The Communications Center

The 911 call center and dispatch operations is operated on a 24 hour basis providing all 9-1-1 call-taking services for Josephine County.  The Center dispatches for the Grants Pass Department of Public Safety, American Medical Response (AMR), Rural Metro Fire Department, Wolf Creek Fire Department, Williams Fire Department, Illinois Valley Fire Department, and occasionally to Oregon Department of Forestry and State Forestry.

Kristine Crewse is the immediate supervisor of the personnel in the Dispatch Center, while Lead Dispatcher Kristen Guenther manages the 9-1-1 contract.

The Communications Center of the Grants Pass Department of Public Safety is essential in providing quick, effective and efficient service to both the civilian population and Department employees. The Communication Center is responsible for radio communications, telephone communication, and operation of automated data systems.

The Department maintains twenty-four hour telephone communications service through its emergency 9-1-1 enhanced telephone system, non-emergent phone lines and radio communications.

The Communication Center is part of the Support Services Division. There are twelve full-time Telecommunicators who have a primary duty of 9-1-1 call-taking and dispatching.  In addition the agency utilizes four experienced on-call telecommunicators to assist in covering time-off and service needs.  Police Telecommunicators are trained in radio communications, criminal law, civil law, emergency medical dispatching, incident command system, and a wide variety of other topics.

This high stress position requires calm under pressure. The ability of Telecommunicators to extract information from frantic callers and tense police critical incidents, neutralizes exposure that may be dangerous to responding officers.

Josephine County 9-1-1 Agency

Beginning in 1981, Josephine County launched efforts to develop a 9-1-1 system. Community members, emergency service providers, and representatives from the municipalities and the county met regularly for nearly six years to determine the structure for a 9-1-1 organization. In 1987, a final plan was adopted, submitted to the State Office of Emergency Management, and the 9-1-1 program was approved. The Cities and the County held all 9-1-1 phone tax proceeds from 1981 to the formation of the Agency in trust; the funding that brought the Agency to life and allowed full operations for nearly a decade. The agency began with existing dispatching equipment and a call-taking contract with the City of Grants Pass.

Basic 9-1-1 service was first offered to Josephine County residents on September 11, 1988, and by the end of 1988, basic 9-1-1 was available to all area residents. Callers were transferred to area responder agencies based on the type of call.

Josephine County became among the first ten county agencies to begin enhanced 9-1-1 service to most residents on December 12, 1989. Enhanced 9-1-1 permits the identification and location of the call to be displayed on a computerized screen available to the call taker. This permits response even when the caller is incapable of providing relevant information.

In 1993 the 9-1-1 Agency completed construction of a new dispatch center. The new center allowed more automated processing of all emergency calls and greater efficiency for call reception and dispatch functions. The 911 Agency began dispatching for most of the emergency service providers in Josephine County from the new dispatch center.

Over the years, the dispatch system has undergone several changes in structure and form, being managed at different points by direct employees of the 911 Agency as well as the County Sheriff’s Office and the City of Grants Pass.  In 2008 the Josephine County Sheriff's Office chose to operate their own dispatch console and no longer receives dispatching services from the City of Grants Pass. 

Today, the 9-1-1 Agency is governed by a Board of Directors. The Board is comprised of representatives from the City of Cave Junction, the City of Grants Pass, Josephine County, a representative of State and Federal Agencies, the Chair Person of the Agency’s budget committee, a representative of the Agency’s customer group and a member at large representing the public. This Board contracts with the City of Grants Pass for agency management, call taking and dispatch services. These functions are assigned to the Communications Bureau of the Public Safety Department.

The Agency’s Board of Directors meets every month on the 3^rd Tuesday to discuss Agency business. The meetings are open to the public. Contact Kristen Guenther at 541-472-1911 for further information.