The Sacramento Police Department has advanced into the second phase of a 5-year deployment plan in which its Police Dispatchers are directly answering increased numbers of cellular 911 calls. Starting October 13, 2014, the department added two additional wireless towers to accept 911 calls from cellular phones. This phase of the deployment plan brings the total number of towers to six. The first phase began in September 2013 and involved four towers.
The two newly deployed cellular towers are in the areas of Center Parkway and Valley Hi Drive, and McClatchy Park in central Oak Park. This augments existing coverage in parts of South Natomas, all of which routes calls directly to the Police Department’s Communications Center. All other wireless 911 calls in the city of Sacramento will continue to be routed through the California Highway Patrol Communications Center before being transferred to a police dispatcher.
The goal of the wireless deployment program is to improve 911 answer times and ultimately decrease emergency service response times for wireless callers. Eventually, Sacramento Police dispatchers will take all cellular 911 calls within the City, saving valuable time – time that can be critical in an emergency situation.
The Sacramento Police Department would also like to remind you to register your phone numbers and emails at Sacramento-alert.org. All public safety agencies in Sacramento, Yolo, and Placer counties have partnered to have a state-of-the-art community notification system to alert residents about emergency events and other important public safety information. This system enables us to quickly provide critical information in a variety of situations, such as severe weather, unexpected road closures, missing persons and evacuations of buildings or neighborhoods. Sacramento-Alert went live December 1, 2013.