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Lake County confirms sheriff's office staffing changes; 911 dispatch moved to Klamath County
Summary
The Lake County Board of Commissioners heard updates Jan. 22 on sheriff's office staffing changes and a recent dispatch transition to Klamath County, and were told the county's new microwave system should yield near-countywide emergency radio coverage by November 2025.
The Lake County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 22 received a staffing and operations update from the sheriff's office that included a recent appointment and a change in 911 dispatch services. Deputy Daniel Tague told the board he was appointed to serve out Sheriff Mike Taylor’s term through Taylor’s Jan. 31 retirement and introduced Mike Patterson as the officer who is replacing Undersheriff William Behan, who retired Jan. 16, 2025.
Tague said the recent 911 outage originated with service provider Lumen and was not a failure of the county’s new dispatch system. He told the board Klamath County took over dispatch services for Lake County on Dec. 30, 2024, after the Town of Lakeview could no longer afford to sustain its dispatch center. Tague also said the county can now receive text-to-911 messages in an emergency.
Commissioner Barry Shullanberger said the newly engineered microwave network serving Lake County is expected to be completed by November 2025 and that, once finished, it should provide roughly 97–99% of the county with emergency radio coverage. Deputies, he and Tague said, report receiving more detailed incident information from the current dispatch setup than previously.
During public questions, Tague said the sheriff’s office is preparing a hiring list for the coming fiscal year and that filling positions in northern Lake County is a priority to avoid pulling deputies south except for specific calls. He said the office hopes to assign a School Resource Officer for Paisley and North Lake schools and that a deputy currently in training is expected to reside in Paisley.
A public question about juvenile vaping drew a response from Undersheriff Mike Patterson, who said state law had changed and described vaping and cigarette use among teens as lawful under the revised rules; Community Corrections Director Jake Greer characterized the legal changes as connected to allegations of racial bias and referred to them as “BIPOC rulings.” The board and sheriff’s office clarified their role is to enforce Oregon law as written.
Next steps identified in the meeting: the sheriff’s office will finalize the hiring list, continue coordination with Klamath County on dispatch operations, and work with county technology partners on completing the microwave backbone by late 2025.
