Western Washington University

11/07/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 11/07/2024 15:45

University Police Dispatch moving to What-Comm 911

University Police Dispatch moving to What-Comm 911

November 7, 2024

When dispatch for the University Police Department moves to the countywide dispatch service What-Comm 911 on Jan. 1, 2025, all emergency services for Whatcom County will be managed through a single service.

What-Comm 911 will handle both emergency and non-emergency dispatch for UPD, and the non-emergency number for reaching campus police will remain the same, (360) 650-3555. As always, call 911 or 360-650-3911 for emergencies.

What this means for the WWU community

Nothing will change for general members of the Western community who need after-hours access to a building or who want to report a non-emergency problem on campus.

For individual administrative departments, some changes to procedures will be necessary, and the transition team is now working with those departments to provide direction on new procedures.

The dispatch change is expected to improve safety, maintain service, and reduce costs while supporting the campus community and the work of our university police.

While the budget savings represented by moving dispatch off campus were a motivation for the timing of the transition, increasing the safety of the campus community motivated the initial plan for making the change. The consolidation of dispatch streamlines communication between our university police officers and other responding agencies, allowing for greater awareness of incidents throughout the county and faster coordination and response times ultimately leading to faster assistance to the members of our community.