Blue Island Police E-911 Communications Newsletter
February 20, 2009

Historical Data

The Blue Island Police Department began dispatching from our new location in 1994. The City of Blue Island purchased the old Veterans of Foreign Wars building in Blue Island. This facility was renovated and housed our first multi-jurisdictional 911-center. In 1994 the facility was designed with new state of the art technology, and had two dispatch positions for Police, Fire and EMS services. 911 Director Mary Burrell and Lt. James Base managed the new center and it’s day-to-day functions. The 911-center underwent several additions and renovations as the center provided dispatch services for the Village of Crestwood and Posen. They also provided Fire dispatch services for the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System, (M.A.B.A.S. # 22.)
The technology changed and as time went on the center realized that it also needed to change. In 2004 a consultant was hired and an assessment of the facility and technology was conducted. The fact that the center operates 24 hours a day and 365 days a year was a major factor in the condition of the center and the total radio infrastructure. The City of Blue Island hosted numerous meetings with the surrounding Network 8 communities in an attempt to consolidate services and repair the aging infrastructure. In the meantime the City of Blue Island Police Department moved forward with our plans to upgrade our current centers operations. Needless to say it is 2009 and we have completed our first phase of renovations.
Under a grant from Homeland Security the network 8 group was also able to secure funding to move from our old radio system to a new digital 800 MHz radio system with the Cook County Sheriffs radio system. This will save the network 8 groups in the area of 1.8 million dollars that would have been needed to upgrade our emergency radio frequency. The transfer to this new digital system will provide interoperability with the rest of the county and eventually throughout the state of Illinois.
The City of Blue Island has 12 full-time Telecommunicators, which include a full-time 911-Director, one Tele-communicator supervisor, and 5 part-time Telecommunicators. We currently have three dispatch console positions, and one supervisor position. The center handled and dispatched 116,000 calls for service in 2008. The center has yet to implement a Computer Aided Dispatch system, which will be the first of a kind for our center and for the communities that we serve. This project should hopefully begin in the next few months. We look forward to the continued progress from our new Enhanced-911 Communications Center as we serve our residents.   

Blue Island Police Department E-911Communications Center
Mission Statement

The Blue Island E-911 Communications Center is committed to serve as the critical link using the highest standards to provide emergency and non-emergency assistance to the residents and visitors of the communities that we serve.
We strive to ensure prompt, professional service and succeed by employing dedicated, self-motivated and highly trained personnel.