About Us
About CCECC
CCECC has been serving the citizens and visitors of Cheyenne County continuously since April 1st, 1996. On July 1st, 2018, we began providing emergency dispatching services for Deuel County as well. Fully staffed we employ 7 full-time, professional Public Safety Telecommunicators, 1 Deputy Director and the Director, Heidi Gillespie. The Director oversees day to day operations and management of personnel. Our PSTs hold multiple certifications and are required to successfully complete continuing education monthly.
Our department, via an interlocal agreement between Cheyenne County, Deuel County and the City of Sidney, is governed by an Authority Board. The Authority Board is comprised of 5 voting members & 1 ex-oficio member. The City of Sidney Police Chief, the Cheyenne County Sheriff, the Deuel County Sheriff, the City of Sidney City Manager, one County Commissioner and one Citizen at Large.
We answer 9-1-1 phone calls for all of Cheyenne & Deuel Counties as well as several non-emergent phone lines, including the Cheyenne County Sheriff's Office, the Sidney Police Department, a Crime Stoppers hotline and many others. We use and monitor more than 10 radio frequencies as well. Multi-tasking is our specialty! CCECC dispatches for the Cheyenne County Sheriff's Office, the Sidney Police Department, Deuel County Sheriff's office, Sidney, Potter, Dalton, Gurley, Lodgepole, Chappell and Big Springs Volunteer Fire Departments as well as Region 21 Emergency Management and Regional West EMS.
We provide additional non-public safety services. We dispatch for the City of Sidney's Dial-a-Ride (Handi-bus) service and serve as the after-hours contact point for Sidney's utility departments, DHHS and for probation services. CCECC operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Core Values
The Cheyenne County Emergency Communications Center will constantly and consistently strive to provide the highest quality professional public safety communications to the agencies and citizens we serve.
About 911
It is appropriate to call 9-1-1 when you have a life threatening emergency, when you see a crime in progress, or when someone's property is being damaged/destroyed or is about to be.
When calling 911 or one of our non-emergent lines to report an emergency or crime, you will be asked important questions in a specific order designed to obtain necessary information. All the information we ask for is important, the order we are asking it in is designed with safety and efficiency in mind.
You can help us help you more quickly by being as calm as you possibly can and answering our questions to the best of your ability. Sometimes taking a deep breath really does help.
Here's a snapshot of what we will need to know:
What is the location, (address, cross streets, intersection, business name etc) where the incident is occurring/has occurred?
What is the phone number you are calling from?
What is your name?
What happened?
During an actual emergency, at this point, we may ask you to stay on the line while we dispatch the appropriate help to the location you have provided. DON'T HANG UP! We will be right back to ask you additional questions that will help the responders be as prepared as possible to begin assisting you as soon as they arrive. And during medical emergencies, we can provide instructions to help guide you through performing CPR, using an AED, assisting with childbirth, bleeding control etc. We are here to help!
About Reverse 911
Currently CCECC has the ability to provide mass notification to the citizens of Cheyenne County that is completely customize-able based on your preferred method of contact, and there is no charge to sign up or use this service! We have partnered with Panhandle Alert so you can receive automated and CCECC-initiated emergency notifications based on your location. It even provides automated severe weather notifications for you based on where you are. Check out all the possibilities and sign up all of your phones and devices today!
About Cell Phones
While cell phones are a great asset to us these days for staying in touch, they aren't always 9-1-1 friendly and it is definitely not like TV and movies portray. We cannot immediately tell your exact location. Our equipment can provide an estimated location, but it can take several seconds or even minutes to get that much if we can even get one at all. There are too many variables to list them all, but to give you an idea...it depends on the kind of cell phone you have, the provider, how busy the cell tower your call routed through is, the terrain where you are and the weather just to name a few.
That means the most important asset we have is you, our caller. It is absolutely vital when calling 9-1-1 from a cell phone for you to be able to tell us where you are. The most important tip we can give you is to make it a habit to always be aware of your surroundings and pay attention to road signs, mile markers, interstate exit numbers and addresses. We cannot get help headed to you until we know where they need to go!
Where are your old cell phones? If you have old cell phones that you don't use anymore, please don't give them to your children to play with while they still have a battery or a sim card inside. Although your old cell no longer has service and may not even be charged, it can still call 9-1-1 if the battery and/or sim card are still inside it. Every 9-1-1 center in the nation receives 9-1-1 calls daily from young children playing with disconnected cell phones. Public Safety Telecommunicators spend time, effort and critical resources trying to determine whether it is a child playing with an old phone or if that child is actually trying to get help for a life-threatening emergency every time we receive a 9-1-1 call like this. Not to mention how stressful it is!
