Story thread · 6 reports / 5 sources

‘Postponed:' Planned full rollout of new Chicago 911 dispatch program plagued by doubts

nbcchicago.com · 8h · first reportShare

Top management at the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications has notified first responder dispatchers that the rollout of new 911 technology is being “postponed.” That is the word used by an assistant OEMC director in an internal memo to employees. The dispatch equipment and new procedures were supposed to go hot on Tuesday. But now, there is no new launch date. Dispatchers in Chicago are no longer fearing what some described as a doomsday scenario starting Tuesday by having to use new technology that they said would put lives at risk. Their litany of concerns, questions and complaints was listed in a letter sent to their union officials. The new dispatch system that OEMC employees say was scheduled to go fully live, handling 10,000 emergency calls per day, is part of a $75 million city project aimed at modernizing the 911 call response process. But after our investigative team focused a light on serious dispatcher doubts, more than a dozen city alderman wrote to May