Jared Hunt, Daily Mail Capitol Reporter, Charleston Daily Mail (West Virginia)

Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper isn’t buying West Virginia State Police assurances that it will absorb the costs of a proposed statewide, non-emergency 311 phone system.

After expressing initial qualms over the plan, the state Public Service Commission has instructed the state police to conduct a 30-day notification period to allow cities, counties or other organizations the chance to protest the request.

Carper, who has called an emergency meeting of the county Metro 911 board at noon today to allow state police officials to detail the proposal, said he didn’t think the county would go along with the 311 system.

“I can’t imagine our board being in favor of it, and I’m absolutely opposed to it,” Carper said Monday.

State Police officials approached the PSC in August and asked to use the 311 phone number to create a statewide, non-emergency system that the public could use to contact law enforcement.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved the 311 number in 1997 as a way to reduce the number of non-emergency calls made to local 911 departments. That was one of the factors leading to the State Police’s request.

“(The 311 number) is not an emergency line,” state police spokesman Michael Baylous said Monday, “and would also work if you’re in some small town or county and didn’t know the number to the state police detachment and you needed to call the detachment to ask any basic law enforcement-related question.”

Since the 311 number received federal approval, Parkersburg has been the only West Virginia city to ask the PSC for permission to use it. While that city applied in late 2010, it has not moved forward with implementing the system.

After receiving the initial notice from the State Police in August, PSC officials seemed hesitant to approve the plan.

According to an initial recommendation from PSC utilities analyst David Kennedy, the FCC intended for the 311 number to be used by either municipal or county agencies, not on a statewide basis.

State police approached Frontier Communications to function as a central hub and automatically direct calls to local detachments, but Kennedy noted that Frontier does not provide service across the entire state.

Kennedy said state police would have to work with other local providers to negotiate call transfer plans.

Baylous wouldn’t comment on specifics of the proposal Monday.

But in the agency’s response to the initial PSC recommendation, State Police communications section director Luke Blatt cited the state’s rural nature and its few large municipalities and their limited funding. Those factors support the statewide use of the 311 number, he said.

Blatt also said in his filing that state police would cover the costs of the plan.

“The West Virginia State Police is already willing to absorb the substantial cost of providing the 3-1-1 abbreviated dialing code to all citizens of the State of West Virginia,” Blatt wrote.

Despite those claims, Carper said counties likely would end up absorbing some of the costs down the road. He said there is precedent for his concerns.

“About four years ago, the Legislature took $1 million out of counties’ 911 money and gave it to state police because they answer 911 calls,” Carper said.

He said in an era of finite resources and tightening budgets, the county can’t stand to have any more funds cut from the state level – especially when the sheriff’s department handles 90 percent of law enforcement-related 911 calls.

Carper also said he didn’t trust the phone companies to maintain a standard, flat rate to provide the 311 service.

He is concerned about more than just the cost. He fears the public could become confused over what constitutes a non-emergency call.

“What if we’ve got seven people calling 911, and two or three call 311?” he said. “You’re going to have multiple, unnecessary, duplicative dangerous dispatches.”

Having worked on creating an integrated county 911 system since 1987, Carper said he didn’t think a new, statewide 311 system was a move in the right direction.

“I think this is a huge step back when another police agency is going to take law enforcement calls,” he said.

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