Public Safety Gets A High-Tech Boost In Emergency Hub

Shift supervisors will sit on elevated platforms to better monitor "the floor." A 14-screen digital video system will project multiple images on the wall, including live pictures of collisions and traffic jams, as well as maps, real-time power outage grids and newscasts.

Three times as many 911 lines will shave vital seconds off of response time when calls come from Arlingtonians in need of help.

And if a catastrophe strikes the county, emergency coordinators will be able to work with other jurisdictions using a new digital radio system to direct operations from a "nerve center" and to stay for days, if necessary, without sending out for supplies.

Welcome to Arlington County's new Emergency Communications Center, a state-of-the-art, 8,000-square-foot facility scheduled to open within three months at police headquarters in the Courthouse neighborhood.

"It's long overdue," said Robert P. Griffin Jr., head of Arlington's Office of Emergency Management, which was set up two years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "It gives us the ability to deal with day-to-day crises, as well as any large event like 9/11."

Arlington's campaign to get a new response center to replace one in an old building a block away on Uhle Street was partly based on a very important installation in the county: the Pentagon. A hijacked plane slammed into the building in 2001, killing 184.

"When the Pentagon dials 911, Arlington answers the call," noted a news release announcing the new center.

Since that attack, Arlington has spent about $60 million in federal homeland-security funding and local money to upgrade its equipment and systems in preparation for another attack or a natural disaster.

The new center and the county's digital radio system cost about $38 million, county officials said. Most of the money came from bonds issued by Arlington's Industrial Development Authority. The Justice Department provided a $2.6 million grant, and $2 million came from other county funds.

Griffin said the center will enable the county to be a "proactive part of any emergency response."

He said the facility also meets the needs of dispatchers, who work four 12-hour shifts a week answering emergency calls round-the-clock. A "decompression" room, where dispatchers can rest after a stressful call or shift, features a couch, a television and low lighting.

In 2006, Arlington 911 dispatchers answered about 104,000 calls and "delivered" at least three babies by giving instructions over the phone, officials said. Of about 28,000 fire calls dispatched last year, they said, 4,000 included units from nearby jurisdictions.