work at the city’s 911 center, with five or six typically there each shift.

From July 1, 2019, through June 30, Sheriff’s Office 911 center employees handled 75,142 calls for county assistance, 9,629 of which were 911 calls.

Regalado said an added benefit of the new 911 center is that it could be used by other communities should the need arise.

“In a worst-case scenario, (if) one of our 911 dispatch centers go down, or the multitude of other 911 centers that are being run by municipalities, we have the ability to house them, and vice versa,” he said.

Tulsa County received $113.7 million from the federal government’s $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security — or CARES — Act in late April to distribute to eligible entities.

Qualifying applicants must show that the CARES Act funding is needed to cover an unforeseen COVID-related expense that incurred between March 1 and Dec. 30 of this year or for a budgeted expense that exceeded expectations because of COVID.

Applicants who receive CARES Act funding must spend it by Dec. 30.

As of this week, Tulsa County commissioners have approved funding applications totaling $83.9 million, including $2.7 million for the county’s new 911 call center, according to county records.

The Sheriff’s Office currently pays the city of Tulsa approximately $72,000 a year to use its 911 center, according to the city’s contract with the county.

All three county commissioners approved $2 million for the project this summer, and on Monday, in a 2-1 vote, they allocated another $700,000 for the project.

“It was agreed upon very early on that this was certainly a COVID-related issue, therefore would fall under the guidelines of the CARES Act,” Regalado said.

County Commissioner Ron Peters cast the lone dissenting vote Monday.

Peters said he voted for the initial $2 million allocation based on the Sheriff’s Office’s explanation for why the new facility was needed but wanted more details before he could approve the additional $700,000.

“They told us that they had a limited number of operators and that they would be exposed to the COVID virus by being in such a big crowd and we need to get our own space (so) we don’t lose people and not be able to answer the calls,” Peters said.

Commissioner Stan Sallee said it became clear that the new facility was needed after the Sheriff’s Office and Tulsa Area Emergency Management Agency indicated that “there had been issues due to COVID” at the city’s 911 Center.

“As COVID issues came up it became a concern that to adequately serve the taxpayers of Tulsa County, to have an appropriate 911 center that is efficiently equipped with personnel that can social distance in this environment, that we had to make some changes,” Sallee said.

Sallee said the Sheriff Office’s initial proposal was unanimously approved by the county’s CARES Act review committee.

Commissioner Karen Keith was not available for comment Thursday, and the Tulsa Police Department declined to comment for this story.

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