Tucson’s Public Safety Communications Department celebrated the opening of its newly remodeled public safety facility Dec. 2.
The center handles approximately 1 million 911 calls annually for the greater Tucson area. It was consolidated in 2017 to reduce call transfers and wait times while providing consistent responses to the community, according to a department statement.
“Today I am proud to join in the celebration of the grand opening of the public safety communication center,” Tucson Mayor Regina Romero said. “The 911 communications team represents the front line for our first responders. The incredible work that is done here to protect our community is felt and appreciated by your mayor and council. Thank you so much for your service to our community.”
The mayor followed with the introduction of PSCD’s director, Sharon McDonough, who has deep roots in Tucson.
“It was just in March of this year we appointed director McDonough to this role,” the mayor said. “Sharon has served our community for nearly 30 years…and brings her vast experience to stabilize the 911 communications department.”
McDonough added, “Just months ago, the area you are seated in right now is the entirety of our space. Our whole center existed in this room, so you can imagine it was really cramped, crowded and noisy.”
McDonough said it was impossible to separate or social distance during the pandemic, which led to a staffing shortage. “It was a great detriment to our staff.”
“As you’ll see during your tour, our training room was tiny,” McDonough said. “Small little desks, one or two monitors and when one of our trainees would get out to the floor, into the real world, they were overwhelmed.”
She said it is a fully functional center, “so if something crashes and burns on the other side of the building, we have a place to roll over.”
One of the department’s primary concerns was its staff’s health.
“That was the biggest premise we looked at when we were designing the center,” McDonough said. “We set out to create a center designed to enhance that wellness and provide places for fitness, places for relaxation, and places to recoup.”
The renovated public safety building is equipped with the tools to achieve those goals. “The facility now has better console spacing,” she said. “Enhanced sound proofing, group lighting, fully equipped gym, a sensory room and a nursing room; places where people can go to find a quiet spot to decompress.”
New photographs adorn the walls throughout the renovated facility, which allows the department to have its own identity while still honoring its relationship with police and fire.
Romero said McDonough, Police Chief Chad Kasmar, Fire Chief Chuck Ryan, and Community Safety Health and Wellness program director Sarah Launius joined her and spoke at a 911 Conference in New Orleans in June.
“There we spoke at the Transforming 911 Conference where we framed the need for a blueprint to transform our emergency dispatch.” Romero said. “Tucson is a national leader when it comes to reimagining 911. We have the vision. We have the leadership, and we have the resources to make that happen.”
The completely remodeled facility incorporates the “vision with a restored atmosphere and includes an expanded call-taking and dispatching floor, a designated training center, a redesign of the administration wing, a department fitness center, and a sensory room to help employees reset after a tough call,” a department statement said.
“Part of this work is investing in the resources to train the next generation of 911 operators,” Romero said. “Sharon’s team recently onboarded a new class of trainees and they will be the first to train in the newly remodeled center. This expansion will make it possible for more robust training. You know the better training we create, the better culture that results.”
Hired this year, Launius is the city’s first Community Safety, Health and Wellness program director. McDonough and Launius will collaborate and operationalize the 311 system to allow dispatch to reroute nonemergency calls from its 911 system and “ensure the right work is in the right hands,” Romero explained. “I am excited to hear that the initial 311 administration team has been hired.”
Kasmar thanked everyone involved in the public safety community center’s design and the community.
“It is such a special day and I want to thank the community,” Kasmar said. “As Sharon (McDonough) stated, the magnitude of this project can’t be understated. It took some patience from our employees, from our peers, and other city departments and the community, when maybe things didn’t go just as we had wanted.”
He expressed his gratitude for the newly remodeled facility and congratulated the mayor, city council and McDonough.
“This is a really special day,” Kasmar said. “As the chief of police, I can tell you, and also on behalf of Chief Ryan of the fire department, good outcomes start in this building.
“Any team can get a project 95% completed,” he said. “So, congratulations Sharon and your entire team and the staff and everybody in here because everybody in this room played a role in making this possible.”
