FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 3, 2019
Loudoun County, VA- Last night the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution in recognition of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week which will be celebrated later this month acknowledging the great work of our telecommunications’ personnel.
As part of the ongoing improvements in 911 services, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) is also pleased to announce that in coordination with Loudoun County Combined Fire and Rescue System (LC-CFRS), the consolidated Emergency Communications Center (ECC) will begin transitioning to universal call takers. The Loudoun County ECC, a 24-hour-a-day provider of emergency communication and 911 services to the Loudoun County community, processed over 284,000 calls in 2018. This transition will eliminate the need to transfer 911 calls between LC-CFRS and the LCSO and further speed up response times to emergencies.
Rather than implementing the results of a 2018 County commissioned study which recommended the construction of an entirely new facility (anticipated cost of $15 to $20 million), the LCSO and LC-CFRS diligently collaborated over several months to address and resolve concerns regarding dispatch delays by simply improving the current call taking and dispatch process. This joint solution includes cross training for call takers, aligning similar chains of command, and adopting identical work schedules.
“The current ECC facility is state of the art, only a few years old, and is already consolidated,” said Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman. “I am glad that we were able to work through this issue, achieve a sound solution at a fraction of the cost, and save our taxpayers over $15 million.” The cross-training program will be instituted incrementally and will further ensure continued accountability, training and professionalism.
The Universal Call Taker program developed by LCSO and LC-CFRS staff was approved on consent by the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors (BOS) in February 2019, and was approved by the full BOS on April 2, 2019.