Snohomish County 911

Each day Snohomish County 911 handles approximately 1800 police, fire and medical-response calls from their 32-position consolidated PSAP. Two agencies, SNOCOM and SNOPAC, merged in January 2018. To promote unification and cross-team communication, Snohomish made changes to the physical environment. Learn why Watson Consoles is part of their solution.

Easing change

Consolidation is not easy. It requires a change of location (for at least one team), centralizing technology, and blending agency cultures. And, it can take several months to complete which can be stressful on dispatch teams.

As part of the consolidation, Snohomish County 911 identifies two notable challenges they hope to overcome: 1) they need to add positions to an existing space and 2) they want to create a neutral and welcoming environment for both teams.

A new team space boosts dispatcher satisfaction

As part of the consolidation project, Snohomish County 911 officials decide to replace the PSAP's 17-year-old console workstations.

Snohomish wants every dispatcher to benefit from working at durable, functional workstations and they know that providing the right tools for the job, including dispatcher workstations, will promote fairness and equality amongst the cross-functional team.

The Ask

New dispatch furniture should deliver multiple benefits:

• a visually unified, modern, and welcoming work environment;
• improved traffic flow throughout the space;
• more positions in the existing space;
• open sight lines for better cross-communication between police and fire comm teams;
• upgraded tech integration to reduce wear and tear on cables and equipment;
• and quiet, efficient mechanical support and electronics to reduce the distraction of slow and noisy mechanisms.
  

Investing in the team

After reviewing options from multiple manufacturers, the team chooses Watson Consoles’ Mercury workstations. Their selection is based on several critical factors.

• Mercury’s linear design makes best use of space, improving general traffic flow while accommodating the addition of multiple positions.
• The feature-rich workstations give dispatchers focus and comfort features including quiet, quick-adjust height adjustment, cool air flow and personal heater.
• Expanded work areas make side-by side training more comfortable.
• Cable channels, chains and pass-throughs keep power and video cables neat and protected.
• There is plenty of stowage for ancillary communications equipment and personal items.
• Watson Consoles offered the best value – product durability, features, cost.

Opportunity to influence