Longtime Sequoyah County 911 director David Slaughter has resigned his position after 15 years serving the county.
Greg Smithson, who retired from the Fort Smith Police Department after more than 21 years and has worked for Sequoyah County 911 for the past 2½ years as a dispatcher, is serving as the interim director until Slaughter’s replacement is named.
“They called to ask if I would try and help them out until they figure out what’s going on. I’ll try to keep things moving,” Smithson said of the call he received last Friday to step into the vacancy.
And he understands the importance of the 911 system.
“It’s vital to our community. What do we do if we don’t have it?”
And Smithson is doing what he can to keep things going.
“It was pushed on them pretty quickly,” he says of the 911 board. “You’re never prepared for something like this. We’re just going to keep it running and make sure it’s done right.”
The 911 office fields all emergency calls initiated in the county for 21 fire departments, Pafford EMS and all law enforcement except Sallisaw Police Department.
Last Monday was Smithson’s first day on the job, and high on his list of priorities include staffing, the recently expanded 911 coverage for the county and a $125,000 remodel and update of the offices “to ensure the county’s 911 center is ADA-compliant,” Slaughter had told the Sequoyah County Commissioners in July.
“We’ve got a lot going on right now,” Smithson said. “Our main focus now is we’ve got to keep the county covered. Take one step at a time. It’ll be a challenge.”
And stepping into the job that Slaughter held since February 2010 has given Smithson an appreciation for what the position requires.
“People don’t realize how much one person does. David did a lot,” Smithson said. “Until you sit down and start trying to figure it up, that man did a lot of stuff. I’m already seeing. He didn’t let anybody else help him, he just did it. And it never did seem like he was that busy.
“But I’m finding out he did this, this, this, this,” he said, counting on his fingers. “Where do you get the time? Some people are able to make it look easy.”
Although he’s still trying to settle into his new responsibilities, Smithson will not commit to saying he will pursue the position on a full-time basis.
“Maybe after I see what’s going on here, I may not want to go back to dispatch,” he said.
“I’ve got a job to do here. If we do things right, we’ve got nothing to worry about. We just do what we’re supposed to do. We take care of the public. That’s our No. 1 goal. We’ll just try to figure out how everything works. It’ll take a little time, but we’ll get there,” Smithson said.
Smithson, who also worked for the Sequoyah County Sheriff ’s Office for a time, did “a little bit of everything” while a patrolman, detective and internal affairs investigator at FSPD. He said he and Slaughter knew each other from when they were both at Fort Smith, and recalls that “my first death investigation as a detective, I worked with David.”
And now Smithson is leaning on the experience he’s gained during the past 25 years.
“It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks. We’ll make it. We’ve got good people,” he said. “We’ll try to get them through to see where we go from there. I’m just trying to help them out any way I can.”
