PHOENIX — A new Buckeye dispatch center is officially ready to start accepting 911 calls.
City officials held a grand opening celebration, complete with a ribbon-cutting, last week.
Buckeye Mayor Eric Orsborn said the upgrade was necessary because the old 911 center was practically a broom closet.
“This is a facility that brings our city and police department to the cutting edge of smart and efficient city safety response,” Orsborn said in a video announcement from the city.
West Valley 911 center: What’s new at Buckeye dispatch center?
The real-time information center allows telecommunicators to work in concert with crime analysts and upgraded technology, he added.
A variety of cameras help people be proactive and dispatch operators can deploy drones to crime scenes to gather information even before police arrive, according to the city.
Buckeye Police Public Safety Information Specialist Melissa Perez said the new 911 communications center was needed to keep up with the city’s growing needs.
“With the city expanding and growing as much as it is, and in the timeframe that it is, we can’t keep up with all the calls. We can’t keep up with our officers. We can’t keep up with everything where we are,” Perez said. “We needed this.”
Buckeye isn’t the only West Valley city that opened a real-time crime center. Peoria opened a state-of-the-art law enforcement facility in March.
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