Cedar Park to begin renovations in July for emergency dispatch center move

The city of Cedar Park is set to begin renovations July 1 to move its emergency dispatch center to a new space, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

The details

The Public Safety Communications Division handles 911 dispatching for the Cedar Park Police Department and Cedar Park Fire Department. The current communications center is “cramped” and has no room to add additional dispatchers, Nicholle Benedict, public safety emergency communications manager, said.

The communications center will be moving from the second floor of the police department headquarters to the first floor. Dispatchers will take over the space previously occupied by the police department’s training division, which moved to the city’s new Public Safety Training Facility in April, Benedict said.

“We’ll be able to have enough room to breathe,” Benedict said.

The renovations are scheduled to be completed in February 2027, according to the TDLR filing.

Diving in deeper

The renovations will also include new computer-aided dispatch, or CAD, consoles, which are specialized devices with multiple screens to allow dispatchers to monitor and manage numerous sources of information at once, including the 911 system, radio system and other dispatch-related applications, Benedict said. The department’s new CAD consoles will have eight screens, up from seven on the older models.

The communications division currently includes 20 dispatchers, with a minimum of four on the job at any given time during the day and three at night. Benedict said she expects the city to add more dispatchers in the future.

“I think the main highlight here is that it gives us room to grow because the city is going to continue to grow and we’re going to need more public safety personnel and a place to put them so that they can effectively do their job,” Benedict said.

The funding

The city’s 2026 budget includes $4 million for the communications center. The TDLR filing lists the expected cost of the move at $3 million.

One more thing

The second-floor space currently occupied by the dispatch center will be taken over by the police department’s Criminal Investigations Division, which will expand its office space to help the department handle continued growth, Benedict said.