Folks calling the Oxford Village Police Department will notice something different from now on.

Depending on the nature of the call, the person on the other end of the line will answer by saying either “Oakland County Central Dispatch” or “Oakland County 9-1-1.”

That’s because the local dispatch center is closed and the county is now answering and dispatching all 9-1-1 and police-related calls in the village.

The switch was scheduled to occur Nov. 30 between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.

“We’re hoping this is a seamless transition for the callers,” said Mel Maier, the county sheriff’s chief of communications. “There’s a lot of people involved, a lot of moving parts, but we’re feeling really good.”

“We’re ready for the change,” said village Police Chief Mike Neymanowski, who stressed he and his officers will “still be here, doing our main job, keeping this community safe.”

The Oxford Village Council voted to switch to county dispatch in June and approved a contract in October.

“We’re hoping that what this will do is actually bring us into a new era of cooperation between the sheriff’s office and the village,” Maier said.

Residents who wish to contact the village police department for non-emergency purposes have two choices.

They can still use the traditional number (248) 628-2581 or they can call the county’s non-emergency number (248) 858-4911. Both will be answered by county dispatch.

Even though “the local number still works,” Maier said he would like to see an “eventual transition” to the county number for simplicity’s sake.

“We want to get to a more universal number,” he said.

The loss of the local dispatch center means there will no longer be someone at the police station 24-7 to handle citizens who walk in with requests or need assistance.

According to village Manager Joe Young, the station’s front desk will be staffed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

However, outside those hours, citizens will use a call box mounted by the station’s main door to contact an officer. With the simple press of a button, they’ll be able to call county dispatch and request an officer be sent to the station.

“It’s like a hands-free phone,” Maier said. “We have call boxes at all of our (sheriff’s) substations and all the other police departments we dispatch for that aren’t open 24-7.”

Village Councilman Erik Dolan noted the call box connects people directly with a 9-1-1 operator, not a phone tree, and every call is initially treated as if it’s an emergency.

“They will then evaluate the purpose of the call and appropriately funnel it (to) where it needs to go,” he said.

“Every one will ring in as a priority call with location information (available to the call-taker) because we know the value that a call box has to someone who’s expecting to walk up to a police department and talk to an officer,” Maier said.

Near press time Tuesday afternoon, Young informed this reporter the new phone line for the call box is “being delayed by AT&T” and it might not be activated until Dec. 13.

So far, the transition from local to county dispatch has been a positive process, according to officials. “Things have been going great,” Maier said.

According to Maier, Neymanowski has been “gracious” and the village council has been “actively involved” and “very effective” throughout the process. “We have never had a more engaged council,” he said. “They met with us biweekly. That was unique.”

He was particularly impressed with the village’s dispatch transition committee members – former Councilwoman Rose Bejma, village attorney Bob Davis, Dolan, Young and Neymanowski.

“They have had great questions and they were really able to help zero in on what’s really important for the village,” Maier said. “It made my job easy. We’re all on the same page.”

“The county feels that this has been an extremely smooth transition,” Dolan said. “I would concur.”

Dolan admitted in the beginning, he was “skeptical” about how things would go, but “once we got rolling, everybody ended up on the same page.”

“Ultimately, I’m very satisfied,” he said. “We’re in a good place right now.”

Neymanowski was of the same mind.

“The meetings went well,” he said.

“Change is not always easy,” said Neymanowski, but, “I think we’ve all accepted the fact it’s going to happen.”

As a result of the transition meetings, he’s “confident” about how well the county is going to handle his department’s dispatch needs.

“Mel (Maier) and I have worked well together through this and prior to that,” the chief noted.

Even though Dolan was a strong proponent of switching to county, he doesn’t expect things to be perfect right off the bat. “We know it’s a transition – there will likely be mistakes,” he said. “There are always mistakes in everyone’s dispatch centers, however, we’re looking to minimize them as best as possible.”

“We’re hoping communication between the two organizations has improved to the point where when those mistakes and errors do take place, we have the ability to reach out to one another and correct what led to them, if they’re correctable,” Dolan said.

Maier noted one of the advantages of Oxford’s switch is village police officers and sheriff’s deputies will now be able to talk to each other directly over the radio as opposed to having to go through dispatch.

This will greatly assist them in situations where they need to back each other up.

“We’re hoping that will speed up communication as well as make it more effective and keep building those relationships,” Maier said.

Oxford Village’s contract for county dispatch runs through March 31, 2018 and will cost a total of $41,533 for 16 months of service.

That’s significantly less than the $338,300 the village had budgeted to continue operating its own dispatch center for the 2016-17 fiscal year. Of that total, $300,000 was coming directly from village taxpayers.

As a result of the switch, the village agreed to provide severance packages to each of its three full-time, unionized dispatchers.

Each of them is receiving $19,730, which equals six months in base wages, plus six months of health insurance or a payment of 80 percent of the cost in lieu of insurance or a combination of the two.

In return for closing the local dispatch center, the village will receive $50,000 from the county’s Courts and Law Enforcement Management Information System (CLEMIS).

CLEMIS has been offering a $50,000 incentive to any community that eliminates its 9-1-1 center and contracts with another agency, be it county or any other agency.

Council’s decision to contract with the county was purely a cost-saving measure and not a reflection on the performance of village dispatchers. “That has been my point all along,” Dolan said. “It’s not a decision based upon occupational performance. There’s been no dissatisfaction with the (village) dispatchers whatsoever.”

Dolan, who’s spent 20 years as a public safety officer for Oak Park, noted he would “always prefer (to have) an in-house communications center” because of the local knowledge it possesses, but the village’s financial picture dictated otherwise in this situation.

“This was simply a fiscal decision,” he said.

County dispatchers are educating themselves about village landmarks, points of interest and “areas that might not have addresses,” according to Maier, and arrangements are being made for them to do ride-alongs with village officers to help familiarize them with things.

County dispatch is no stranger to Oxford.

The agency has been dispatching all of the township’s police calls since 2000 and all of the fire and emergency medical calls in both the township and village since April 2014.