Communications/9-1-1

Scotts Bluff County E 9-1-1 Center

The 9-1-1 Center handles communications for emergency and non-emergency calls for all Law-Enforcement, Medical and Fire Services for Scotts Bluff County, Banner County, and the Southern half of Sioux County. The only agency for which the Center does not directly dispatch is the Nebraska State Patrol, who has its own communications division.

In addition to the daily communications responsibilities, the Center is also designated as a warning point for Scotts Bluff County, Banner and Morrill Counties. During severe weather, both summer and winter, the Center is responsible for disseminating severe weather information to these counties.

Scotts Bluff County Communications:
The Scotts Bluff County Communications E 9-1-1 Center is located in Gering, which is the county seat of Scotts Bluff County. The Center was started in 1987 by combining the dispatch services of the Sheriff’s Office and Gering Police Department. In 1990, the Scottsbluff Police Department joined the Center making it a true consolidated center. As of 2002, the Center employs 11 full-time and 4 part-time personnel.

After normal working hours, the Center answers all non-emergency calls which includes calls regarding utility problems with water and electricity. During outages be patient, crews respond in a timely manner and work as quickly as possible to restore services.

The Center handles on average around 49,000 calls for service a year. Of those calls for service, about 13,000 calls are 9-1-1 calls. In the past year, the percentage of calls coming from wireless or cellular phones has risen from 36% to 41% of all 9-1-1 calls.

Tips for 9-1-1 callers on cell phones:

Be sure to give your name and your cellular phone number when calling. By supplying the 9-1-1 operator with your number, it gives the operator a means to recontact you should the connection be lost, or if more information is needed from you.

Give the location where the emergency is located, as best you can. Currently only a few 9-1-1 centers nationwide can tell from the call where the caller is located.

If you are not sure where you are, give landmarks that you recall passing, look for signs and mile markers along roadways, let the operator know what direction you had been traveling or the last city you went through. All of this information can aid 9-1-1 personnel and emergency responders in locating you or the location of the emergency quickly.

Disable emergency call features on open front cellular phones. Open faced phones account for almost all of the centers false 9-1-1 calls. When the button is bumped while wearing the phone, tossing it onto the car seat or purse, the phone dials 9-1-1. When calls of this nature are received, the operator has to listen to the activity and try to get someone to respond to determine if the call is an actual emergency which can take several minutes to determine.

WHEN TO CALL 9-1-1:

To report a fire, request medical assistance or emergency law enforcement assistance, or any calls of life-threatening nature. Be sure you are using 9-1-1 for emergencies only, non-emergency calls into 9-1-1 can only slow down the system and could prevent someone with an actual emergency for getting through.

We recommend, just as with cell phones that you do not program 9-1-1 into a speed dial. It is easy to hit that button by accident. In addition, 9-1-1 is an easy number to remember, far easier than would * 9 or * 99. Most people who program in these speed dial features found when they had an actual emergency they naturally dialed the 9-1-1 number rather than use a speed dial function.