Livingston County 911 Central Dispatch has earned an honor recognizing them as one of the elite agencies of its kind in the world.

When Central Dispatch was approved as an Emergency Fire Dispatch Center of Excellence last week, they became the 1st in Michigan, the 11th in the United States, and only the 15th in the world to become a Triple-Accredited Center of Excellence (Tri-ACE). Along with fire, the other two accreditations are in medical and police dispatch, which were previously earned. The honor is recognized by the Board of Accreditation of the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED).

911 Director Chad Chewning shared what this means to his department and to the residents of Livingston County. He said it first shows the dedicated people they have working in the 911 call center, and that how they are here for the community and for public safety responders, to do the best job possible. Chewning said it shows the community that Central Dispatch is going to process their correctly, with the correct information, and will do so in a timely manner to get residents the help they need when they need it.

While Livingston County’s dispatchers are all cross-trained for medical, fire, and police matters, they and the department needed to meet or exceed 20 points of accreditation in each area to become Tri-ACE certified. This intensive process covers everything from policy to individual dispatchers. Chewning said that for each call they took they were graded, scored, and given a written report back. A major factor in scoring, he said, was how dispatchers asked questions of the caller, how they process the calls, and their overall attitude while taking the calls.

The director said that now that they have this distinguished honor, there is no resting on their laurels. To keep accreditation, Central Dispatch needs to submit monthly reports to the IAED and go through the re-accreditation process in 3 years. Chewning gave “big kudos” to his staff, saying it was their exceptional performances that earned the department this honor. (MK)