SMC 9-1-1 Dispatch
San Mateo County's Public Safety Communications is an internationally accredited 9-1-1 Center and our personnel are recognized for their professionalism, commitment to public safety, leadership and innovation. We are a public safety agency staffed with civilian personnel working together as 9-1-1 call takers, law enforcement and Fire/EMS dispatchers, trainers, supervisors, administrators, managers, and systems staff.
The Public Safety Communications Center is responsible for answering both emergency and non-emergency calls for service. The Communications Center is the primary answering point for 9-1-1 calls within the unincorporated areas of San Mateo County, the Cities of Half Moon Bay, Millbrae, Portola Valley, San Carlos, and Woodside. 9-1-1 calls for law enforcement are processed on-site. Fire and/or Ambulance assistance will be quickly routed on to the appropriate dispatch center of jurisdiction.
The Communications Center also answers Transit and Animal Services phones after normal business hours and on weekends. Due to the nature of the job, the center is in operation 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. At this time the 911/Communications Center works with two (2) shifts and a staff of more than 60 employees.
The Center’s performance is closely monitored and reports performance measures to the County Board of Supervisors bi-annually. Standards include processing of high priority calls for service within established timeframes and customer satisfaction. The Center continually meets the call processing standards and rates over 99% in customer satisfaction. In addition to these standards, PSC dispatch staff have job-related performance standards which are used during the performance evaluation process as well as compliance standards (95% or above) for Emergency Medical Dispatch. PSC continually exceeds the National Academy standards and Center of Excellence averages for EMD compliance (98%).