They handle 1 million emergency calls a year. Now dispatchers get some high-tech perks

Fresno’s new high-tech, $2 million 911 center was introduced to the public Wednesday by Police Chief Jerry Dyer, who boasted it makes the city’s emergency response system the most advanced in the Central California.

The center, built in the basement of police headquarters by AT&T and other contractors, will supercharge the department’s ability to handle the nearly 1 million calls police receive yearly, Dyer said.

The construction required a major overhaul in the basement floor of the red brick police headquarters, built downtown at Fresno and M streets in 1959. The project was paid for by state 911 Emergency Telecommunication Funds. Among the features Dyer touted in his introduction:

▪ Maps linked to land-line calls, so dispatchers immediately know their location.

▪ Automatic map plotting to locate most cell phone callers.

▪ Updated callback for dispatchers to reconnect with lost or dropped calls.

▪ Thirty-four consoles where on-duty dispatchers work in nonglare lighting with the ability to micro-adjust work station heating and cooling.

The chief praised department dispatchers while introducing the center, saying he believed that answering life-or-death calls on a routine basis can easily be as stressful, or more so, than being a police officer in the field.

“I really am proud of our dispatchers,” Dyer said.

“Now we have to fill some seats,” he added, mentioning two recruiting sessions early in July to fill vacant positions.

This story was originally published June 28, 2017 at 3:32 PM with the headline "They handle 1 million emergency calls a year. Now dispatchers get some high-tech perks."