Kane County Emergency Communications (KaneComm)

Operation

Kane County Emergency Communications (KaneComm) is a multi-jurisdictional dispatch center responsible for the deployment of several Police, Fire, and Medical agencies located within Kane County. KaneComm personnel are tasked with all of the incoming emergency and non emergency calls for assistance from citizens residing in these jurisdictions.

Functions

Telecommunicators field multijurisdictional calls from the public and determine the nature and location of the incident in order to quickly and efficiently deploy police, fire, and medical units as necessary. KaneComm serves as a 24 hour a day continuous operations function responsible for the support of one county sheriff's department, nine police departments, and seven fire departments in addition to serving as a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). Telecommunicators must maintain contact with all of the units on assignment while consistently disseminating information and updating their status and location. Staff must monitor several complex radio frequencies while operating a variety of communications equipment. Simultaneously; information must be entered and retrieved from an assortment of electronic data files. These include; but are not limited to, missing persons, wanted persons, orders of protection, registered sex offenders, stolen weapons, and stolen vehicles.

Facility and Equipment

KaneComm is located at the Kane County Government Center Campus at 719 Batavia Avenue in Geneva IL. The Communications Center is home to 6 multifunctional state of the art dispatch terminals. Each Telecommunicator has the capability of utilizing all of the communications equipment and software applications at any given time from any workstation within the facility. Each console is outfitted with 5 flat screen LCD monitors. One of the five is solely designated for the MCC-5500 radio console. This technology enables interactive touch screen capabilities used to monitor a total of 21 police and fire radio frequencies. The Telecommunicators can communicate with public safety entities both locally and statewide using a touch screen, foot pedal, or wireless headsets. All of the data related to calls for service as well as the activity of the field units is input via the New World Systems Computer Aided Dispatch application. The numerous phone calls handled daily by KaneComm are managed by the Intrado Viper phone system. This system works in conjunction with the New World Systems CAD to map the approximate location of 911 callers based on the information provided by Phase II Wireless technology. This technology is particularly helpful when it is necessary to locate a citizen who is not familiar with his or her surroundings.

Personnel

KaneComm is staffed with a total of 18 full time Telecommunicators (which includes three Shift Supervisors) and one part time Telecommunicator. They are supported by administrative personnel, the Radio System Administrator, Deputy Director, and the Director of Communications.