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Ripon Police hire three new dispatchers due to added Lathrop coverage
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The Ripon Police Department announced Tuesday the addition of three new dispatchers in preparation for providing such services to the Lathrop Police Department.

Megan Humphries, Jennifer Hoyt and Lindsay Hammond are now part of the Ripon Emergency Communication Center, a three-city dispatch services of the Ripon Emergency Communication Center that also consists of the new Lathrop Police Department and the City of Escalon Police Department.

They were hired in June and will spend several months in the Dispatch Training Program, said Ripon police in their social media posting.

“We are still in the process of hiring one more dispatcher in order to be at full staff,” police added.

Ripon police expanded services to Lathrop after participating in a feasibility study conducted two summers ago.

Lathrop, in 2021, was preparing to move towards establishing their own police department after being under contract with the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Department for years, determining following the completion of the Lathrop study that Ripon was a good possible fit to handle dispatch services.

“While both cities discussed the then current status of the Ripon Emergency Communications Center, internal studies were conducted by the Ripon Police Department Administration and current dispatch staff to determine the needed personnel and upgrades to the computer infrastructure and communication radios to make the transition work,” Ripon police said in the June 29 post.

As a result, it was determined that the current dispatch staff – based on the reviews of call volumes, incident types, and police officer staffing – would have to double in size in order to handle the extra work load.

The cities of Lathrop and Ripon entered into an agreement back in October to provide dispatch services via the Ripon Communication Center – those services with the new Lathrop Police Department kicked off about a week ago.

In order to contact Lathrop police, call 209.647.6400 (administration), 209.249.2000 (emergency, non-life-threatening calls), 209.249-1800 (non-emergency calls), and 911 (life-threatening emergencies).

Additional information can be obtained by logging on to www.ci.lathrop.ca.us/police.