Transparency will be priority

911 Advisory Board changes course, agrees Homeland Security does not allow it to be secret

Salesha Wilken Staff Reporter The Claremore Daily Progress Sun Aug 26, 2012, 06:15 AM CDT

CLAREMORE — The Rogers County E911 Advisory Board met Friday during a special meeting to determine if the umbrella of Homeland Security would apply to discussions related to the center.

After some review of the Homeland Security documents in reference to the 911 building and the activities of the 911 Center all of it does not fall under the Homeland Security Act, E911 Director Janet Hamilton explained.

“Portions of the information does, such as the 911 infrastructure and it’s routing, such as the critical flow of the 911 call and the critical points of contact for that 911 call that is specialized information,” Hamilton said.

The radio network and the radio infrastructure fall under the act. Only the placement of the equipment and the actual network itself, other items do not.

The standard operating procedures for the center as a whole do not fall under the act but certain items within those procedures may. Therefore those items would be protected.

Topics of the handling of specific incidents and the infrastructure would be covered.

The recording of the 911 calls and radio traffic will be handled by the district attorney’s office, according to Hamilton.

These items were the ones that Hamilton received information and clarification regarding the use of the Homeland Security Act.

After the meeting adjourned members of the audience that would not disclose ther names asked questions and made remarks regarding the use of the Homeland Security Act.

One man asked if the board could explain the issue.

“I think a lot of this was blown completely out of proportion and we needed to explain some things,” Commissioner Dan DeLozier said. “Secrecy has never been the issue.”

One of the comments made by the public included the statement that “the information that comes in, is public information and I hate to see anything that is not already available become unavailable in the future.”

Another member of the public said, “I should be able to go down to the county clerk’s office and get copies of the records.”

DeLozier explained that the information is available and will remain available to the public.

As the discussion continued the public comments centered around maintaining public access specifically to the money that is being spent on the 911 Center. The public comments were best summarized by the following comment, “I guess the concern that I am expressing is that I want to make sure that the records that are open to the public remain open to the public.”

To that comment DeLozier responded by saying “they will.”

“I believe everyone feels the same way,” DeLozier said.

None of the public speakers provided their names as their comments were delivered after the meeting adjourned.