The Ville Platte City Council met for a special meeting Monday to vote to move police dispatch calls to 911. The council voted unanimously for the motion, which was requested by Police Chief Neil Lartigue. Mayor Jennifer Vidrine said this was not a council request.
Lartigue said this will save the department $100,000 annually. “The situation we inherited, we have to make the cuts where we need to keep building on patrol to provide the citizens with protection. 911 can do dispatch at a fraction of the price,” he said. Lartigue also said there might be one person losing their job, but there are some data positions that can be filled with the dispatchers if they want to stay on. Citizens can still go to the police station to use the phone in case of an emergency. He said he will get with the 911 director to finalize a date, but he hopes to get it started in the next couple of months.
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Nancy Duplechain
Associate Editor