 Briefing Room |
 Support Services Bureau |
When Fort Lauderdale was incorporated in 1917, the City had one town marshall and one telephone for communications. The phone was located at the railway station, where the town marshall had to conduct his business. Eighty Five years later we have a state of the art Center providing 9-1-1, computer and radio communications for 700 police and 280 fire employees.
In 1925, communications at the new police station remained rather primitive although the number of telephones in the City increased. One was even placed in the police station to serve both fire and police personnel. During the 1920’s the only communications improvement was a red light on the water tower at Broward Blvd and Victoria Park Road. When a police officer was needed, fire personnel would turn on the light, which could be seen all over the City, and an officer would go to the station to handle the complaint.
Dispatch console (circa 1940)Finally, in 1936 radios were installed in the police vehicles and the use of the red light was discontinued. This began our use of modern communications methods. Major modifications were made to the Communication Center in 1992 to allow for the installation of a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system. The computer system allows call takers and dispatchers to receive and transmit information electronically to units on the street.
A year later the new 800 MHz trunked radio system became operational. This radio system is managed by Fort Lauderdale and provides radio capability to the Cities of Pompano Beach, Oakland Park and Wilton Manors. This radio system supplies the end users with the ability to communicate with other public safety units from all over the county. This mutual aid capacity enhances officer safety and interoperability between agencies on major events.
2001
Call takers
Typical working console
Dispatch consoleTechnology changes in the last decade led to the need to update the CAD system. In 1999, the Center went on line with a new Intergraph CAD. This system provides the Department dispatchers with mapping, mobile data and automatic vehicle location information.
In 1999 the City of Fort Lauderdale entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Broward Sheriff’s Office to provide staffing for the City’s Communication Center. Sixty City Communication Center employees were transferred to the Sheriff’s and continue to function as the critical link in the chain of public safety services.
The Center has three specific functions. These are call taking, dispatching and teletype.
Ninety percent of police incidents begin with a call to the police communication center. There the call taker answering an incoming call, records the emergency information from the caller, determines the nature of the call and places this information into the computer system. The computer assigns the entry an event number and the call is routed to one of the dispatchers for action. Each year the Police Department receives and process over 220,000 9-1-1 calls. It will also handle close to 300,000 non-emergency calls for assistance. These calls range in scope from request for travel directions to delayed larcenies. If the phone call requires a police response the pertinent information is entered into the CAD and forwarded to the dispatch section.
Of the roughly 500,000 phone calls received each year, 166,000 require a police response. Once the information is received in dispatch, the dispatcher will evaluate the call, match existing resources with service needs, and dispatch the appropriate unit. This could be the unit recommended by the computer (as determined by zone proximity) or a unit selected via a manual process of the dispatcher. For calls which are "in-progress" or calls which are of an emergency/life threatening nature, the dispatcher can also broadcast the information to all units simultaneously regardless of the district they are assigned to.
The teletype section handles inquiries on lost/wanted person, stolen vehicles and property. Employees in this function work with both the Florida Crime Information Center (FCIC) and the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) to enter vital information needed to conduct criminal investigations. Each year this Department processes approximately 206,000 requests to these agencies and receives over 5,500 hit confirmations.
The center is normally staffed with an average of 13 communications operators and a shift supervisor during a work shift. In addition to answering phones and processing calls for service, dispatchers are responsible for monitoring patrol activities and overseeing the safety of approximately 60 to 70 officers and service aides during a given tour of duty.
Broward Sheriff’s Office Communications personnel are cross-trained to work any position within the Communications Center. Duties range from answering phone calls received from citizens in need to preparing and sending teletypes to agencies all over the world. This is a highly technical profession, which requires extensive individual training. Currently, the Sheriff's Office offers a training program which includes complaint taking, 9-1-1 emergency call handling, computer aided dispatching, and radio dispatching. During the training period, the trainees are sent to classes for Basic Telecommunications services, 9-1-1 call handling techniques, Florida Crime Information Center computer (FCIC) certification, and other computer classes dealing with the Intergraph computer system.
