Raleigh-Wake County Emergency 911 Communications Center Celebrates 40th Anniversary

Wake County

Thu Jan 12 at 09:15 hours by John W. Franks

RALEIGH – The Raleigh-Wake 9-1-1 Emergency Communications Center will celebrate its 40^th anniversary today.

Since its founding in January of 1972, the center has rendered essential public safety communications that have substantially contributed to the apprehension of criminals, suppression of fires and saving of lives; not only within the City of Raleigh, but throughout Wake County and our participating municipalities as well.

For the past 40 years when you dial 9-1-1, you reach a trained telecommunications professional ready to assist you and send the help you need.

During the past four decades, the center has seen growth in demand that mirrors the growth in our community. In the period between 2000 and 2010 alone, the number of emergency incidents dispatched grew by more than a third. Now, more than a million telephone calls are received or made by the staff each year.

Over the course of history, RWECC, as it has come to be known, has played an integral part in mitigating emergencies, both large and small. Included among the more noteworthy incidents are:

Crash of a commuter aircraft near RDU in 1988
Hurricane Fran in 1996
ConAgra explosion and fire in 2009
Killer tornadoes of 2011

Severe weather events are particularly challenging as they directly impact the most citizens and place greater demands upon the center. The 6,386 9-1-1 calls received in a 24 hour period during Hurricane Fran still stands as a record, and this year employees were honored as “Heroes of the Year” by the Greater Raleigh Chamber for their efforts during the April tornadoes. During the peak of this storm, emergencies were being dispatched at a rate of more than one every five seconds.

Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications has also placed great focus on maintaining and improving professionalism within its ranks. They were the first 9-1-1 center in the State of North Carolina to be accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), and are an Accredited Center of Excellence (ACE) for emergency medical dispatching. In 2010, the training academy and in-house curriculum was certified to be Project 33 compliant by the Association of Public-safety Communications Officials. (Project 33 is a set of benchmarking standards which assure that communications centers meet the key elements of subject matter, delivery, instructor qualification, and a variety of other applicable topics.) In the same year, RWECC received the prestigious “Horizon Award” from the same agency for their innovative use of technology.

This year, Mayor Nancy McFarlane has proclaimed January 12, 2012 as the 40^th Anniversary of the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications to honor this milestone.

For more information: Barry Furey, Director, Raleigh-Wake County Emergency Communications Center, 919- 996-5015 or barry.furey@raleighnc.gov.

RWECC on the Web:

http://www.raleighnc.gov/safety/content/Departments/Articles/911Center.html – Our official City of Raleigh webpage. See our FAQs, Center history, accreditations & certifications, statistics & reports, and much more!
http://incidents.rwecc.com/ – Near real-time traffic incidents map from the RWECC computer.
https://twitter.com/#!/RW911 – Near real-time traffic tweets.
https://twitter.com/#!/RW911_PR – Timely tweets from RWECC on relevant issues concerning public safety communications.
www.Facebook.com – “Raleigh-Wake County 911” Provide feedback and comment on the operations and service of the Center.