Atlanta, Georgia – For Atlanta’s emergency dispatchers, every second can matter. The city is now building a new home for the people who answer those first urgent calls, with a facility designed around the demands of round-the-clock emergency response.
Mayor Andre Dickens joined city leaders and public safety officials on Wednesday, September 9, to break ground on a new E911 Emergency Operations Center at the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center campus. The two-story facility will span more than 40,000 square feet and serve as a modern base for receiving 911 calls and dispatching police, firefighters and other first responders.
“Public safety doesn’t begin when a police officer arrives on the scene. It doesn’t begin when a fire truck pulls up. It often begins with the person who picks up the phone,” Mayor Dickens said.
The center will include 82 dispatch console positions, with 12 reserved for training. It is being built specifically for the Atlanta Police Department’s E911 Communications Division and the employees who operate the system 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Read also: Former Microsoft property moves closer to major redevelopment in Atlanta’s Grove Park neighborhood
Plans also include rooftop solar panels, EV-ready parking spaces and energy-efficient building systems. The project is designed to meet LEED requirements.
The groundbreaking follows several years of investment in Atlanta’s emergency communications system. Through the Moving Atlanta Forward program, the Dickens administration directed $15 million toward modernization of the city’s 911 Communications Center, along with spending on staffing, recruitment, retention, training and technology.
Call-answering performance has improved during that period. Atlanta’s average 911 answer time fell from more than 24 seconds in 2023 to just over 12 seconds in 2024. By April 2025, the average had dropped further to 9.7 seconds. The abandoned-call rate also declined.
“A growing, global city needs an emergency communications operation capable of meeting the demands of that city every single day, and that’s what we’re building,” Mayor Dickens said.
Read also: Severe weather and unexpected crises put preparedness in focus across Fulton County this September
The Department of Enterprise Assets Management is leading the project with LS3P, Fitzgerald Collaborative Group and other design consultants. Dickens also recognized E911 Executive Director Desiree Arnold, DEAM Commissioner Chris Davis, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum, Atlanta Fire Rescue Chief Roderick Smith, City Council members and other teams involved in the project.
The facility will become another part of the public safety infrastructure at the Public Safety Training Center campus, which opened in 2025.
“Better training. Better technology. Better facilities. Better support for the people we depend on to keep this city safe,” Mayor Dickens said. “Most importantly, it’ll help save lives.”
