Dunwoody Moving Closer to Faster Dispatch for Fire Calls

Dunwoody is moving toward an upgraded connection between its 911 provider and DeKalb Fire and EMS, but it's still being worked on.

Currently the city has a "one-button transfer" of calls that are first routed to Chatcomm 911 - the city's emergency response dispatcher - to DeKalb for fire and EMS calls.

A change has been in the works for a while, but has been slowed by complications of implementing the new system.

The city still has a few hurdles to jump before the upgrade will happen, according to a city report. 

Dunwoody's leaders will hear the update when they meet for a work session of the City Council on Monday. The work session is scheduled at 6 p.m. before a council meeting at 7 p.m.

The city is working toward an upgrade that will allow the 911 calls for DeKalb to be automatically routed to DeKalb Fire and EMS. The automatic transfer will make the process "significantly faster" than the current setup, according to the city's report.

Since the council was briefed in October, the programming and connectivity testing has been finished on the new system, and interface testing has started, according to the report.

The city is also working on the ethernet connection between Chatcomm in Sandy Springs and DeKalb dispatch in the county.

Construction is nearly complete at Chatcomm but hasn't started in DeKalb.

DeKalb Public Safety is helping the city stremaline the permitting process in DeKalb County, according to the report. The city estimates that they could begin construction in DeKalb at the end of the month.