Outfitting the new South Island 9-1-1/Police Dispatch Centre

As the summer turned to fall, the focus of construction work on the new South Island 9-1-1/Police Dispatch Centre in Saanich shifted to the building’s interior. E-Comm has begun installing furniture, fixtures and equipment throughout the entire centre. With substantial completion of the building’s exterior, the final construction push is underway, with crews focused on a few remaining items including landscaping and exterior siding.

“This state-of-the-art facility is just beautiful,” said E-Comm Board Chair Doug Campbell, after touring the construction site in September. “The workspace for our 9-1-1 call takers and dispatchers is bright and comfortable. I look forward to seeing the building come alive when our team moves in and begins operations to support the public and police on the South Island early next year.”

Once the Capital Regional District wraps up the final requirements for the building occupancy permit, it will hand off the building to E-Comm for additional technical and operational outfitting.

“The building construction is heading into the final phases with concentration on the exterior work including the security fence, curbs and walkways and completing the building siding,” said E-Comm Program Manager Brian Ackles. “Inside, we’ve started to put the required technology in place to support the new operation and we are on track to have everything ready before the end of December.”

In August, crews erected the main radio tower that will serve the new centre. E-Comm’s technology team is working closely with representatives from CREST—the company responsible for managing the radio network used by South Island police agencies—to ensure that the system will be connected and fully operational at the new centre.

Crews completed the server room’s fit out in September, allowing technicians to establish a secure network connection between this centre and E-Comm’s call-taking and dispatch centre in Vancouver. This means both centres can seamlessly communicate with each other.

As the new South Island 9-1-1/Police Dispatch Centre amalgamates 9-1-1 call-answer and police dispatch services for Victoria, Saanich, Central Saanich, Oak Bay Police and local RCMP detachments, E-Comm has been working with all these agencies to develop a staff training program and a consolidated list of policies and procedures for handling calls. From a caller’s perspective, nothing will change for South Island residents when the new centre opens in early 2019. They’ll continue to call 9-1-1 when they need police, fire or ambulance service.

Once the consolidated centre is fully operational, it will handle an estimated 95,000 emergency 9-1-1 calls annually. In 2019, E-Comm will be answering 99 per cent of 9-1-1 calls in B.C. between its two centres in Vancouver and Saanich.

Project updates, images of building renderings, construction videos and photos are available on the Capital Regional District website.