In light of the gravity of the COVID-19 virus situation and the additional work and stress that will fall on our members and others in the public safety community, we are pausing our NPSTW contest. When we re-open it in the future, all stories already posted in the 2020 contest, as well as their “likes” will be maintained.
Our communication center is the hub to Good Samaritan Hospital Emergency Services. These dedicated and professional dispatchers are always prepared and ready for whatever their shift may throw at them. Not only do they dispatch …
In January, a new center manager, in February a new supervisor, two new trainers and two new trainees. Then in March, the implementation of a brand new CAD!
Our facility has been completely remodeled. We have combined Police, Fire, and 311 into one Center.
Jingles, the Elf on the Shelf, reported seeing the team of Brentwood telecommunicators celebrating with a Secret Santa, Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest and potluck.
As a start up agency this staff has worked vigilantly to ensure all are kept safe even though they do not have the technology that many other centers have.
Our county became one of the 1st (2 counties on the same day adopted resolutions) counties in New Mexico to adopt a resolution acknowledging PSTs as first responders.
While we have not yet completely staffed our center, because of their willingness to be flexible and their dedication our staff has increased significantly and all of the employees are much happier at work.
After the multi-year accreditation process, our department earned its first accreditation from CALEA on May 4, 2019. Only a few weeks later, we celebrated the completion of our $2.8 million Training Center on May 30, 2019.
On 3-8-2020 our center received a call for a mass shooting at a MC club. Our center fielded a large amount of calls during the incident and into the early hours of the morning.
The morale in our center was already very low, so losing two long term employees brought it down even more. Now, only a few short months [after a new director was hired], our center is on the road to recovery.
Deputy K9 Niki was involved in an injury accident with her handler and did not survive her injuries. Four of our more seasoned telecommunicators worked this incident.
Our communications center was struck by lightning during a storm in the summer of 2019. We had no CAD, no mapping, no phones, no radios.
We plan on moving into a new center by mid-March 2020 and will be hosting an open house during NPSTW 2020.
This year we’ve had the most staff retention of any year I’ve worked here in a decade. We started the year with only one more person than we ended it with.
Three years ago we were at our darkest place as a center and they’ve worked so hard to rebuild bonds, push themselves as leaders and create a family atmosphere that we once had.
Although we are small, what we lack in population we make up for in acreage. Our human to bovine ratio is roughly one to one, which makes for some very interesting calls.
After years and years of using a “homegrown” CAD that was designed and built by our very own IT genius, Southwest Central Dispatch has a state of the art CAD/MCT/RMS/etc!
Employees assigned to the Montgomery County, Maryland 9-1-1 Emergency Communications Center will have successfully completed the call take consolidation process in April 2020.
This year our center became accredited through WILEAG. To do so, the whole center had to get involved.
CMHIP had an ancient phone system. I mean ANCIENT. This system was so old it wasn’t equipped to show caller ID!
The Bullhead City 911 Communications Bureau dispatchers, with the Fort Mojave-Mesa Fire Department, as part of the CPR Life Links program initiated a CPR protocol that is structured to get bystander CPR started faster.
May 4th, 2019, our department lost an officer in the line of duty. Like so often occurs in such chaotic situations, our spirits and souls were greatly tested.
In August 2019, the center suffered a cyber attack from ransomware that crippled all technology and software. The Communications Center worked without CAD for 22 days.
The individuals pictured were recognized for their professionalism and efficiency in handling a traumatic amputation call.
The lightning strike completely disabled our dispatching capabilities, by damaging our radios, telephones (911 and non-emergency lines) and computer CAD systems.
Our department has gone through some major changes over the past 4 months. Our top 2 positions both have new faces and we implemented a new CAD and RMS software.
Moving a live 911 operation environment from one location to another is no small accomplishment.
Last year, Tuesday, September 17, 2019, around 9 a.m. the City of Houston was hit with Tropical Storm Imelda with 43 inches of water. Our dispatchers did a phenomenal job directing officers to high ground, open roads and finding alternative higher ground to move school buses.
We have undergone 2 administration changes and have had multiple employees leave. The five employees who have stayed have worked countless hours over overtime and teach the new hires the proper procedures and techniques.
CPE changed my life and renewed my passion for communication. In September, I accepted a position as the Operations Manager at Covington-Newton County 911. I’m honored to work with great people who have a lot of passion for their community and the 911 Center.
While working to integrate some needed upgrades to a few of our systems this year, we are reviewing and rewriting our policies and going over every detail of the systems upgrades with a fine-tooth comb.
Between July 2019 and January 2020 we have had to deal with the unexpected deaths of two of our staff and worked a line of duty death of one of our police officers.
This past year was filled with projects, the most involved one being the acquisition of a new 911 phone system and the formation of a 911 network with our neighbor to the west.
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