Look Inside Puyallup Emergency Dispatch Call Center

When Puyallup Dispatch absorbed Sumner's emergency response organization last month, it started a new era of cohesiveness and communication in emergency services across the plateau area. Now, police from Bonney Lake, Sumner, Puyallup and Metro Animal Services can communicate on the same wavelength, literally.

When a 911 or animal control call comes from Bonney Lake, Sumner or Puyallup, it is answered in a central communications center in Puyallup. The bunker-like brick building is nestled in an unassuming corner on the Pierce College campus.

"Most of the college kids don't realize what this place is, they assume we're campus security," said Communications Center Manager Tim Hannah. "They come up to the door and try to report that their car has been broken into, or something like that."

With a security fence that surrounds the perimeter, cameras that focus on the parking lot, and door buzzers that only grant permission from the inside, the simple act of walking up to the door and knocking is out of the question.

The call center is active around the clock. If Puyallup experiences a power outage, the generators in the back room of the call center will keep the lights on for more than a week. The generator is tested every Tuesday to make sure it’s properly functioning, and the computers and radios continue to work even if the power goes off and the generator kicks in.

When there is a local emergency or animal control situation, the 911 call is picked up by one of the four dispatchers on duty in Puyallup. They all sit in one large room and manage multiple monitors at the same time. Each dispatcher covers a specific terrain -- one answers calls from Bonney Lake and Sumner, another answers calls from Puyallup and a supervisor and support dispatcher pick up the rest. Each computer screen they watch serves a seperate purpose -- one tracks where callers are located and another follows police locations. The other monitors can be used to retrieve informational records, locate warrant information or map a location quickly. One dispatcher will answer a distress call and try to stabilize a situation, inform police and medics of the specifics while pulling up corresponding records and necessary documents simultaneously.

"This job is defintiely not for everybody," said Glenda Carino, a former dispatcher who is now the head of communications for the City of Puyallup. "It is more than a job, it's a full-time career."

Dispatchers work 12-hour shifts at the call center, so to help make the setting more comfortable, the facility has a small kitchen area with an elliptical machine and an outdoor barbeque. The dispatchers work three days on, three days off, and supplement their hours with volunteer days when high call volumes are anticipated, which can mean everything from the Puyallup Fair to a snowstorm.

When considering the transition, the Sumner City Council requested that six of their eight senior Sumner Dispatch employees would be offered jobs in Puyallup. (Two employees knew when they were hired that the job was not permanent.) That request was honored, and Sumner also requested that 911 calls from Sumner be answered by a Sumner dispatcher. Hannah said that is not guaranteed.

“Everyone is trained to do everything. We put them into the normal rotation after they were hired,” said Hannah. “Due to vacations, personal time and other scheduling conflicts, we can’t always guarantee that someone from Sumner will answer the dispatch call, but the dispatchers share information so the best service is always provided.”

With multiple agencies on board, the Puyallup dispatch can now call on Bonney Lake officers to check a Sumner location if they are nearby already, and vice-versa. With blurring town lines across Pierce County, the cohesiveness of multiple agencies is important.

While the Sumner City Council was almost reluctant when it approved the merger last year, it was a logical step in providing more services to the Sumner community. When Sumner was a young town in the late 1800s, it had one dispatcher for emergencies who also doubled as the town jailer. In today's world, it seems in Sumner's best interests to communicate across the region.

“[Transitioning to Puyallup dispatch] makes our city more efficient,” said Sumner Mayor Dave Enslow. “If one of our officers runs into a situation at 2 a.m., I’d rather every police officer in the area heard him if he had a problem.”

They now operate on 800 megahertz and share frequencies with police officers from Thurston County to Graham.

At 800 MHz, the frequency can only be picked up by a scanner capable of connecting to a high frequency. If there is a sensitive, high-emergency call, SWAT activity or a potential HIPAA call, the frequency is trunked and can only be accessed on privileged networks.

The dispatch center has an array of television security cameras on the walls, one of which is fixated on the Sumner City Hall building entrance and the other on the Sumner BAC/holding cell room, as requested by the city in the contract. After hours, officers are buzzed into the city hall building only after they show their badge to the camera and receive clearance to enter. Dispatch also watches a camera fixated on the Sumner Sk8 Park – they can adjust the camera to focus on different points around the park and notify police if any criminal activity is taking place.

While Puyallup dispatch does have radios with East Pierce Fire and Rescue, the fire department is "reluctant" to switch over, said Hannah. They have a couple Puyallup radios in their possession but maintain their own networks due to HIPAA laws.

To prepare for the transition, Sumner police received new dispatch radios leased from Puyallup. Hannah called the transition "seamless."

“The radio is identical, except for the voice on the other end,” said Hannah.

Even with a tight budget, the need to expand the cramped one-story communications building is evident. The call center has plans to expand an extra 700 square feet, with a tentative groundbreaking date in April. If the plan moves forward, construction will work around the existing structure, careful not to disturb the delicate wirings and complicated systems that keep East Pierce functioning safely.