The San Diego County Emergency Communications Center is a 38,000 square foot, two-story, state-of-the-art facility built in 1998 to accommodate the San Diego County Sheriff’s Communications Center, and the San Diego County Office of Emergency Services.  The facility took 17 months to construct at a cost of 5.8 million dollars.  Many special considerations were recognized while planning the new Communications Center.

The most impressive feature of the new Communications Center building is the ability to withstand the destructive forces of an earthquake through the use of 26 base isolators.  The base isolators, which the building is suspended upon, are made of rubber and filled with liquid lead and laminated with stainless steel.  These base isolators allow the building the flexibility to move 14 inches laterally and 10 inches vertically.  All electrical, cable, phone and plumbing lines into the building are “flex” connected giving the building the capability to withstand a 7.0 earthquake and remain fully intact and operational with only a 5% chance of substantial damage.  The building is equipped with an uninterruptible power supply (batteries) that maintains electrical power to the building during a power failure.  In addition, there are two power generators with enough diesel fuel to operate for 7 days completely independent from outside power sources.  

The exterior of the building is made out of Kal-Wal which allows 15% natural light in from the outside.  This creates a warmer, more natural working environment.

The Communications Center has a total of 48 workstations, 26 of which are radio dispatch positions and 22 are dedicated call taker positions.  All of the call taker workstations are equipped with dual 21 inch monitors and all the radio positions utilize dual 21 inch LCD monitors with 1 touch screen radio monitor.  All workstations are completely adjustable from a sitting to standing position and are ergonomically correct.  The Communications Center also has a separate training room containing an additional 12 workstations.