Lexington is combining its public safety operations into one facility. The move is expected to create more efficiency for day-to-day police and fire calls and disaster response. The official ribbon cutting was Thursday.
About a million calls annually come to emergency 9-1-1 and government assistance LexCall workers. Staff at the new 15 million dollar Public Safety Operations Center will now handle all those calls. Plus police, fire, and emergency management officials can be side by side.
Division of Emergency Management Director Pat Dugger says that can be a time saver during a disaster. “Gives you the ability to gain situational awareness much quicker. Having 9-1-1 just down the hall you can get more field information quicker from what’s going on out in the field,” explained Dugger.
Plans some 8 years ago to build a new operations center were scrapped in favor of re-using an empty city building once used to house juvenile detention.?