Communications / E-911

Communications

The Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center is the primary public safety answering point in the county and serves as the 24 hour county warning point for the Division of Emergency Management.  The Center is accredited by The Florida Telecommunications Accreditation Commission (FLA-TAC) through a quality assurance process that inspects our standards every three years. The center is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and is the heart beat of the Sheriff’s Office and all emergency communications for the entire county.

An average of approximately 7,000 incoming 911 and administrative calls per month are answered by our Communications Division. These calls may range from a medical emergency to someone who is the victim of a vicious crime, to the individual who just needs information and doesn’t know where else to turn.

Knowing Your Location

Due to the mobility that your cellular phone affords, it will save time during an emergency if you know your location. While great advances have been made to locate cellular phone calling locations in emergencies, you should keep yourself aware of the areas you travel through, so if an emergency does arise, you can readily communicate your correct location information to the 911 call taker. The caller’s location is the most important, valuable piece of communication that the 911 call taker can receive in the time of need.

 Our highly trained Emergency Communications Officers are certified by the State of Florida as required by Florida Statutes 401.465. They receive extensive on the job training at the start of their career that included a minimum of 232 hours of hands on and classroom training.  Certified Communications officers also receive ongoing training throughout the year to maintain that certification and stay up to date with the ever changing technology. The recertification occurs every 2 years and requires a minimum of 20 hours of continuing education credits.  WCSO’s Communications Officers are responsible for dispatching for both The Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office and The Wakulla County Fire Rescue, all while still answering and routing incoming calls and preforming the many other responsibilities of the job.   

Our communications team is small but mighty, they are often the first of the first responders that our citizens have contact with during an emergency and they are focused on serving their community!

The Communications Division is supervised by Communications Supervisor Tracy Lane under the direction of Emergency Management Director Jennifer Nagy.

E-911

E-911 stands for Enhanced 911 this is the part of the system that automatically ties a location to an incoming call when you dial 9-1-1. The 911 coordinator is responsible for the management of the County E 911- System and ensures the accuracy and reliability of the local 911 Service. The highest priority for the E911 database is to provide countywide accurate, dependable, and timely information for communications officers when a 9-1-1 call is received.

The 911 Coordinators responsibilities also include; the approval of new road names in the county to ensure there are no duplications, keeping the current Master Street Address Guide (MSAG) up to date, and handling public record requests for all CAD calls.

Recent Upgrades

Recent upgrades to our communications center consist of implementing text-to-911. Text  to 911 is expected to be fully functional and available to our citizens later the year.  To find out more about text-to-911 click here. "Link coming soon"

Records Requests

Requests for CAD calls can be made by emailing rlove@wcso.org, calling 850-745-7119 or in person in our lobby.

The Wakulla County E-911 Coordinator is Rachel Love.