The Centralia Police Department is now operating out of their new Communications Center.
Police Chief Greg Dodson says the cut-over on Wednesday ends two years of preparation and work to convert the old City Clerk’s office in the former City Hall into the larger dispatch center.
“From the time we originally placed our 911 Center where it was, the number and quantity of equipment and everything involved with it have outgrown the space. So this has been a great need in infrastructure and amount of service we can provide the citizens of Marion County.”
Dodson says the changeover has also led to the newly enhanced 911 system going online.
“Next Generation 911 was built to reflect the more mobile-based society we have become. Everybody has transitioned from regular landline phones to mobile phones and devices and Next Generation 911 is meant to capture the same data we got from the regular landline, from mobile devices, as well as to accept text messages and video. It’s geared toward the data-based society.”
Dodson says there is also now a place for a third communications officer to work during extremely heavy call volume.
The new enhanced 911 equipment cost a half-million dollars. A grant picked up half the cost and the Marion County 911 Emergency Phone Board the other $250,000. Dodson estimates the cost of renovation at $200,000. The cost was kept down by city crews doing some of the work.
The former vault in the clerk’s office has been converted to a new secure location for keeping case records.
The safe in the former Centralia City Clerk’s office has now been converted to a safe records storage area. Photo Bruce Kropp.
The old police dispatch window opening onto the police station lobby is now boarded up.
