Residents Give Input for 911 Master Plan

Residents joined members of the Los Angeles Police Department and city officials Wednesday to discuss a master plan for the San Fernando Valley’s upcoming emergency communications dispatch center to be located at the West Valley Civic Center in Reseda.

Currently, emergency calls are handled by 911 operators in a Downtown bunker below City Hall East. But thanks to the passage of Proposition M in November, 1992, as much as $235 million in new taxes will be spent to overhaul the LAPD’s antiquated emergency communications system.

Under the plan, two new facilities will be built, one at the department’s new academy in Westchester and the other at the West Valley Civic Center--the current site of the LAPD’s West Valley Division, a public library and field offices for Los Angeles Councilwoman Laura Chick.

City officials invited about 50 residents to participate in three days of planning sessions, which began Tuesday, to help develop the master plan for the Valley’s communications center. The center will include a two-story building that will cover roughly 50,000 square feet and space for 150 parking stalls to accommodate 50 to 100 employees.

A similar building will be constructed near the department’s academy in Westchester and the two centers will eventually be connected, possibly by fiber optics.

“They’re completely redundant of each other, which means that if one goes down we have the other,” said Rich Hecht, assistant commanding officer of the LAPD’s Emergency Command Contral Communications Systems.

Once the communications centers are in place, Valley residents can expect better, faster service because the overhaul will improve the department’s ability to handle emergency calls, to dispatch patrol units and to communicate with officers in the field. The LAPD also plans to hire 911 operators from the local employment pool.

Gerald A. Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino who attended some of the planning sessions, said that like most of the other participants, he and his group support the construction of the communications center in the West Valley.

“I think this is going to be a very important step forward to improving police facilities,” Silver said.