One area of the North Bay Police Services building that’s tucked away from the public eye was opened to the media this past week.

The 911 Communications Centre had been the centre of attention recently with the OPP costing discussion.

A councillor was quoted in late 2017 as saying the centre’s technological capabilities are behind the times.

Communications Manager Joanna Jacobs says their equipment is state-of-the-art.

“We are in the fourth phase of a radio upgrade, so everything will be state-of-the-art by the end of this year. All of end-user equipment right now is state-of-the-art, so the officers are using state-of-the-art portables, state-of-the-art main sets in their vehicles,” she says.

Jacobs also says they’re a busy centre.

“This past year, for police, we logged just over 29,000 calls and for fire, just over 1,500 calls,” she says.

All 911 calls from North Bay and Callander are routed to the centre, which employs 10 full-time and six part-time dispatchers.

They handle calls for North Bay Police and North Bay Fire and Emergency Services.

Other calls, like those for ambulance, are downstreamed to secondary answering points.