The Mark & Carrie Experience

    This week we were off to the Tampa Police Dept. Communications center. The building is just north of Hillsborough Ave in a hurricane bunker. The com center is run under TPD Retired Major Tom Wolff.

    Into the training room. This room is also used for special comm event hubs like the RNC last year. Together the instructors have 130+ years of experience. Major Diane Hobley-Burney talked about the importance of a priority 1 call and how never to say there is a gun when there is not.

    Officer Maginnis took us thru a variety of live call-ins and videos from TPD helicopter. He explained there are 3 different sections in the call center. The 911 calls. this is where the  police and fire/EMS calls come in at. The second section is Dispatch. This is where they send out the police and or fire departments. the third area is non-emergency. this is the administration department and where the most irate calls come into.

    Over 30,000+ calls come in every month. a priority #1 call is dispatched in 45 seconds or less. priority #2 are dispatched in 2 minutes and follow standard operating procedures.   The peak time for  calls is 5PM

    Diana Hall a 16 years veteran took us into the main Comm Center. We were surprised at how small the room actually was. On the wall were 3 TV’s the outer two both had Bay News 9 on them. The center HDTV played Fox News. The supervisor is in the center of the room with the 3 different sections around it . On one side is also the fire department dispatch.  Diana explained how greatly improved are the communications between FDLE and other agencies with the Tampa Police.

    There were many different screens for an assortment of things. Phone calls pop up with maps & locations. Many times the callers are confused and give the wrong locations. They speak English & Spanish but do have translators avaliable a short call away.  Everything seemed to going great but new software would help here.

    Officer Alicia Kaufman of TPD Forensics Investigations was a real hoot. The TV’s portrayal of  CSI and actual local forensics are as different as night & day. No 60 minute results! The Tampa department is made up of 17 officers, 3 supervisors and one manager. This group has covered an impressive 6,500 calls last years.The officers are usually the last to the crime scene. Here they collect finger prints, DNA & misc thing. 100’s of photos are taken. Then everything goes to the Tampa crime lab with the results given over to the detectives.

    Next week we will be with the TPD K-9, Mounted Horse Patrol & Air Service Demo.  Can’t wait!!!