County plans for new emergency operations center

County plans for new emergency operations center

Written by James Twine & Cathy Kincade Thursday, 07 September 2006

In an effort to keep up with its increasing population and the demand for efficient emergency services, Williamson County plans to build a combined communications and emergency operations center.

The center will house the county’s Emergency Medical Services offices, the Office of Emergency Management, a training facility, an emergency operations center, and the county’s 9-1-1 communications dispatchers.

After a national search and intensive interviews with top candidates, Gary Oldham was named program director and began working, Aug. 1.

Oldham brings with him more than 25 years of experience in emergency services and has been involved in similar projects throughout the country.

The goal of this project is to establish a facility that will have a “big picture” view of routine and large scale emergency incidents and events, and allow for a more rapid, coordinated response from all involved agencies, improving response time and overall delivery of public safety services.

The Need

Currently, the communication system in Williamson County consists of six separate 9-1-1 communication centers for the cities of Cedar Park, Leander, Taylor, Georgetown, Round Rock and Williamson County.

The county must update its emergency radio services because Motorola will not support analog systems beyond December 2008, and the system is already under a heavy burden trying to service the growing population of Williamson County, which is expected to increase by 10 percent each year. The radio system will be upgraded from an analog to a digital system by January 2008, which will meet federal mandates and improve communications interoperability not only within Williamson County, but with Austin and Travis County, as well as other agencies in the region.

“There is a trend around the country of regionalization and consolidation of public safety communications and other aspects of emergency services delivery,” Oldham said, “and an increase in information sharing and the efficient allocation of resources. We don’t have immediate knowledge of available resources of other cities and entities and there isn’t any visibility of the big picture. Our new facility can help eliminate that situation and we will have much more seamless delivery of public safety services.”

In a centralized 9-1-1 facility, a larger pool of dispatchers is available in a time of high volume or crisis.

“Having increased depth of resources and coordination between agencies, I think, is a huge advantage and you don’t have 9-1-1 calls being passed down the line to another agency,” Oldham said.

In 2003, the City of Austin and Travis County built a modern centralized communications facility, Combined Transportation and Emergency Communications Center. Oldham said that the CTECC will work with the Williamson County center and they will serve as backups for each other in times of crisis.

The Process

In October 2005, Williamson County approved issuing Certificates of Obligation worth $48 million to fund capital improvement projects including $20 million for the emergency service and dispatch center construction and equipment.

Oldham says a needs assessment must take place to finalize the plans for what will be included in the facility and where it will be located.

The facility will be used as a command center for regional disasters and emergencies as well as facilitate training, meetings, and events.

“The facility will be built large enough to accommodate the county’s growth and agencies joining the project initially or in the future,” Oldham said.

The center will be available to all cities and fire agencies in the county.

Leander and Cedar Park Participation

The county’s dispatch services field calls for all EMS, fire and police for smaller municipalities in Williamson County and the county’s sheriff department. Cedar Park dispatches fire services to Cedar Park; each city dispatches its own police services.

Cedar Park and Leander officials want to learn more about the logistics and issues of a combined operating center before developing any opinions about their participation.

Both Jerry Williams, Leander fire chief, and Chris Connealy, Cedar Park fire chief, are interested in learning more about it, and what is involved in the concept.

“We cannot commit to anything until we can learn more about it, but we are certainly open to the idea,” Connealy said. “It may bring positive impacts, such as reduced time in call processing and the ability to increase the level of responsiveness of services.”

Connealy said that issues like impact on budget, and how the project will improve emergency services and public safety services need to be investigated.

“We certainly don’t want to regress in our services simply to join a regional entity,” Connealy said. “We want to have input on how the dispatch center is managed, how policies and procedures are enacted and to be able to determine the financial cost.”

Oldham understands that there may be hesitation in coming on board with the 9-1-1 communications center.

“Every city wants to have a good first contact with the public. It helps to have dispatchers familiar with the area and culture, but I believe these issues can be overcome,” Oldham said. “I expect them [residents] to receive an increased level of service from the public safety services, better coordination, reduced response times, and overall improvement of quality of service.”

Emergency dispatch center

Austin and Travis County Combined Transportation and Emergency Communications Center

Dispatching Center Staffing Models

Co-location model

• City of Austin and Travis County use Co-location model.

• Dispatchers from police, fire, EMS and county sheriffs are under one roof.

• Agency dispatchers work for their own agency and answer to their agency’s supervisors or managers. Being in the same center allows quick communication with one another.

• Emergency call goes into the center and is sent to appropriate public safety agency, the call then goes out to that agency’s personnel.

Combined model

• In the Combined model for a dispatching center, the dispatchers are employed by the center or county and are not associated with any particular agency.

• Dispatcher relays information to appropriate agency and their personnel.