Connections Plus employee Robert Ingle terminates telephone wires in the equipment room of the Vicksburg Police Department for the renovated Ellis Building next to the VPD Monday.(Melanie Duncan Thortis The Vicksburg Post)

[7/15/2003]Speaking to a human at the Vicksburg Police Department may be difficult as the department fires up its new automated phones, but when the kinks are worked out, police officials say it will work better for callers.

“Basically, it’s a way we can better serve the public,” said Deputy Chief Richard O’Bannon. He conceded, however, some callers have been frustrated during the transition to the $10,000 electronic answering machine.

“The biggest problem is people aren’t familiar with the menu, and a lot of people are not willing to listen to the menu, so they’re confused as to where they want their call to go,” he said.

All emergency calls and incident reports should still be placed to 911 where a dispatcher will answer.

Previously, when someone called the police department’s number (636-2511) and needed to file a report, the receptionist would transfer the call to the 911 center. “The callers were having to tell their story twice,” O’Bannon said.

Under the new system, callers are advised to press 1 to make such reports to be transferred to 911.

Another bonus of the new system, O’Bannon said, is when a resident needs to directly contact a specific officer.

“A lot of times a police officer will take a report out on the street, but may need some follow-up information,” he said. “Before, we had to call out another officer to generate a report on something he knew nothing about or something he knew very little about.”

O’Bannon said the person can now leave that information on an officer’s voice mailbox, and officers will be required to check their messages.

“Hopefully this will make us more efficient in getting things done,” he said.

The greatest volume of calls to the police department are emergency calls and calls for court services, said Sgt. Mike Bryant, supervisor of the services division for the police department.

Calls for court services, which include calls to check on status of a fine or a court case, to post bail or check court dates are the second-highest number of calls the department receives. Court services can be reached by pressing 2 from the automated menu.

Bryant said workers from the Jackson communications company that installed the system would be at the department this week, ironing out problems.

Bryant said the main problems were routing calls within the system and, expected things to run more smoothly by Friday.

The automated system is the city’s first. Fire department and administrative lines are still answered by people on duty.