E9-1-1 Dispatch Consolidation

For over 50 years the Village has operated its own E9-1-1 Dispatch center for emergency calls within the Village’s corporate limits with Fire and Ambulance calls answered by the Regional Emergency Dispatch (RED) Center, which is a dispatch center consisting of 15 municipalities, since 2002. In 2015, the Illinois Legislature approved a law requiring that any Illinois municipality with a population less than 25,000 (Lincolnwood’s population is 12,500) which currently operates its own emergency dispatch center, must consolidate its dispatching services or lose its Emergency 9-1-1 revenue. Last year the Village received almost $200,000 in 911 surcharge revenue.

The Village completed a comprehensive review of options for consolidating dispatch services. This review included joining other existing dispatch consortiums or contracting with another municipality for this service. After a thorough review, the Village decided to contract with the Village of Skokie for this service based on cost, quality of services provided by Skokie, and the level of cooperation that already exists between the two communities.

Effective March 1, 2017, Skokie began to provide E9-1-1 services to Lincolnwood residents and businesses. After March 1 when you call 9-1-1, the call will be answered at the Skokie Police Station. They will then dispatch the appropriate Lincolnwood emergency police and/or fire response personnel to handle your call. There will be absolutely no delay in response time or any degradation of service from that which previously existed. Since Lincolnwood will no longer operate a Dispatch Center, there will no longer be personnel on-duty to receive the public at the Police Station after normal business hours: Monday through Friday: 7 am to 5 pm. If you have a reason to come to the Police Station after normal business hours, you will walk into the front vestibule where you will find a phone that will connect to the Skokie Dispatch Center. A dispatcher will send Lincolnwood personnel to provide assistance.

If you are in an emergency and come to the vestibule for safety purposes, you can lock the door after you enter the vestibule while you use the phone in the vestibule to connect with public safety personnel.

To learn more, please view the Consolidation FAQ (PDF) for a list of FAQs and here for the letter that was mailed to all Village residents. Please direct any questions to Assistant to the Village Manager Charles Meyer at 847-745-4715