The Lake County Sheriff’s Office operates a nine position 911 dispatch center out of old structure on the east side of Lake County’s Libertyville Campus. Lake County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) operates out of the same facility. The current building has aged beyond its useful life and construction of a replacement facility on the west side of the campus has been anticipated for some time. In 2018, Lake County, along with 20 local emergency dispatch partners, entered an agreement to explore consolidation of their respective 911 footprints. This consortium included: 911 centers, Emergency Telephone System Boards (ETSB’s), Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP’s), fire departments, and police departments. The group’s charter included a broad set of goals aimed at improving reliability, efficiency, and transparency. Intergovernmental agreements (IGA’s), joint purchasing agreements (JPA’s), and consolidation concepts were developed in pursuit of these goals. Through continued collaboration, construction of a single, multi‐agency emergency dispatch center emerged as a viable solution. In October of 2021 Lake County contracted design services for a new regional 911 Dispatch agency, the Lake County Emergency Management Agency (EMA), and the Lake County Emergency Telephone
System Board.

Across the next year the Design Team, Lake County, and Partner Agencies developed plans for the construction of a 37,500 square foot facility in the northwest quadrant of the Libertyville Campus. This new facility will be “hardened” and designed with redundant infrastructure and building systems, as is industry best practice for facilities of the typology. This all-electric building will be Net Zero for energy, LEED Gold certified, and include extensive site improvements such as: inground geothermal wells, photovoltaic arrays, and passive security improvements. Extensive technology will be required to tie this facility into the partner agencies’ remote distribution network.