The Cecil County Department of Emergency Services Communications Center is the primary Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for Cecil County 9-1-1.

The communications center receives all 9-1-1 calls in the county, gathers, interprets, disseminates information and dispatches the appropriate resource to the scene. 

The Communications Center dispatches for:

• 9 Volunteer/Career Fire Companies
• 3 Cecil County EMS Paramedic Stations
• Cecil County Hazardous Materials Team (HazMat)
• Cecil County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO)
• Elkton Police Department
• North East Police Department
• Perryville Police Department
• Rising Sun Police Department

Cecil County DES also handles after-hours notifications and complaints for a multitude of agencies including but not limited to local, county and state government agencies.

The 9-1-1 Communications Center is staffed by 44 full-time and 6 on-call 9-1-1 Specialists, who work 12-hour rotating shifts, 365 days per year. In compliance with the State of Maryland’s staff training requirements for PSAP’s, all Dispatchers train for a minimum of 12 weeks in each position of call taking, police dispatch and fire dispatch, to be able to perform their essential duties. Each of the 911 Specialists are certified in Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD), Emergency Fire Dispatch (EFD) and Emergency Police Dispatch (EPD) obtained through the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch.

Our Communications Center has state-of-the-art radio and telephone technology, along with mapping, computer aided dispatch and a variety of communications computer software.