The Communications Unit is the link between the citizens who need law enforcement assistance and the officers who respond to the citizens’ requests. Dispatchers are trained to listen to callers, extract specific information about the situation and the caller and relay that information as quickly as possible to the officer, all while keeping the safety of the caller and the officers.
Once a call is received by the Communications Unit, the dispatcher determines what type of crime is occurring and enters the call into the Computer Aided Dispatch System. This system prioritizes the calls based on the severity of the crime and the threat to others. Calls that are given a priority 1 status, the highest status given, are dispatched immediately and assigned to the closest available officer to ensure the fastest response time. This protocol is established to ensure a safe and proper response. Calls that are not occurring at the time of the call or have not just occurred are given lower priority.
In 2009 alone, the Yearly Call Total was 557,412, with over 74,000 911 calls during the year.
