Communications Center

In December, 2002, Central Communications moved into it’s present location at the Athens Clarke County Police Department’s headquarters building in Athens. The Communications Center currently employs 37 communications personnel.

Dispatch Services

Athens-Clarke County Central Communications operates 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Communications personnel work a 12-hour shift schedule in the state-of-the art facility.

In 2017, Athens Clarke County Central Communications received 108,830 emergency 9-1-1 calls for service. Many other non-emergency calls were also received by Central Communications through a secondary non-emergency telephone system. Central Communications provides both emergency and non-emergency support to people speaking languages other than English by using Language Line Services, whose representatives can translate over 140 languages, and through our bilingual communications personnel. Central Communications can also communicate with hearing-impaired citizens by using a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) or teletypewriter (TTY).

Tactical Dispatch Team

The Tactical Dispatch Team, created in July of 2016, is a select group of trained communications officers able to respond to a significant incident with the ability, equipment, and expertise to facilitate and support communications operations as directed by the Incident Commander. The Tactical Dispatch Team may be deployed to the scene of the actual incident or into the Communications Center.

Duties of the team include:

• To provide on-site or remote field communications support for Department personnel.
• To provide or coordinate operational intelligence related functions to personnel on a scene.
• To generate community notification messages related to significant events in which the team has responded to.