About
Who We Are
The Sumner County Emergency Communications Center opened July 17, 2017. This was the result of Sumner County and several municipalities recognizing that consolidating police, fire, and medical dispatching services along with emergency call taking has the benefit of saving time which translates to saving lives. Consolidation of these critical dispatch services prevents the need to transfer calls to other agencies within the county. To help keep our centralized communications center safe, the ECC is a hardened facility capable of withstanding severe weather including tornadoes. Through an interlocal agreement, Sumner County and each contributing municipality–Gallatin, Hendersonville, Millersville, Portland, and Westmoreland–contribute to the operational cost of the ECC. This is determined by call volume and population. Two committees guide the ECC–the Executive Committee and the Operations Committee.
The Executive Committee consists of the mayor or city manager from each municipality and the county. The Executive Committee meets monthly and is tasked fiscal oversight, policy-level decision making, and evaluation of the ECC executive director. The Operations Committee includes a representative from Sumner County Emergency Medical Services, Sumner County Emergency Management Agency, Sumner County Emergency Communications District, each law and career fire department, and one representative for volunteer fire departments. The purpose of the Operations Committee, which meets quarterly, is to make recommendations to the executive director related to call-taking and dispatching services. The ECC budget allows for sixty-seven full-time positions which includes telecommunicators, training officers, supervisors, and the leadership team.