Sacred Heart University”™s main campus in Fairfield is now hosting a new 911 dispatch center operated by the Fairfield and Westport police departments.
The center combines police and fire dispatchers and emergency responders from Fairfield and Westport in a single 24/7 location on the first floor of the school”™s Ryan Matura Library. The towns are paying a $1 per year lease for the space and invested $3.7 million into its”™ creation. This marks the first time that a municipality-run emergency call center in Connecticut has combined two towns with an outside partner.
“While I was the police chief in Fairfield, the Westport chief and I were looking for ways to become more efficient and effective in the services we provided,” said Gary MacNamara, executive director of public safety and government affairs at the university. “We looked at the 911 centers each of us had as a potential area to combine resources. SHU President John Petillo has always been supportive of the larger community and first responders, and he agreed to help us find a solution.”
Photo courtesy of the Fairfield Police Department.
