West Chester Township benefits from a state-of-the-art 911 Emergency Communications Center that dispatches police, fire and emergency medical personnel.

Professional communications officers receive as many as 110,000 calls for service each year resulting in about 38,500 police responses and about 6,000 fire & EMS responses. 

Communications officers have advanced training in order to instruct callers in CPR and other patient care techniques while rescue teams are en route. They are the calm voice at the other end of the phone when a call to 911 is made.

West Chester is a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) center that receives all emergency 911 calls. A callback number and address are automatically generated in the event the caller is unable to speak in order to facilitate an immediate response. A Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) and translation service make it possible for communications officers to speak to our community's diverse population.

The communications center is linked electronically to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and Law Enforcement Automated Data Systems (LEADS).

COMMUNITY CRISIS

In the event of a Township-wide crisis or an event that disrupts the activities of all, or a portion of the community, communication is critical. West Chester will utilize multiple tools in different platforms to reach out to residents and businesses.

This website, West Chester's social media sites and West Chester Community Television will be used to share critical information, but there are other tools available as well.

Telephone Notifications

Communicator, Butler County's Emergency Notification System, is designed to provide mass notification to residents and businesses in the event of an emergency.

The Communicator is a telephone notification system that can dial up to 60,000 phones an hour and deliver a recorded message. In the 911 Center, dispatchers can use a digital map online to define an area that requires the message and Communicator will automatically target all of the phone numbers in that defined area for the emergency message. When the dispatcher initiates the notification, the recorded message is "blasted" to all of the phones in the defined area in a very brief period time. Busy numbers will be redialed a preset number of times.

All LISTED LAND-BASED TELEPHONE NUMBERS in West Chester are automatically included in the notification system. West Chester residents and businesses who have UNLISTED NUMBERS or RELY SOLELY ON CELL PHONES MUST take action in order to receive these critical notifications.

Click Here To Enter Your Unlisted Or Cell Phone Number Into The System. It could take a month to update the list, so please continue to monitor other sources for critical information.

Only one number may be entered into the system per address.

Communicator/Geocast Facts

• The purpose of the notification system is to notify residents and businesses about natural or man-made disasters, missing persons, public health issues and any other situation where timely notification is likely to be essential and useful.

• The ENS can also be used to alert groups of internal West Chester Township employees of circumstances that require their immediate attention. 

• If you receive an ENS message, please listen carefully. The message will be brief and will not be repeated. Follow the instructions provided. You may be directed to a TV or radio station for further information. Do not hang up until you have heard the entire message. You may miss important information. Do not call 911 for further information, unless directed to do so!

• The message will be delivered in a human voice. It is a true recorded message not computer generated. The message will always begin with a statement that "This is an emergency message from the West Chester Township Emergency Notification System." The full message and instructions will follow.

• Communicator is not the only means of notification. Residents are urged to continue to monitor TV and radio, listen for weather warning sirens and have a NOAA weather radio available.

• Communicator will not replace weather warning sirens. In fact, ENS will NOT be used to alert residents of a tornado because time is so critical. In severe weather situations please follow recommended guidelines for safety and listen for the severe weather sirens, which in West Chester signal that the National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for our area.

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Severe Weather Warning Sirens

The only notification deployed to warn of severe weather are West Chester's Outdoor Weather Warning Sirens. When threat of severe weather exists, residents should tune in to local media outlets and have a battery or crank-operated NOAA weather radio available.

West Chester Township activates its outdoor weather warning sirens when the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning that covers all or part of West Chester Township, all of Southeast Butler County, or Southwest Ohio, or whenever a confirmed tornado touchdown has occurred or a funnel cloud sighting has been confirmed in or near the West Chester Township weather zone. West Chester's sirens will NOT be activated when a tornado warning is issued in a portion of Butler County that does not include some portion or all of West Chester as a part of the warning.

The sounding of the sirens is designed to solicit immediate action by those individuals who are outdoors at the time. The sirens are meant as an immediate warning to take cover and seek definitive information. They are not designed to provide warning to those who are indoors.

911 Dispatch Careers

Are you passionate about helping the community? Would you like to work with first responders who keep our community safe? Apply now!

APPLY FOR CAREERS

Click to view recruitment flier

West Chester Township Communications Department is recruiting for the position of Communications Officer. Candidate must have the ability to communicate well, verbally and in writing for the purpose of providing information and assistance to co-workers and the public on a daily basis.

Communication Officers process emergency and non-emergency calls for service and dispatches Police, Fire and EMS using computer aided dispatch technology. You must be able to work rotating shifts, nights, holidays and weekends; this is a stressful, demanding, fast paced job involving life and death situations.

The pay rate for this position is $24.99 - $31.14 per hour.