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Communications Bureau - 9-1-1 Center

Contacts

EMERGENCY DIAL 9-1-1

Non-Emergency Police–Fire–EMS
610.437.7751

Non-Emergency TDD
610.435.5995

Administrative Contacts

Daniel E. Warg
Assistant Chief of Police
425 Hamilton Street
Allentown, PA 18101
610.439.5915
Daniel.Warg@allentownpa.gov

Michael D. Hilbert, ENP
Superintendent of Communications
City of Allentown / Bureau of Communications
1304 Fairview Street Allentown, PA 18102
610.437.7771
Michael.Hilbert@allentownpa.gov

Dennis Wetherhold
Technical Services Coordinator
City of Allentown / Bureau of Communications
1304 Fairview Street Allentown, PA 18102
610.437.7520
Dennis.Wetherhold@allentownpa.gov

Steve Ridgway
Training Coordinator
City of Allentown / Bureau of Communications
1304 Fairview Street Allentown, PA 18102
610.437.8733
Steve.Ridgway@allentownpa.gov

Mission

The Operations Program of the Bureau of Communications is located at 1304 Fairview Street on the 1st floor. The Communications Center is the NERVE CENTER for public safety in the City of Allentown. The Communications Center’s primary function is to save lives and to protect the property of the citizens of Allentown. To accomplish this goal, it is the Center’s responsibility to receive and dispatch citizens’ requests for Police, Fire, EMS, Animal Control, and Parking Authority assistance, as soon as possible. 9-1-1 Dispatchers make every attempt to answer all telephones within three rings and dispatch all emergency calls within one minute from the time of receipt.

The Center utilizes Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) on all EMS requests. This is accomplished by the Shift Supervisors and certified dispatchers using a pre-formatted guide during the call taking process for all medical emergencies. After obtaining basic information about the incident and dispatching the appropriate assistance, instructions can then be relayed to the caller to provide medical assistance to the patient, until first responders arrive on the scene.

The Communications Center is the primary monitoring location for the City video surveillance network. The Center has the capability to view and control all 112 cameras currently in the system. There are also 8 video feeds from the PennDOT camera network and 4 video feeds from Muhlenburg College that are able to be viewed. The dispatch personnel utilize the camera system to monitor for criminal activities, verification and information enhancement for citizen reported complaints and for support of public safety personnel.

Other services the Communications Center provides are monitoring the fire alarm systems, both in City Hall and the Public Safety Building, as well as security alarms in City Hall. The Center is also responsible for City bureau and utility call-out notifications, during normal business hours in addition to after hours and weekends. 
 

2012 Workload

The Allentown Communications Center is responsible for providing services for the Allentown Police Department, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Fire Department, Allentown Parking Authority, and Animal Control. This responsibility includes answering and dispatching calls for service for these City agencies.

Calls Dispatched*

POLICE

119,686

EMS

14,528

FIRE

9,409

ANIMAL CONTROL

619

PARKING AUTHORITY

5,763

PUBLIC WORKS

1,519

TOTAL

151,525


*Dispatched calls are the number of calls actually given out over the air, and assigned a complaint number. This does not reflect the total number of calls received into the Communications Center. The actual number of calls into the Communications Center in 2012 was 232,510.