Southwest Regional Communications Center
In December, 1998, the cities of Cedar Hill, DeSoto and Duncanville, Texas, entered into an agreement that created the Southwest Regional Communications Center (SWRCC). The name not only identified the mission, but the location of this operation. These three cities, with a combined population approaching 150,000 citizens, share borders in the southwest region of Dallas County, Texas. The center was created to provide a single 9-1-1 Public Safety Answer Point (PSAP) for this area and share radio communications dispatching infrastructure among the three police and three fire departments.
In October of 1999, the newly formed organization took up residency in the old DeSoto Police Department building on Parks Dr. in DeSoto. This move coincided with the move of DeSoto Police into their new home a short distance away on Belt Line Road. Over the years, the original employee compliment of 14 has grown to a staff of 32 full-time employees working 24x7x365 for the citizens and public safety employees they serve.
Though the SWRCC is physically located in the City of DeSoto and obtains much of its support services from DeSoto, this operation truly is the property of all three cities equally. The operation is lead by a managing director who answers directly to a board consisting of the three city managers of the member cities. As for financial support, the operating budget is divided equally between the three cities each fiscal year.
The mission and scope of services provided by the SWRCC has grown over the years as it has matured and proven its synergy. Currently the SWRCC is connected by a fiber optic link to each city which essentially combines the three city networks for faster access and sharing of information between public safety entities. The SWRCC manages the storage and delivery of all electronic information collected by its public safety departments, and recently has expanded its list of services by updating and enlarging its capacity to monitor residential alarms. With state-of-the-art equipment and software the SWRCC can now completely eliminate one full step in the alarm process which could save precious seconds off the response time of public safety personnel in an emergency.