Communications/Dispatch

The Stockton Fire Department Communications Division is a Regional Fire and Emergency Medical Dispatch Center.  In addition to the City of Stockton, the center handles emergency dispatch services for Lathrop-Manteca (Lathrop City and County areas), the City of Lodi, the City of Manteca, and South San Joaquin County Fire Authority (Tracy City and County areas).

Personnel currently work 24-hour shifts. Shift staffing includes one supervisor and three telecommunicators who handle approximately 175 incidents per shift. All dispatch personnel are certified in Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Emergency Medical Dispatch.

Emergency Medical Dispatch is a system that uses key questions to quickly prioritize medical emergencies. The system allows dispatchers to give a caller instructions to assist sick or injured persons until help arrives. Dispatchers may give relatively simple instructions, for example, to control bleeding with direct pressure, or very advanced instruction such as the step-by-step procedure to administer CPR. The dispatcher who takes the initial call remains on the phone when pre-arrival instructions are necessary while another dispatcher is sending fire and ambulance resources to help.

Fire and medical emergency incidents are the bulk of calls received, but the center also handles calls for public works after regular business hours, on weekends, and holidays. This provides a wide variety of call types and volume each shift. One minute a dispatcher may be providing CPR instructions, and the next minute a dispatcher may be calling a City Public Works employee to handle a fallen tree, sewer problem or other City service.

The service area includes over 620,000 residents in an area of about 380 square miles.