The Cass County 911 Central Dispatch Center serves the entire county of Cass and is operated by The Cass County Sheriff. The 911 Central Dispatch Center takes emergency and non-emergency calls and dispatches for 6 law enforcement agencies, 6 ambulance services, and 13 fire departments. The 911 Central Dispatch Center also fields calls for the Michigan DNR, Michigan Department of Human Services, Cass County Animal Control, Michigan Department of Transportation and the Cass County Road Commission.
The Central Dispatch Center operates 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, and 52 weeks a year. The 911 Central Dispatch Center employs 9 full time dispatchers, 3 part time dispatchers, 1 supervisor and a 911 Central Dispatch Coordinator. In 2021 the 911 Central Dispatch Center answered approximately 83,000 non-emergency calls and approximately 24,601 911 calls. Police, Fire and EMS were dispatched to approximately 57,508 incidents.
The 911 Central Dispatch Center has been growing and improving with technology to better serve the citizens of Cass County. A new radio system installed in 2016 helps responders communicate better which creates a safer response. A new 911 system that allows text to 911 installed in 2017 will help the hearing impaired communicate in an emergency or if someone is unable to call and talk during an emergency they can use text to 911. The text to 911 currently is only SMS. Group messages, pictures and video will not go through. In June of 2020 the 911 Central Dispatch Center upgraded to Next Generation 911 (NG911). NG911 allows a faster ring time to 911 and gives better location information for callers by using the RapidSOS platform.