Mackay's upgraded police comms centre

The Police Communications Centre has opened in Mackay, following an $800,000 upgrade to improve safety for locals and staff.

This new centre joins the state-wide Triple Zero network, and when people in the Mackay-Whitsunday region need help, they will be calling and speaking with a local.

In the event of a major natural disaster and an influx of emergency calls, communications centres in other parts of the state will be able to share the call-load and then send the jobs back to Mackay Communications to be actioned locally.

The new system improves officer safety by ensuring improved vision of all jobs and priority assessment to promote improved community and officer safety.

The 20 staff at Mackay’s Communications Centre are responsible for an area that extends to Bowen and Collinsville in the north (including any maritime emergency in the Whitsunday islands); inland to Dysart, Middlemount and Clermont in the west; and St Lawrence in the south.

The region will now be better able to respond when natural disasters like cyclones strike. The upgrade also included a suite of new software and other technological upgrades.

“The new police communications centre has a standalone major incident room to allow for greater management during major investigations and as a command centre during disasters,” said Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

“Construction of the state-of-the-art centre employed about 25 local and intrastate construction workers and tradespersons.

“This represents a significant investment in community safety for an important area of the police service.

“Our government will further increase the number of police personnel by 535 across the state over four years.”

Police Minister Mark Ryan said the upgraded centre had joined the state-wide virtualised Triple Zero network, reducing risks associated with major incidents and disasters.

“The police communications centre staff have also been trained and assessed in operating the more complex QCAD operating system, which is interoperable with other centres throughout the state,” Ryan said.

The centre takes up to 100 calls a day from Monday to Thursday and up to 130 calls on a Friday or weekend.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/ymgerman

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