Pinecrest’s new Emergency Communications Center (ECC) is scheduled to be up and running, and ready to handle all emergency 911 calls from Village residents beginning July 6 at 8 a.m.

It is expected that the new ECC system will cut police response time for both emergency and non-emergency calls from what it was when Pinecrest was a part of the Miami-Dade system.

"Figures from the county are just not that reliable," said Pinecrest Police Chief Bruce Davis. "But, I suspect that we’ll save one to two minutes in response time to all emergency calls and four to five minutes on non-emergency calls."

Chief Davis explained that Pinecrest was one of 130 units on Miami-Dade’s Kendall ECC dispatch system and the high volume of 911 calls created a "bottleneck" in channeling emergency calls to the Pinecrest Police Department.

"By operating our own 911 center, we’ll eliminate that bottleneck and provide a much more efficient operation," Chief Davis said.

The Village of Pinecrest has been preparing for the transfer of the 911 emergency system for almost a year and has purchased state-of-the-art equipment to meet the community’s needs. At the same time, dispatch operators have been given extensive training to handle both emergency and non-emergency calls for police, fire and rescue.

A new $325,000 Motorola UHF radio system was installed to accommodate the new ECC system and the network’s three-channels will be shared by the Police Department with the Public Works and Code Enforcement departments.

Pinecrest Village Commissioner Leslie Bowe said the new 911 system is well worth the money.

"We will be able to respond very quickly to the needs of our residents," he said. "Prior to incorporation, Pinecrest residents felt police were not responding fast enough to emergency calls. Now, our police will be able to get there almost immediately."

Commissioner Bowe said the new emergency response center will be staffed by a total of six dispatch operators. All shifts will have two operators on duty except the midnight to 5 a.m. shift, that will only have one.

"That’s because that shift generally has fewer emergency calls than the others," he said. "But, we hope to get funding for additional operators in the next fiscal year."

Bowe said he has taken the time to sit in on the training sessions for the new emergency operators and he believes they are well trained for the task facing them.

"These people are good keen listeners," he said. "They’re capable people and able to calm chaotic situations over the telephone."