Partnership with NNSA, Lab, county
Laboratory emergency operations dispatchers and staff have some additional company in its new Emergency Operations Center at Technical Area 69. Last week, dispatchers from Los Alamos County’s Police Department began dispatch operations out of the EOC.
In the near future, Los Alamos Fire Department calls also will be dispatched through the Consolidated Dispatch Center.
The Consolidated Dispatch Center is a collaboration between the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Lab, and Los Alamos County, and it was funded through Cerro Grande appropriation funds. One of the goals of this new dispatch center is to have all of the emergency management functions under one roof with [the Laboratory], including the Los Alamos Police Department, Los Alamos Fire Department, Los Alamos County, and the Lab’s fire alarm system, which includes alarm testing and maintenance.
The three key players who contributed and worked aggressively to open the Consolidated Dispatch Center were Beverly Ramsey of the Emergency Operations Office (ADSFO-EOO), Robert (Bill) Gall, NNSA emergency manager and Wayne Torpy, Los Alamos Police Chief.
“We’re pleased to have them here and have the [Consolidated Dispatch Center] up and running and we’re looking forward to next summer when the dispatch center begins dispatching Los Alamos Fire Department calls,” said Gene Darling of ADSFO-EOO.
The Consolidated Dispatch Center includes all new equipment hardware and software. The software was designed by Intergraph Corp., which supplied the computer aided dispatch.
For the Los Alamos Police Department, this upgrade frees up some much needed space at the police headquarters in downtown Los Alamos, according to Los Alamos Police Department Capt. Wayne Byers. “This new system will provide an automated records management system,” he said, adding, “it will provide ‘intelligent’ technology to dispatch emergency resources, share important formation with responders, file reports from the field, and manage incident records and materials.”
There are currently two Los Alamos Police dispatchers on each shift, but Byers anticipates this number growing to provide more services for the future.
Another service which is scheduled to start Dec. 1 is the enhanced 911 system, which will provide a street address, room number (if applicable), and name of the caller to the emergency (911) operator.
Los Alamos Fire Department vehicles are equipped with GPS technology that displays a caller’s location and other important information on the computer aided dispatch system in the Consolidated Dispatch Center. This will help managers know where their assets are during a fire or other emergency. Currently, the Laboratory is assigning street addresses to all Lab roads and numbers to each Lab building. When this is accomplished, the enhanced 911 system will receive the necessary location information for emergency calls from the Lab.
