Welcome to Natchitoches Parish 9-1-1

Natchitoches Parish 9-1-1 is committed to providing quality access to emergency public safety services for all the citizens and visitors to Natchitoches Parish. Since 1988 the “District” has served in a pivotal role ensuring the safety of residents and visitors to Natchitoches Parish by providing support services, which connects the citizens experiencing emergencies with emergency services via the use of one, easy to remember and simple to use 3-digit number, 9-1-1. The Natchitoches Parish 9-1-1 District provides the equipment and systems necessary to receive 9-1-1 calls from the nearly 40,000 residents of the parish, as well as the ever-increasing numbers of visitors to the area. We are proud to serve as “Natchitoches Parish’s Gateway to Public Safety Services”.

2019 “Year in Review” – A summary of services and activity.

In addition to serving as Natchitoches Parish's "Gateway to Public Safety Services", we also provide other critical support services such as:

9-1-1 Addressing:  The Districts Addressing Division uses a state-of-the-art GIS mapping system and serves as the address coordination point for all areas in the parish outside the City of Natchitoches. We maintain records for over 14,000 addresses in the parish.

Radio Communications:  The 9-1-1 District provides a public safety radio system, which supports the emergency operations of the ten (10) Natchitoches Parish Fire Districts.

Emergency Outdoor Warning System:  The 9-1-1 District owns and operates the Natchitoches Parish Emergency Outdoor Warning System. This system is comprised of 19 siren sites, strategically located throughout the parish and used to warn citizens and visitors of impending severe weather or other threats to their safety. The system was used successfully during eleven emergency events occurring in 2013.

Other support services:  Natchitoches Parish 9-1-1 does not employ call takers or dispatch personnel who answer calls to 9-1-1 or who deploy emergency service personnel. Instead, we rely upon the Natchitoches Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Natchitoches Police Department who provide those support services for us through intergovernmental agreements. The District provides reimbursement to these agencies for these and other PSAP support services as well as also providing training opportunities.

The public safety emergency response network in Natchitoches Parish is comprised of the Natchitoches Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Natchitoches Parish Office of Homeland Security, the City of Natchitoches Police Department, the City of Natchitoches Fire Department, the Natchitoches Parish Fire Districts, the Natchitoches Parish Hospital Emergency Medical Services, and a host of other agencies who work together to serve you in your time of need. It is our goal as Natchitoches 9-1-1 to serve as “Natchitoches Parish’s Gateway to Public Safety Services”, in order to ensure that in the time of emergency you have quick, easy, and effective access to these lifesaving services.

In the coming months we will be working to provide improvements to the current system to include:

• Establishing the groundwork for the migration to next generation 9-1-1 services
• Upgrades in wireless location services
• Improvements, which include the development of a field based geographic information and mapping system which will allow our personnel to make address assignments and adjustments directly from the field.
• NATCOM - the Natchitoches parish combined Public Safety Emergency Communications/Operations Center is in the final stages of planning.

Natchitoches Parish 9-1-1 plans to improve 9-1-1 and emergency services in general for the citizens and visitors of Natchitoches Parish through the Natchitoches Parish Combined Public Safety Emergency Communications/Emergency Operations Center – NATCOM project.

Although Natchitoches 9-1-1 already plays a pivotal role in ensuring the safety of residents and visitors to Natchitoches Parish by providing 9-1-1 as well as a number of other services, the District desires to move the Natchitoches 9-1-1 system and emergency communications services to the next level of expanded services for Natchitoches Parish through the development of a multi-tiered capital project. This project, referred to as “NATCOM”, is focused on the construction and development of a combined public safety emergency communications/emergency operations center.

We envision that “NATCOM” will provide enhanced emergency communications for all of public safety agencies who operate within the parish. This will be accomplished by bringing together the communications operations of multiple primary public safety agencies from within our parish. When completed, Natchitoches Parish 9-1-1, Natchitoches Parish Sheriff’s Office, Natchitoches Police Department, Natchitoches Parish Hospital Emergency Medical Services, Natchitoches Fire Department, Natchitoches Parish Office of Homeland Security, and the ten Natchitoches Parish Fire Districts will all benefit by having their respective communications functions centralized in a single state-of-the-art facility, designed specifically to support public safety emergency communications operations.

The benefits gained by this project are numerous. Improved coordination of emergency events will be possible through improved communications between every emergency services agency in the parish. All emergency response agencies operating on a common communications system can improve operational effectiveness and address life safety issues as well. NATCOM can improve our ability to develop and apply standardized communications training curriculum, which meets national standards. This can help ensure that our first responders have the highest possible professional support from our communications center. It can allow us to establish common communications protocols and uniform policies that can lead to more consistent operation within a governance structure, which is jointly developed to serve multiple agencies, regardless of disciplines. Perhaps the greatest benefit can be gained with the opportunity to more effectively and efficiently share technology and systems, which can provide true communications interoperability, which ultimately can promote a higher level of operational professionalism and improved citizen services.

In the case of the Natchitoches Parish Office of Homeland Security, NATCOM will serve as the Emergency Operations Center for Natchitoches parish in instances of either natural or man-made disasters. The Emergency Operations Center will serve as a central base of operations for planning and command/control for any emergency response agency operating within the area. The need for a facility of this type is great as was demonstrated during the 2011 Ashland wildfire event, which destroyed thousands of acres of forest, several homes, and put many emergency workers from Natchitoches and surrounding parishes in harm’s way. While all of the individuals involved in this incident are to be commended for their untiring efforts, which led to the control of this fire, the lack of interoperable communications, difficulty in managing personnel accountability issues, and difficulties with incident coordination are all cited as being major concerns during the event. A well-equipped and staffed Emergency Operations Center can provide resources and support for such emergencies.

NATCOM... "the future of public safety communications in Natchitoches Parish."