Litchfield County (CT) Dispatching

Litchfield County Dispatch (LCD)

Change of crews

• Dispatchers work 12 hour shifts from 6 am to 6pm and from 6pm to 6am. There are 16 dispatchers and 4 Call-takers, with 4 dispatchers and 1 call-taker working per shift. There is 1 dispatcher assigned to Torrington Police, 1 to Plymouth Police, 1 to Winsted Police, and 1 assigned to Fire/EMS. Work schedule follows this format for a two week schedule and repeats over.
• Monday and Tuesday - On
• Wednesday and Thursday - Off
• Friday, Saturday, and Sunday On
• Monday and Tuesday - Off
• Wednesday and Thursday - On
• Friday, Saturday, and Sunday - Off

• Northfield fire calls between 0600 and 1800 7 days a week adds East Litchfield Fire with the exception of service calls.

• East Litchfield fire calls between 0600 and 1800 7 days a week adds Northfield Fire with the exception of service calls.

• Litchfield fire calls between 0600 and 1800 7 days a week adds Bantam Fire with the exception of service calls.

• Bantam fire calls between 0600 and 1800 7 days a week adds Litchfield Fire with the exception of service calls.

• Nepaug non fire calls (CO, MVA, calls formerly known as signal 23) between 0600 and 1800 mon-fri adds New Hartford Fire except service calls.

• Nepaug fire calls between 0600 and 1800 mon-fri adds New Hartford Fire and Pine Meadow Fire except service calls. Nepaug structure fires 24/7 add New Hartford and Pine Meadow automatically as well as New Hartford Ambulance

• New Hartford fire calls between 0600 and 1800 mon-fri adds Nepaug Fire with the assignment except service calls.

• New Hartford rescue calls mon-fri 0600-1800 adds Nepaug and Pleasant Valley fire

• Pleasant Valley adds Barkhamsted East Fire and Riverton Fire for all calls 7 days a week from 0600-1800. All calls between 1800-0600 are a single company response including fire alarms and chimney fires with the exception of high life hazard buildings. Active structure calls 24/7 adds Barkhamsted East, Riverton, Colebrook and West Hartland. From 0600-1800 Mon-Fri, the Barkhamsted Townwide tone gets used no matter who gets dispatched.

• Barkhamsted East fire calls between 0600-1800 mon-fri adds Pleasant Valley Fire and East Hartland Fire except service calls. Pleasant Valley Fire responds 24/7 for rescue calls.

• Riverton fire calls between 0600-1800 mon-fri adds Pleasant Valley Fire, Barkhamsted East Fire, Colebrook Fire, West Hartland Fire except service calls.

• Colebrook fire calls between 0600-1800 mon-fri adds Riverton Fire, Pleasant Valley Fire, West Hartland Fire except motor vehicle accidents and service calls. Colebrook 1st responders are dispatched on all fire calls.

• West Hartland fire calls 24/7 adds East Hartland Fire except service calls. Colebrook, Riverton and Pleasant Valley are added Mon-Fri between 0600-1800 for active structure calls.

• East Hartland fire calls 24/7 adds West Hartland Fire except service calls. Barkhamsted East Fire is added mon-fri 0600-1800.

• All Litchfield Ambulance calls in Northfield's district adds Northfield 1st responders.

• All structure fires in Litchfield have the Torrington RIT team dispatched.

• All structure fires in Norfolk and North Canaan have the Norfolk RIT team dispatched.

• North Canaan Medic gets dispatched to all ambulance calls in North Canaan no matter the response level.

• When any ambulance is out of service or is on a 1st call where there isn't another unit in that agency's fleet, ambulance first responders get toned out along with mutual aid ambulance.

• When Sharon Ambulance is unavailable, ambulance 1st responders along with Sharon Fire Rescue 1 responds.

• When Norfolk Ambulance is unavailable, ambulance 1st responders along with Norfolk Fire Utility 50 responds.

• All fire and medical calls on the Route 7 corridor in Sharon are handled by Cornwall.

• Northern Dutchess Medics are backup paramedic providers for Kent, Warren and North Canaan.

• LCD broadcast and receives from 23 sites located throughout the county interconnected by the State Police microwave system. Because of this you can hear the dispatchers clearly throughout the county.

• As of 2010 LCD no longer uses radio codes and is strictly "plain English".

Channels

Dispatch 1

• RECEIVE ONLY
• Dispatching.
• Quick Call 2 Tone Activations.
• DTMF Knox Box Activations.

Response 2

• Unit responding to station or scene.
• units on scene.
• Apparatus responding.
• Apparatus on scene.
• Ambulance enroute to hospital.
• Ambulance at hospital.
• Clear of incident.
• Incident closed.

Command 3

Incident Command On Scene to communicate with LCD

Scene 4-12

• Scene 4 - Barkhamsted, Kent, Lakeville
• Scene 5 - New Hartford, North Canaan
• Scene 6 - Falls Village, Harwinton
• Scene 7 - Litchfield, Norfolk
• Scene 8 - Colebrook, Warren
• Scene 9 - Hartland, Washington
• Scene 10- Cornwall, Sherman
• Scene 11- Goshen, Morris
• Scene 12- Bridgewater, Sharon

Traffic 13

• Fire Police

Airtac 14

• Helicopter (Life Star) coordination

Interops 15

• Interagency Channel

Intra County

• Used only during emergencies to notify dispatch stations have been staffed.

CMED

• Med 2 - Sharon Hospital
• Med 3 - Charlotte Hungerford Hospital
• Med 4 - New Milford Hospital
• Med 5 - St. Mary's Hospital
• Med 6 - Waterbury Hospital
• Med 7 - Winsted Health Center
• Med 9 - Northwest C-Med Dispatch
• Med 10 - Danbury Hospital

• Ambulances communicating with hospital (incoming patients and medical control)
• Ambulances communicating with Medic for line of sight intercepts