9-1-1 Center Operations

We are the primary answering point for all wire-line, wireless, and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) 911 calls for all of Porter County.

We provide dispatch services for every police, fire, and ems agency in Porter County except Chesterton and Porter Police Departments.

We operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

We dispatch for 27 different agencies

• 18 Fire Departments, 6 of which operate EMS Services
• 8 Police Departments
• 1 County-wide EMS Department

Telecommunicators work 12 hour shifts to provide full, 24 hour coverage.

We currently employ 28 full time telecommunicators and 3 part time telecommunicators.

All telecommunicators are cross trained to work as both a call taker and a dispatcher.

All telecommunicators are both Emergency Medical and Emergency Fire Dispatch certified through the National Academy of Emergency Dispatch.  This allows telecommunicators to ask specific questions geared toward the nature of the call, and provide post dispatch and pre-arrival instructions such as CPR or bleeding control that can assist the patient until responders arrive. 

Other notification or call out services that are provided include:

• Porter County Animal Control
• Porter County Coroner
• Porter County Emergency Management Agency
• Porter County Fire Investigation Strike Team
• Porter County Hazardous Materials Team
• Porter County Search and Rescue
• Porter County Technical Rescue Team
• Porter County Water Rescue / Dive Team
• IDHS District 1 Task Force

The 911 center has satellite weather service monitoring via weathertap.com and one of the Porter County emergency siren activation control units to activate all of the emergency sirens on the system around the county.

The dispatch center itself is entirely computerized with systems that include Tiburon CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) software, fully integrated mapping system, IDACS/NCIC terminals, Motorola MCC-7500 IP Dispatch Console, and Motorola CallWorks CallStation 911 call software.

In addition, telecommunicators also operate the mobile data system allowing computerized communication with police cars, fire vehicles, and emergency medical vehicles.

August 2014 Porter County began accepting Inbound Text messages to 911.  This Next Generation service allows citizens, who own a cell phone  capable of sending text messages, to text to 911. Always know B 4 U TXT  911 VOICE is best. Make a voice call when you can. Text if you can't  make a voice call, or if a voice call would put you in danger.  Text-to-911 is not as fast as making a voice call. The 911 center may  ask you to make a voice call if you don't know your location.