PSAP Tours

Sign-up will be available onsite at the Information Booth in the convention center lobby main entrance. Sign-up early – space is limited! Tours will depart from the convention center at the shuttle bus pickup/drop off area.

Download PSAP Tour Schedule HERE

Dakota Communications Center
Tour: Monday, August 20th @ 1 pm
(bus transport)

The Dakota Communications Center (DCC) is located in Dakota County. The DCC services a population of 399,100. We serve an area of 587 square miles. Our service area ranges from first rings suburbs of St. Paul to rural farming communities. The DCC was formed 2005 under a joint powers agreement which consolidated five (5) PSAPS. We became operational in December of 2007. We serve 12 police departments, 12 fire agencies and 3 EMS services.

Built in 2007, the DCC is a state of the art facility designed specifically for public safety communications. It has 24,000 square feet with 19 dispatch workstations. The DCC has a total staff of 66. In 2011, the DCC handled 330,412 telephone calls resulting in 298,853 calls for service.

Hennepin County Sheriff's Communications
Tour: Tuesday, August 21 @ 11 am
(bus transport)

The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office operates one of the largest consolidated public safety answering points in the upper Midwest. The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office Communications Division dispatches for 35 cities which are serviced by 23 police departments and 19 fire departments. In 2011, the Hennepin County Sheriff's communications Division handled 591,537 telephone calls resulting in 637,752 calls for service

The facility houses many lines of business including the dispatch center with 17 consoles, a full service technical, engineering and radio systems section, maintains one of the HUB's for the Statewide ARMER radio infrastructure system, CAD Administration, Mobile Data Computer Section, Training, a Mobile Amateur Radio Core, a Systems ready Mobile Cellular Communications Response Team, and an Administration Team to oversee all of the units.

Built in 1948, the Hennepin County Sheriff's Communications facility currently is in the design and development stage of building a new communications facility in the that will triple the size of the current building with a planned opening in the fall of 2014.

The Ramsey County Emergency Communications Center
Tour: Tuesday, August 21 @ 2 pm
(bus transport)

The Ramsey County Emergency Communications Center serves the City of St. Paul and 16 suburban communities, a service area of just under a half million people. We dispatch nine law enforcement agencies and nine fire departments (providing EMD for two departments that provide full paramedic response). Handling nearly 1,000,000 calls per year and employing 121 call takers and dispatchers, RCECC is the largest PSAP in the State of Minnesota.

Minnesota State Patrol - Metro
Tour: Wednesday, August 22 @ 9 am
(bus transport)

MetroComm is a Primary PSAP which receives direct 9-1-1 calls from wireless devices. There are twenty-six Primary PSAPS in nine county metro area.

MetroComm's primary service area is the nine country metropolitan area, which includes the following counties: Isanti, Chisago, Anoka, Ramsey, Washington, Hennepin, Carver, Scott and Dakota. The area population is just over three million and the State Patrol covers slightly over four thousand lane miles of highways and freeways.

MetroComm provides primary dispatching services for all State Troopers, Truck Inspectors and DNR Enforcement Division Officers stationed in the nine county metropolitan area. Secondary dispatching services are provided to all other State and Federal Public Safety agencies authorized access to the State Patrol's Voice and Data Systems.

MetroComm also serves as the Minnesota State Warning Point on the NAWAS network. This voice network disseminates natural and man-made disaster and severe weather warnings to Minnesota's Public Safety Answering Points. It has also been utilized as part of Minnesota's AMBER Alert dissemination system.

Minneapolis Emergency Communications Center
Tour 1: Monday, August 20 @ 7 pm
Tour 2: Tuesday, August 21 @ 10:30 am
(walking distance)

The Minneapolis Emergency Communications Center is staffed by nearly 80 dedicated 911 professionals who work to seamlessly deliver public safety services to Minneapolis residents and visitors. The independent agency is governed by a User's Board and works directly with Minneapolis Police and Fire, as well as Hennepin County EMS. The agency also has long standing partnerships with other users that share the state of the art CAD system.

Minneapolis 911 answers over 590,000 calls for service and manages the dispatch of more than 300,000 police calls and 40,000 fire and EMS calls. Minneapolis 911 professionals also monitor a state of the art gunshot detection system, ShotSpotter, that provides rapid information about possible gunfire in selected areas of the city and is able to precisely triangulate the location of shots within a few meters. Staff also monitor a Bait Vehicle system that is part of the city's comprehensive auto theft program. Emergency Communications staff work with the police to remotely disable vehicles in this program as soon as police are in position to apprehend suspects involved in stealing these vehicles, eliminating concerns of dangerous vehicle chases in making these apprehensions.

The Minneapolis Emergency Communications Center is located in the historic Minneapolis City Hall. Just a 10 minute walk from the Convention Center. City Hall was completed in 1906 and was added to the National Historic Register in 1974. With its clock tower (larger than Big Ben's in London!) and copper roof, the building has numerous architectural details any history buff will enjoy.