About the Agency

Washington County Consolidated Communications Agency (WCCCA, pronounced "Wah-kuh") was formed in 1985, under the authority of Oregon Revised Statues (ORS) 190 by the execution of an Intergovernmental Agreement between Washington County and the cities of Beaverton, Hillsboro, Cornelius, North Plains, and Washington County Rural Fire Protection Districts Nos. 1 (now Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue), and 2.

The Agency has subsequently entered into intergovernmental agreements with the cities of Durham, King City, Sherwood, Tigard, Gaston, Tualatin, Forest Grove and Banks. Subsequent Fire Districts joining the agency are Forest Grove, Banks, Gaston and Cornelius. User agencies currently total 18.

The Agency was established to provide 9-1-1 service and public safety communications for police, fire, and emergency medical service for the participating jurisdictions and for other governments under contract. That means that if you live in any part of Washington County, including the cities of Banks, Beaverton, Forest Grove, Hillsboro, Cornelius, North Plains, Gaston, Tigard, Tualatin, King City, Sherwood, or Durham and you call 9-1-1, WCCCA will answer your phone call. WCCCA dispatches all calls for police, fire, or medical assistance to the citizens of those cities and the unincorporated areas in Washington County, Oregon.

The Washington County public safety dispatching has been in existence since October of 1973 when the first civilian dispatchers were hired. Having civilian dispatchers, freed police officers and fire fighters to respond to calls rather than stay behind to answer phones and monitor radios. From 1973 to 1985, the Center served as the communications center for the Washington County Sheriff's Office and the cities of Cornelius, Banks, Hillsboro, and Gaston as well as Washington County Fire District 2, the City of Hillsboro Fire Dept., Cornelius Rural Fire Dept., and Banks Fire Department.

In the years following the switch to civilian dispatchers, a demand started to grow for all Oregon residents to have access to 9-1-1. In order to better facilitate this trend, the move was also on to have central answering points for 9-1-1 calls. As this was occurring, more and more police and fire departments were doing away with their individual dispatch facilities and merging with the Central Dispatch Center. Thus in 1985 WCCCA was "born" and became a consolidated dispatch center. In 1973 our staff consisted of 8 full time dispatchers, WCCCA now has a staff of over 60 full time dispatchers.

WCCCA operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, answering 9-1-1 and business calls from the 460,000+ residents of Washington County and dispatching 11 police agencies and 7 fire agencies. The Agency serves an area of over 900 square miles and, through its broad geographic base, the Agency serves a rapidly developing and growing part of Oregon's economic base. The Agency's population has experienced considerable growth over the past 10 years and continued growth is expected over the next 20 years.

WCCCA is governed by a Board of Commissioners consisting of one appointed official from each participating jurisdiction. The Board is responsible for appointing the Agency Director, establishment of Agency service levels, adoption of the annual budget, financial audit, and personnel rules. A Chief Executive Officers Board consisting of the Chair of the Board of Commissioners, the representatives of the 2 largest participating agencies and 2 at-large members appointed by the Board meet monthly to address more timely issues, including policy changes, purchasing issues, and labor negotiations.

As an ORS 190 organization, user fees from the participating jurisdictions, State 9-1-1 excise taxes, and contract revenues from several non-emergent users fund the Agency. In addition, the Agency provides radio and data infrastructure for Yamhill and Clackamas Counties through unique partnership arrangements.

In 1990 the citizens of Washington County passed a serial levy which allowed a major upgrade in the County's 9-1-1 system. Because of the support by the citizens for the levy, WCCCA was able to acquire a building large enough to house our operation, becoming computerized by installing a computer aided dispatch (CAD) system, upgrade the county wide radio system and become an enhanced 9-1-1 center. An enhanced 9-1-1 Center is one that can display the callers phone number automatically (ANI=Automatic Number Information) and the location of the calling number (ALI-Automatic Location Information).

The Washington County Consolidated Communications Agency has come a long way since 1973, both in technology and dispatching as a profession. Oregon now has in place a law that requires all emergency dispatchers in the State, as of July 1994, to be certified the same as a police officer or a fire fighter. The training process for a 9-1-1 Telecommunicator (dispatcher) is a lengthy one. A Dispatcher Trainee is assigned to a coach, one-on-one, and remains with their coach until they are trained which takes approximately 6 to 8 months, on average. Each trainee will learn how to answer phones, work radios and do emergency medical dispatching (EMD). EMD is the process that allows the dispatcher to assist the caller with medical instructions to care for a patient until paramedics can arrive.

WCCCA is run by a dedicated staff of over 75 that is organized into administration, operations, technical and data services.

The Administrative Division is responsible for ensuring that the Agency's goals and objectives, as defined by the Board of Commissioners, are fulfilled. These goals include maintaining or improving performance levels for 9-1-1 answering and radio dispatch services, maximizing the utilization of existing resources, ensuring financial stability, ensuring preparedness for catastrophic events, seeking efficiencies through cooperative initiatives, promoting craftsmanship among employees, and fostering a diverse workforce.

This Division is responsible for the daily business operations of the Agency, as well as the more strategic issues, which may include legislative initiatives and strategic planning.

This Division is staffed by 5 full-time employees, including the Director, Assistant Director, Management Analyst, and Administrative Specialists, who work with other divisions, member agencies, and the community to ensure that WCCCA's service is meeting the expectations of its many users. Standard Administrative hours are 8 am till 5 pm, Monday thru Friday, Holidays excluded.

The primary functions of the Operations Division are 9-1-1 call answering and radio dispatch for WCCCA's 18 user agencies. This Division is staffed by 60+ Dispatchers, 5 Operations Supervisors, 1 Training Coordinator, and 1 Operations Coordinator.

WCCCA Dispatchers handle over 500,000 calls and nearly that many radio dispatch requests each year. The Dispatchers are truly WCCCA's front-line customer service representatives for citizens, police officers, and firefighters alike, and strive to meet WCCCA's mission of providing timely, efficient and compassionate communications services to all citizens.

The Technical Services Division is responsible for maintaining WCCCA's radio infrastructure, radio equipment for User Agencies, WCCCA facilities, and WCCCA's computer networks. The Technical Services Division is also responsible for maintaining the radio infrastructure and User equipment for Clackamas County through an intergovernmental partnership agreement.

This Division is staffed by 4 Technicians, 1 Shop Aide, and 1 Technical Services Manager.

The Data Services Division is tasked with maintaining the software and programs that enable computer-aided dispatching (CAD) services, and providing information to Users and the public.

This Division is staffed by 1 Data Services Coordinator primarily responsible for maintaining the CAD software and system, 1 FTE Resource Coordinator primarily responsible for dispatch information table maintenance and GIS mapping information, and a .4 FTE Dispatch Assistant that meets public information requests from users and citizens regarding 9-1-1 calls/incidents.