Westcom Moving Today

If you receive the West Des Moines section of the Des Moines Register, you may have noticed that the Westcom Dispatch Center is moving today.

If you're not familiar with Westcom, the Westcom Dispatch Center is a consolidated public safety dispatch facility that receives public safety related calls and dispatches police, fire and EMS for the cities of Clive, Urbandale, and West Des Moines. The name Westcom was derived from the fact that all three cities are western suburbs of Des Moines and it is the communication center. Until today, Westcom was located in the West Des Moines Law Enforcement Center at 250 Mills Civic Parkway.

Prior to January of 2001, all three cities had separate public safety dispatch centers staffed by city employees 24 hours every day. The consolidation of these independent dispatch centers into one contributed to a big improvement in communication between the three public safety agencies involved because it put us all on one trunked radio system. The merger allows us to directly communicate with one another during large-scale incidents/accidents. The three communities share expenses for the center based upon a percentage breakdown of the total calls for service received by the center. The policy oversight body for Westcom is a committee made up of representatives of the three cities and chaired by a city manager. West Des Moines EMS Chief Jeff Dumermuth serves as Director of Westcom.

As noted in the article, Westcom is moving to its new communications center in Public Safety Station #19 today. Housed in the basement of the station, Westcom will have a great deal more space and more assurance that their equipment and dispatchers can operate without seeking an alternative shelter during a weather emergency.

As the western suburbs have grown, our three-city dispatch operation has outgrown its old location in the Law Enforcement Center. The entrance to the Police Department has been enhanced to handle the change. After today, residents who enter the police department on weekends, holidays, or after 4:30 PM will remain in the front vestibule (the area between the front doors and another set of inner doors, which will be locked) and communicate with Westcom in their new location via phone, with dispatchers responding via intercom.

The dispatcher will view the caller via cameras that will be installed in the entrance, listen to the resident's needs, and dispatch police personnel to the location if necessary as they have done in the past. If the individual is seeking immediate refuge at the police department, Westcom will be able to remotely open the inner doors and immediately close and lock them.