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Supervisors open to 911 dispatching system changes
Board votes 3-2 to continue talks with Ceres, Oracle
Dirkse on Jan 28 2025
Stanislaus County Sheriff Jeff Dirkse lobbies county suoervisors to allow him to go with a new dispatch and records management system being crafted by Oracle. - photo by Contributed

MODESTO — The future of emergency dispatch services in Stanislaus County remains uncertain.

Sheriff Jeff Dirkse’s efforts to partner with the city of Ceres on a new cloud-based dispatch center survived another round of debate Tuesday with the Board of Supervisors.

After a 75-minute presentation by Dirkse and his team, and a nearly two-hour back-and-forth with the board, the supervisors begrudgingly voted 3-2 to allow the sheriff and Ceres more time to crunch the numbers and bring back a more detailed financial picture regarding the proposed computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system.

Currently, the Sheriff’s Office is part of the Joint Powers Authority that utilizes the SR911 dispatch center, which services multiple county agencies.

The city of Modesto’s police and fire departments, also part of that JPA, are looking to switch to the CentralSquare CAD system. Dirkse said he feels CentralSquare is inadequate for his department’s needs. In addition to dispatch services, the sheriff also has to integrate a record-management system (RMS) and the jail-management system (JMS). 

“I do not intend to stay there,” said Dirkse, referring to the JPA.

Dirkse wants to go with software giant Oracle, which is looking to enter the law enforcement space and came searching for a partner in California.

The switch to Oracle, which says it will tailor its product to fit the specific needs of Dirkse’s office, would bring about an $11.6 million savings to the county, according to Dirkse.

Apart from that, Dirkse said, the system would go a long way in helping deputies do their jobs, resulting in added safety for them and the public.

Dirkse has made it known that should the board force his hand, he’d consider moving ahead with suing the county.

Supervisor Channce Condit, whose District 5 includes the city of Ceres, was the most vocal in his support of moving ahead with more exploration.

Supervisor Channce Condit of Ceres supported not closing the door on the sheriff.

“I don’t see any problem with allowing the sheriff to establish a plan and to also allow him to negotiate and see what he can come back to us with,” Condit said. “I wholeheartedly believe this is worth exploring. We obviously have a vast support from our Stanislaus deputies who are here today, the sheriff. You guys are the expert in this realm. I am a simple civilian. If you are telling me this is going to make us more efficient as a department, if you’re telling me this is going to make us safer as a community and help you do your job to a better and higher standard for our Stanislaus County residents, I don’t know why we wouldn’t consider that. And then you add these eye-popping saving figures it just seems like a no-brainer.”

Supervisor Terry Withrow was untrusting of Dirkse’s numbers, saying, “How do we make a decision when we have guesses for numbers?”

Supervisor Vito Chiesa said he wants to see Dirkse’s numbers vetted. He also shared his “core concern” about the extra time it would take under Oracle to transfer 911 calls relating to fire and ambulance service from the cities which contract for police services – Hughson, Waterford, Riverbank and Patterson.

“We need to have a public discussion of that component,” said Chiesa.

Sheriff Dirkse has stated that transfer times would be a negligible few seconds

Mani Grewal, whose District 4 includes the city of Modesto, engaged in the longest back-and-forth with Dirkse and raised serious concerns.

“You’re saying this JPA isn’t working and I’m discouraged by that,” Supervisor Mani Grewal told Dirkse at yesterday’s meeting, “because if one of the major partners says the JPA isn’t working, then honestly how is it going to work?”

Grewal was agreeable to negotiating with the city of Ceres but also doesn’t want to prolong the decision making.

“If we’re not going to stay in the JPA then it’s not fair for us to hold back Modesto from proceeding with how they want to proceed,” said Grewal.

Eventually Grewal voted with Condit and Terry Withrow (District 3). Vito Chiesa (District 2) and Buck Condit (District 1) were in opposition.

Daniel Phillips, union president for local dispatchers, spoke in opposition of Oracle. Phillips and other dispatchers weren’t impressed with Oracle when it tested the system in November 2023.

“When I first got to Stanislaus Regional 911, a sheriff’s lieutenant took me aside and told me about Oracle,” said Phillips. “I was sold. Then they installed it on a terminal at SR911 to let us mess with it, and I was very underwhelmed.”

Sheriff’s Deputy Capt. Tori Hughes, however, pointed out that the version that SR911 dispatchers test-drove 15 months ago wasn’t the same version that exists today.

“They (SR911) were never supposed to be in the system at that moment,” said Hughes. “… the configuration hadn’t taken place. So the system, of course, on their end was going to look completely different because it had never been configured properly. Therefore, it didn’t look like it worked because were in the early stages of design and communication.”

Ceres Mayor Javier Lopez and Vice Mayor Daniel Martinez, along with Capt. Trent Johnson of the Ceres Police Department, were on hand at the meeting.

“Are we prepared to move forward to have discussions? Yes,” said Mayor Lopez.

“I know the numbers look fantastic,” said Martinez. “They haven’t been vetted by the city of Ceres yet, but if those align after our staff has an opportunity to research it, then this is a slam dunk, and I don’t see why this partnership with the city of Ceres wouldn’t work out.”

An estimated one-time cost of $1.4 million to retrofit Ceres to take on county dispatching which could be covered partially by state Office of Emergency Services funding.

Sheriff Dirkse reiterated his belief that SR 911 offers nothing more than a “forced one-sized-fits-all solution that really doesn’t work great for anybody. He said “because of varied budgets, it’s never been funded and maintained the way that it should be and it’s never been run the way that it should be for 25 years.”


Jeff Benziger contributed to this report