Consolidation of 911 Dispatch

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

The Tallahassee-Leon County Consolidated Dispatch Agency (CDA) was created pursuant to an Interlocal Agreement entered into on May 31, 2012 by the City of Tallahassee, Leon County, and the Leon County Sheriff’s Office. The CDA’s governing board is comprised of the County Administrator, Tallahassee City Manager, and the Leon County Sheriff. A management committee comprised of the Tallahassee Police Chief, Tallahassee Fire Chief, Leon County EMS Chief, and a Sheriff’s appointee review and make recommendations regarding the overall operations of the CDA. The CDA provides Leon County citizens with significantly enhanced dispatch services compared to the previous separate dispatch operations that were performed independently by the Tallahassee Police Department (TPD) and Leon County Sheriff’s Office. The primary benefit to the public under the CDA is that an emergency call for assistance is now received, processed, and dispatched to all appropriate responding agencies (TPD, Tallahassee Fire Department, Sheriff’s Office, and Leon County EMS) in a single coordinated process, as opposed to past practices in which emergency calls were often transferred (sometimes several times) between the separate dispatch agencies, with each dispatch agency sometimes dispatching responding units to the same incident in separate processes. The consolidation of public safety dispatch operations helps to ensure that the closest available units respond to an incident. Ultimately, the creation of the CDA has facilitated shorter and more appropriate responses to emergency incidents, significantly enhancing public safety services available to Leon County citizens.