By the time the clock strikes midnight on a single Tuesday, Chicago’s 911 dispatchers will have fielded nearly 10,000 calls for police, fire and ambulance services.
Of those, some of them are life-or-death pleas for help. But now, some operators and dispatchers who answer those calls say warn 911 chaos will arrive when a new computerized dispatch program is implemented.
Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications has been handling the city’s emergency calls on West Madison Street for more than 30 years. On Sept. 22, a new computerized dispatch system is set to be rolled out under a $75 million contract with Central Square, a company that has been renovating OEMC technology for the past several years…