Dane County, Sun Prairie Partner to Improve 911 Service

February 22, 2016
Joshua Wescott 608-266-9069
County Executive

Dane County and the City of Sun Prairie are teaming to streamline emergency response under a new partnership that began last week.

 

Starting February 15th, all 911 calls coming from home phones and cellphones in the City of Sun Prairie are ringing directly at the Dane County 911 Center. Additionally, under the new agreement, Dane County is alerting the Sun Prairie Fire Department of all emergency calls requiring a fire response.

 

Prior to the new partnership, Dane County only received cellphone 911 calls from Sun Prairie and dispatched Sun Prairie Emergency Medical Services ambulances while the City’s Police Department took 911 calls from home phones and provided dispatch services for the Sun Prairie Fire Department.

 

“By working together, we are making these critical services work smarter and improving emergency response times,” County Executive Joe Parisi said. “Calls are now answered in and help is started from one central location and that’s good for public safety,” he added.

Automated computer connectivity between the Dane County 911 Center and the City of Sun Prairie allows the city to continue to dispatch police to emergencies in the community.

 

“There is nothing more important than providing public safety services to our community,” Sun Prairie Mayor Paul Esser said. “By switching certain dispatching services to the County 911 Center, it allows us to take advantage of the County's ability to intake 911 calls and better allows the Sun Prairie Communications Center to dispatch police officers. This provides the Sun Prairie Communications Center an opportunity to focus on the many services it provides to our citizens and for city operations. We appreciate Dane County and the 911 Center working with us to bring these enhancements to the residents of Sun Prairie.”

 

The Dane County Public Safety Communications Center answers about 190,000 911 calls per year and has 77 communicators who answer a wide range of calls and then dispatch the appropriate public safety responders for the 34 townships and most of the more than two dozen cities and villages in Dane County.

 

In addition to Sun Prairie, the Cities of Monona, Fitchburg, Middleton, and Stoughton also maintain dispatch centers providing some call taking and dispatching services for their communities. ###