Patrick Brandt, director 911 communications, reported to the Delaware County 911 board Tuesday that 911 emergency calls are down from previous years.

“It goes hand-in-hand with the alarms going through electronically,” he said. “Instead of getting all the phone calls live, it helps offset it.”

The county went live with automated alarms in August of 2016, Brandt said. The county took 1,666 fewer 911 calls in 2016 that it did the previous year.

Brandt said the busiest time of the day for calls remains to be 4 p.m., with 4 a.m. being the least. The busiest month last year was May.

“The county commissioners approved a contract with Everbridge Corporation on Dec. 26,” Brandt said. “We’ll be switching to them for community notification and getting rid of Code Red.”

Brandt said the county has used Code Red since 2008, but he decided it was time to make a change.

“After taking a review of other options that are out there we’re canceling our Code Red agreement and switching to Everbridge,” he said.

“Everbridge will do text notification for weather like we used to have years ago with Code Red, but the cost was higher,” Brandt said. “That will save us 4900 a year.”

Brandt said Everbridge will post to the county’s social media sites as soon as a weather alert occurs.

He also reported he was approached by a junior student at Village Academy, asking why the county isn’t registered with the phone application Pulse Point.

Brandt said the application alerts CPR trained person of a heart attack or of a non-breathing person in the near by area. That person can help the person in distress until EMS can get to them. He said he had not had a chance to research the application, but it was on his list.

Brandt said he needed to hire three people because between December and January lost three of the dispatchers. All left due to advancing their careers. One was going to school to become a police officer, one to be a paramedic and the other went to medical school.