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Schuyler County Sheriff’s Office Tests 911 Centers Evacuation, Failure Procedures

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Earlier this month, the Schuyler County 911 Center, in conjunction with the Schuyler County Sheriff’s Office, Schuyler County Emergency Management Office, and the Chemung County 911 Center, successfully tested the 911 Centers’ evacuation and failure procedures.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, during the installation and switch over to a new facility generator, the 911 Center would be without any electricity, forcing operations to be done remotely and off-site. This opportunity was used to test the 911 Centers’ evacuation, failure, and emergency operations procedures. Staff were reassigned to different locations to perform the functions of the Schuyler County 911 Center, simulating a natural disaster, fire at the 911 Center, or a threat to the facility’s security, causing evacuation. Emergencies don’t stop occurring during these events. Careful planning must be done to ensure public safety concerns are met and emergencies are handled in a timely manner.

Using the latest communications technologies available to 911 Centers, staff were able to operate remotely in three different locations for 8 hours without the public or our emergency service partners being able to tell the difference. Dispatchers were staffed at the Schuyler County Highway Complex, where they could work as call takers and answer all administrative phone calls that ring into the 911 Center as well as our emergency alarm lines. The Chemung County 911 Center served as a backup point of operation for the Schuyler County 911 Center. Schuyler County radios are operable from their center and Verizon has the ability to switch our 911 lines to ring at their center when asked to do so. Two dispatchers were assigned to the Chemung County 911 Center, where they would assist the Chemung County staff in the 911 call taking needs for Schuyler County and serve as the primary fire and EMS dispatchers for Schuyler County. Three staff members were also assigned to Schuyler County’s Mobile Communications/Command Trailer located at the Sugar Hill radio tower site. These dispatchers would serve as the primary law enforcement dispatchers during the event and secondary fire and EMS dispatchers if needed. Finally, two other staff members were assigned to the security of Schuyler County’s primary 911 Center site, where they provided security for the building.

Once the Schuyler County 911 Center was back online and power was restored, their primary function was to return the Schuyler County 911 Center to service and begin taking calls while the remaining staff demobilized from the remote sites.

Photo: Schuyler County Sheriff’s Office (Facebook)
Photo: Schuyler County Sheriff’s Office (Facebook)

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