This is the Warren County 9-1-1 Communications Center building. It also houses the Office of Emergency Management, Office of the Fire Marshal, and the Fire Academy administrative staff and classrooms. It is located on the fire academy grounds directly behind the Warren County Vocational-Technical School on Route 57 in Franklin Township, just outside of the Washington Township border.

The communications center contains six radio dispatcher consoles, six call-taker positions, and a supervisor's console. Only four or five radio dispatcher positions, a call-taker, and the supervisor console are staffed at any one time. Each console is an exact duplicate of each other so that if any equipment problems arise, the console can be taken out of service and the operator moved to a free console. Operators Lee Frey and Chris Young can be seen in the above picture positioned at the PDSOUTH console which handles police communications for the southern end of the county.

Zetron encoders are used to alert volunteer fire and EMS responders. This equipment transmits a set of tones over the radio causing all "pagers" for a fire company or EMS squad to be activated. The tones are followed by a message describing the call and its location.

This is the supervisor's console. It contains an Ericcson radio control station, Zetron tone encoder, zetron voter panel, Dictaphone call-check unit, 9-1-1 ANI/ALI display, 21 inch computer monitor and personal computer for running computer aided dispatch (CAD) software, a CJIS/DMV lookup computer, a Digitize alarm console, and camera/VCR recorder equipment for site security.

At the top of this photograph is our Zetron voter display panel used to select which remote radio is used to transmit. Several of our radio channels are broadcast fron different radio towers located throughout the county and the closest tower to the responding agencies must be selected using this equipment. Beneath the voter panel is a Dictaphone call-check unit used to play back any telephone conversations the operator had at the console. All incoming and outgoing telephone calls are recorded.

A computer is used to control the Mobile Data Terminals (MDT) that several of the municipal police departments have in their vehicles. This system allows them to perform driver's license and vehicle plate lookups using a laptop computer in their patrol car. Car to car messaging and electronic mail is also featured in the system.

A 160 foot tall radio tower is located directly behind the communication center building. Radio transmissions and transmitted and received via the microwave disk located at the top of the tower to towers located in Mansfield, Blairstown, and Harmony. The microwave is used to operate the broadcast radios and receivers located at each of these remote tower sites so they can be located closer to the agencies they serve.