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It’s cine a.m. You are. awakened by the sound of someone trying to break into your house.You call the sheriff’s department and moments later a deputy arrives on the scene.Or perhaps you are driving down a small country road and you witness an automobile accident.In a matter of .a few short moments, a highway patrolmen, a unit from the nearest rescue squad and, if necessary, a fire truck all arrive for assistance.Not long after these vehicles arrive, a wrecker is brought for assistance.fiver; wonder who is at the nucleus of activity in most such emergency situations?Joe Freeman, Fred Barnes, Ben Smith, Thomas Smith, Bobby Culp and Ronnie Thompson.These are the men who staff the Robeson County emergencycommunications center located in the jail building.Freeman supervises* the staff of dispatchers.All dispatchers, with the ex- • ception of Culp, have at least a year’s experience with the Lumberton City Police. Department communications■ center! -“We dispatch a car and stay on the phone until the deputy* gets there. About one hundred percent of the time we have toplay doctor and calm them down,” says assistant supervisor Fred - Barnes of the dispatching process.Sheriff Malcom McLeod explains proudly the communications operation whichwas begun Just last month.According to Sheriff McLeod and Robeson County ‘ Fire Marshall Mutt McNeill, the new center allows contact with 219 mobile units in fire departments throughout the county.John Cox of the LumbertonRescue Squad points out that thecentra* enables communications ; with the city’s rescue squadunits as well as those in St.Pauls, Rowland, Red Springs,and Parkton,McLeod, in describing the operations, tells of the importance of the machineallowing contact with the Police Information Network (PIN), and with approximately 198 other law enforcement units in the state.He explains that the PIN machine also gives the county contact with the National Crime Network artd Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington.this machine probably receives most use in making license checks. That is, the dispatcher can send a license number to the network office and all information on file will almost immediately appear on a television screen of sorts. ‘If a copy of the informationFreeman and Sheriff McLeod discuss the extensive possibilities of the County’s hew communications center,encyJoe Freeman, communications center supervisor, and Fred Barnes, assistant supervisor, check their list of emergency units1—1*ft* Kobesonian, Lumberton. N.I ., Monday, April is, 1»74
Newspaper Details
Robesonian
Lumberton, North Carolina, US
Mon, Apr 15, 1974
Page 10
Full Page
Clipped by
William B.
NC, USA 27 Aug 2019
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