Now, a new room has been constructed — separate from the reception area — where as many as 10 dispatch stations can be set up and functioning. Construction on the DPS Communications Center finished June 16, said Jim Santoferrara, DPS communications manager.

A typical Friday or Saturday night generally requires three to four dispatch centers, Santoferrara said. The additional dispatch areas in the communications center are collapsible and can be set up quickly for emergency situations.

This weekend, the communications center was busy with concerned phone calls about Tropical Storm Irene, said Jennifer Horvath, DPS public information officer. Horvath said there were no problems in the communications center dealing with the phone calls.

The center sits in what used to be an open courtyard, behind Sims Hall and the Shaffer Art Building. In addition to the dispatch centers, a conference room, office space, bathroom and a small coffee area were constructed in the space.

All the dispatch stations face a wall of six flat-screen TVs, which help monitor the SU campus. The closed circuit TVs can display up to 50 different cameras at once.

‘This center will keep all the dispatchers on the same page, there won’t be any questions because there are the big screens that everyone can see,’ Santoferrara said.

The communications center was built to help accommodate the growing DPS force, which began when Chief Tony Callisto was hired in 2007. Santoferrara said he believes the communications center helps fix the problem.

‘It would take a lot for us to outgrow this,’ he said.

The new communications center will help improve DPS dispatch response time, Santoferrara said. The communications center has also helped improve the reception service at the front desk, he said, because those sitting at the front desk no longer have to worry about dispatches and can focus on helping walk-ins. Moving the dispatch center to its own area has also helped create a few more jobs at DPS, Santoferrara said.

When the center opened in June, there were no major difficulties moving in, he said. The switch had to be done all at once, Santoferrara said, because DPS records phone calls.

There were a few small glitches in the system that have been resolved, like signing onto some programs, but there were no major ‘show stoppers,’ Santoferrara said. Every now and then, Santoferrara said, DPS officers try to open an infrequently used program and small problems arise.

Santoferrara said the DPS center has also served as a morale booster for officers heading back into the academic year.

‘The old communications center was dingy and dark,’ he said. ‘In here it is so much different, everything is shiny and new.’

The center was constructed by Hayner Hoyt Corporation, a locally owned company that is responsible for working on campus construction including Slocum Hall and the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center. Santoferrara said he was not aware of the final budget of the center.

Santoferrara said the communications center at SU is better than some of the other centers that he has seen. This is mostly because the SU center is accessible around the clock. Santoferrara said the state-of-the-art technology at the center is part of what sets the SU center apart from other centers.

‘This communications center was a win-win situation for everyone at this university,’ he said.

Horvath, the public information officer, said she doesn’t think most people at SU realize how large DPS is and said the center takes tens of thousands of calls each year. She said the center is the third largest department in the county and the construction updates were essential to keep DPS operating efficiently.

Said Horvath: ‘I’d say it was a welcome upgrade to a vital part of our department.’

medelane@syr.edu