Northbrook Police Department

This past year was filled with projects, the most involved one being the acquisition of a new 911 phone system and the formation of a 911 network with our neighbor to the west, Wheeling, Illinois Dispatch, which also services the Des Plaines, Illinois Police Department, and the R.E.D Center (Regional Emergency Dispatch) which serves 14 local Fire Departments.

The planning took nearly a year and a half to complete and get approved by each agency.  The system that was purchased after a great deal of vetting is the Emergency CallWorks, a product of Motorola Solutions. It is also integrated with RapidSOS, which helps locate cellular callers much more rapidly and accurately. This joint network and sharing of resources is the first of its kind in this region.

To top off the project, Wheeling and Northbrook received over half a million dollars in state grants to reimburse us for our expenses. This included upgrades to our NICE logging system as well.

Our TCs are thrilled with the upgrades and the system is a big hit, not to mention very user-friendly.

I am proud to have been a part of this project and improvement to our regional system, which ultimately will help make our communities a safer place to live.