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Ellis County buys Motorola Smart Transcription for 9‑1‑1 dispatch to improve records and multilingual support
Summary
Commission approved a five‑year purchase of Motorola Smart Transcription at a county cost of $7,950, citing benefits for dispatcher training, call verification and one‑way translation for non‑English callers; state grant and 9‑1‑1 council support will cover most costs.
The Ellis County Commission approved a five‑year agreement to add Motorola Smart Transcription to the county's 9‑1‑1 dispatch capabilities.
Jeff Ridgeway, the county communications director, told commissioners the Kansas 9‑1‑1 Coordinating Council offered the service as optional and would host key servers; a state grant would cover 70% of costs for participating PSAPs. Ridgeway said Ellis County's share for all five full seats over five years would be $7,950 and that the expenditure falls within the 2024 budget.
Ridgeway outlined potential benefits: the service transcribes calls into text, can serve as a visual verification tool for caller‑provided addresses, can one‑way translate non‑English callers into text for dispatchers, and may aid training by providing a transcript to compare to dispatcher notes. He cautioned that the service can be sensitive to background audio and that any transcripts would be subject to public records law and may be redacted as appropriate.
Commissioners voted to approve purchase order (PO 7843) for the service on a motion and second. Ridgeway said fuller testing and use cases will determine the extent of long‑term benefits.
