County commissioners this week approved the creation of six new positions in the sheriff’s office, with the goal of improving communication and response time.

The positions, which come from an agreement between the county and several cities that will foot the bill, are one piece of a plan to increase services to the cities the sheriff’s department covers, said Lee Howell, chief deputy for the Denton County Sheriff’s Office.

The plan to improve productivity for all the agencies that receive dispatch services has been in the works for two years.

Officials recently came up with a plan to create a shared system that included creating interlocal agreements with all the agencies served and charging them a fee based on workload measures that reflect how those agencies utilize county communications and operations.

“It’s something new; we have never charged a fee for communication services,” Howell said. “It is something that is a trend in many modern, cutting-edge communications systems countywide or regional — for other agencies to share in the cost.”

About 63 percent of department resources go to serving area communities, Howell said.

While the county has grown, the same number of dispatchers has been operating out of the same center, which has long been outgrown, Howell said.

One example he gave was that one dispatcher may have to keep up with as many as 150 personnel on duty in the county.

With the additional dispatchers, that number likely will be cut in half.

Howell also said the county has never had a true fire dispatcher and officials are looking to implement that along with the new hires.

He praised the Commissioners Court for supporting the improvement plans and granting funds to help with the various projects.

This latest interlocal agreement with the area cities will provide some additional funding to provide personnel to keep up with the workload, Howell said.

The contracts would be renewed annually.

While she voted for the positions, Precinct 3 Commissioner Bobbie Mitchell expressed concern over how the cost would change if a city decided to pull out of the agreement.

Howell assured her that the impact would be negligible and that he did not foresee any city pulling out of the agreement for a long time, if at all.

Precinct 1 Commissioner Hugh Coleman, also a supporter of creating the positions, said the cost may go down if more cities sign on.

He was going to try to persuade officials from Pilot Point and Sanger to take part in the agreement this budget year.

Other departmental improvements include a new computer-aided drafting system and the purchase of another program that helps dispatchers go through a series of steps that ensure residents will experience a quality 911 call, he added.

Officials also are designing a new communications center, and Howell hopes construction can begin on in 2012.

With communications being an extremely important part of public safety, Howell said, “we wanted to do the best we could to improve and keep it to where we can make a safe environment for everyone out there.”

BJ LEWIS can be reached at 940-566-6875. His e-mail address is blewis@dentonrc.com .