When you call 911 in Charlotte or Mecklenburg County, your call is processed by highly-trained Telecommunicators in one of the nation's best equipped public safety answering point (PSAP). Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Emergency Communications Center (ECC) serves more than 650,000 residents within a 530 square-mile area.

Each year, the bureau's staff of approximately 117 civilian personnel process more than 1,016,000 calls, the majority of which are 911. Telecommunicators work around the clock (24-7) in eight hour shifts. There are three shifts per 24-hour period, scheduled according to peak calling periods.

The ECC moved into the new Police Headquarters building in September of 1996. Today the ECC is a model for PSAPs around the country. It features 17 VESTA intelligent workstations from Plant Equipment, Inc. (PEI), which are enclosed in ergonomically advanced consoles from Watson Furniture Systems. There are 13 dispatcher positions featuring CENTRACOM Elite Gold Series radio dispatch consoles.

911 calls are processed on VESTA intelligent workstations. It automatically identifies and displays the telephone number and location of calling parties. It also recognized non-voice communications such as TTY devices used by speech and hearing impaired.  In most cases, the center can also locate wireless callers 

VESTA provides the ECC's Telecommunicators with
     - instant recall recording,
     - auto dial back,
     - unlimited speed dial
     - and more.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police are dispatched by the ECC on a CENTRACOM Elite Gold Series Radio Dispatch Control Center utilizing an 800 MHz trunking system. This radio system utilizes a powerful graphical user interface (GUI) that tracks key information and critical functions by icon instead of text.

Interested in a Career in Communications? Request Information

By using a reference database program at each workstation, Telecommunicators can quickly relay important information to responding officers. The  workstation is designed to allow Telecommunicators to multitask with VESTA and the ECC's Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) program.  In October 2002, the ECC installed a new CAD system provided by Intergraph Public Safety.

"We believe that we have one of the most advanced emergency communications centers in the country and we are proud of the service we provide the citizens and visitors of Mecklenburg County," says Jimmy Jones, acting manager of CMPD Communications. "Importantly, all of the components of the system work together to provide us with a platform that helps save lives and protect property, and it will allow us to add new technologies as needed to maintain and improve the level of service in the future."