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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, S ep te m be r 20 ,2 01 8 | 34343 Proudly Supporting The Halton Regional Police Michelle Cooper, Agent for Insurance & Financial Services 43-1545 Cornwall Road Oakville, On L6J 0B2 Bus: 905-826-4900 Our success is a direct result of our commitment to providing you the very best in customer service. is becoming: There's a term that Staff Sgt. Dave Cross uses to de- scribe the people who work in the Halton Regional Po- lice Service communica- tions bureau: The first first responders. The team of civilian em- ployees who take incoming calls, and handle dispatch and route calls between po- lice officers are often the first point of contact when a member of the public re- ports trouble - putting them in a crucial role. "It's a challenging area because of what we're deal- ing with on a daily basis," said Cross, who manages the team of about 62. "It is a very demanding role they undertake, day in, day out." Until now, the bureau has been working out of cramped conditions in the police service headquar- ters built in 1991. But with the new Halton police headquarters opening Sept. 24, the communica- tions team will work out of a bigger, brighter room with a reorganized seating plan, designed to help dis- patchers work together better and plan emergency responses faster, says Cross. "The current position- ing isn't optimal for some of the processes," said Cross, who has been managing the bureau for about three years. "As things prog- ressed over time in this fa- cility, and our space was becoming a premium, a lot of the workstations didn't get integrated in the right areas. This move is allow- ing us to put the dispatch- ers (for different parts of the region) in a better area so they can talk a lot easier among themselves ... If a call originates in Oakville but it's going to Burlington, we will be able to manage that easier." All 911 in Halton Region are routed through the po- lice communications cen- tre, which often will redi- rect calls to the fire depart- ment or emergency medi- cal services, depending on the nature of the issue. Calls to 911, however, are not the most common type of call the centre manages. Of 351,000 calls bureau staff processed last year, only 114,000 were related to emergencies. More com- monly, says Cross, people call with non-urgent police matters such as thefts. The expanded space in the new building will allow for more training, which staffers already undergo bimonthly in order to stay on top of constantly evolv- ing procedures and poli- cies. It will also make life at work a more comfortable experience overall, says Cross, with ergonomic workstations, better acous- tics and enough space that workers won't feel cramped. While most of these upgrades are focused on employee well-being, he says happy staff will be "projected outward" to bet- ter public service. "The big thing will be the internal morale and the wellness piece," he said. "You'd have to see our cur- rent facility and go over to the new one to see that it's like night and day." "Making sure they're well enough to be here, that they like coming to work, will reflect as far as the public interaction goes." 'FIRST FIRST RESPONDERS' GET BETTER DIGS IN NEW POLICE HQ The 911 communications centre at the Halton Regional Police Service's new headquarters is four times larger. Graham Paine/Metroland SAIRA PEESKER speesker@metroland.com NEWS COMMUNICATIONS BUREAU IS OFTEN THE PUBLIC'S FIRST CONTACT, TAKING MORE THAN 350,000 CALLS A YEAR BUREAU BASICS What they do: Handle all incoming calls from the public, including 911, as well as dispatching units and rerouting calls between police officers. Number of staff: About 62Number of calls in 2017: More than 351,000Number of 911 calls in 2017: 114,000 Available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year Congratulations To the Halton Regional Police Service on the opening of their new headquarters 905-332-7892 905-878-8555 Make this the year you discover a new destination!