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STEVE THOMPSONIf people need aid when the deputies are out and about, the Sheriff's Office will respond to the substation's callbox.
The Pasco Sheriff's Office is installing callboxes at its substations throughout the county to make it easier for people to get help during emergencies.
The substations are designed to give the agency a presence in communities and provide local deputies a place to work and file reports from, sheriff's spokesman Doug Tobin said Friday. But the substations often are not staffed while those deputies patrol and respond to calls.
"The overall concern was that someone needing help would see the sheriff's star at one of these substations, but not be able to get it because there wasn't a phone," Tobin said.
The first two callboxes are installed and ready to use at the substations in St. Leo's Town Hall and San Antonio's City Hall. Additional callboxes are to be put in the substations in Hudson, Holiday and Land O'Lakes within the next two months.
The callboxes are activated by pressing a button. Calls go to the Sheriff's Office dispatch center, which can help dispatch a deputy, ambulance, fire truck or other emergency service.
"It would be the equivalent of making a 911 call," Tobin said. "We would send a deputy out to investigate, so if someone needed help and couldn't speak, they would still receive it."
The callboxes cost $618 each and are being paid for with forfeiture funds from selling property seized after drug convictions, Tobin said.
"This is a new feature that we're pretty excited about."