Butler County and Butler officials say things are running smoothly one year after the county 911 dispatch center started receiving all emergency calls in the city.

Butler Deputy Chief Dave Adam said city residents are becoming acclimated to the process.

“It’s coming around,” Adam said. “People are starting to understand to call 911.”

Steve Bicehouse, director of county emergency services, said there were no major problems since the change.

“The transition has been pretty smooth,” he said.

Rob McLafferty, county 911 coordinator, agreed: “We adapted well. City police has worked well with us.”

Bicehouse said the 20-percent increase in 911 calls at the dispatch center from 2015 to this year matched the anticipated number.

“It’s exactly what we predicted,” he said.

According to 911 records, there were 49,660 calls to 911 from January through June 2015.

For the same period this year, there were 59,707.

City calls jumped from 4,911 in the first six months in 2015 to 13,072 for the first half of this year.

“They’re the biggest increase,” McLafferty said.

The county added five part-time dispatcher posts last year and two full-time jobs in March to keep up with the increased workload.

McLafferty said all the posts are filled, but a couple of new employees still need to be trained, which takes six months.

“We can only train four people at a time,” McLafferty said.

Bicehouse explained there now is more information-gathering since the dispatchers now handle all types of calls for Butler.