Communications Division

The El Cajon Police Communications Division serves as the vital link between our community and available emergency services. The Communications Division serves as the only Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for accessing police, fire and medical services within the City of El Cajon and is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, providing the highest quality of service to a population of over 100,000 citizens.

The Communications Division consists of 21 non-sworn personnel, including: 1 Communications Center Manager, 4 Supervising Police Dispatchers, 9 Police Dispatchers, and 7 Public Safety Communications Operators. All Communications staff regularly work 12 hour shifts.

Public Safety Communications Operator – Primary responsibilities include answering 911 and business line phone calls as well as CAD (Computer Aided Dispatching) entry and records systems.

Police Dispatcher – Primary responsibilities include dispatching calls for service, dealing with critical incidents, and keeping track of personnel in the field.

Supervising Police Dispatcher – Oversees the daily operations, ensures the equipment is working correctly, and handles the public notification of current critical incidents.

Who Should I Call?
911 Information
911 for Kids

Communications Center Statistics

On average the Communications Center handles 165,000 call for service per year. With this yearly average, the Communications Center has 13,800 call per month. Of those 13,800 calls, an average of 1,750 are wireless 911 calls, and 3,500 are land line 911 calls.

Communications Center Technology

The Communications Center is equipped to staff nine individual workstations. Five of the stations are phone consoles, which handle the incoming 911 and business line calls. Three of the stations are dispatch consoles equipped with radio equipment used to communicate with field personnel. The ninth station is the on-duty supervisor’s console.

The 911 system incorporates the Automated Location Index (ALI) used to cross-reference the phone number of incoming 911 calls in order to determine the location of the caller. A recent upgrade allows call takers to track mobile phones in addition to the previous capability of tracking landline phones.

City of El Cajon has a partnership with the County's Regional Communications System (RCS), which manages the multiple radio frequencies available to the department. RCS allows dispatchers to talk to all other police and fire departments in the area, as well as other city, county, state and federal mutual aid resources.

A Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system is used by the Communications Division to relay information to and from field personnel. Typically, call takers enter data from calls for service, dispatchers assign officers to the call and relay that information to them, and finally the details of the call’s progression as well as the disposition of the call are entered by the dispatcher.

CAD is integrated with the mobile computers in the department’s police cars, thus allowing this process to be handled electronically and providing a much larger flow of information to the officers than could be relayed verbally over the radio. CAD allows for electronic messaging between field personnel and dispatch, as well as car-to-car. Officers in the field may use CAD to perform routine records checks. CAD data also serves as a documented record of events for court purposes.

Training Program

Communications Center personnel receive professional training upon their hiring and on a continual basis throughout their careers. New employees go through a 120 hour Police Officer Standardized Training (POST) certified dispatcher academy as well as a rigorous eight month in-house training program in order to develop the skills necessary to work in the Communications Center.

All staff are trained in both call taking and radio dispatching, regardless of their regular assignment. All personnel receive at least 24 hours of ongoing training and education every two years on a variety of topics. Despite the tough POST requirements, Communications Division employees are committed to exceeding state requirements, often receiving additional training in domestic violence, hostage negotiation, SWAT operations, and customer service.