Public Safety Operations Center wins Project of the Year Award

The County’s Public Safety Operations Center received a 2013 Project of the Year Award from the American Public Works Association (APWA) on Tuesday, December 10, 2013.

The Public Safety Operations Center opened in May 2013 beginning a new era of public safety for the High Desert and the entire county. The center is housed inside the Jerry Lewis High Desert Government Center in Hesperia.

The award was presented to the County at the APWA Southern California Chapter’s 14th Annual Awards Luncheon. The AWPA is a professional association of public works leaders throughout the United States and Canada. The Southern California chapter includes 1,400 members in the counties of San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside.

The Public Safety Operations Center (PSOC) is a 30,000 square foot state-of-the-art complex, a high-tech operations center that hosts an updated and expanded dispatch center for Sheriff and Fire 911 calls and a place to coordinate resources in the event of an emergency. The facility was not only built to high environmental standards, it was designed to withstand an extreme disaster.

The creation of the PSOC eased the burden on the County’s aging main emergency operations center in Rialto because the Hesperia location is fully equipped to become the crisis nerve center for the entire county.

The PSOC cost $16.7 million, less than half of what it would have cost to build a High Desert facility in a completely separate building. Instead, the Board of Supervisors and the County Administrative Office developed a plan to use surplus space in the Jerry Lewis High Desert Government Center to maximize resources.

“The County made great use of SB 328 legislation that allowed us to build the PSOC facility in the most efficient and cost effective manner,” said Supervisor Robert Lovingood. “Using the ‘best value’ method to award contracts ensures the highest quality construction at the most reasonable price. And that’s good news for everyone.”

There are many high-tech features throughout the PSOC, including 65,000 lineal feet of data cable, an uninterrupted power supply, and waterless fire suppression. The 911 and dispatch consoles are customized with redundant power supply, multiple data feeds, multiple displays, backup communications and video relay. The 175-foot communications tower carries a variety of antennas to aid communication throughout the county is designed to withstand 120 mile
per hour wind forces.