June, 2007
PSAP Profile – Jersey Village Police Department

The City of Jersey Village, located in Northwest Harris County is a very customer service oriented community with a split of long-time loyal residents that borders newer communities of younger, eager Jersey Village residents. The long-time residents are generally older who are still more comfortable calling the 10-digit number of the police department.

The Jersey Village police department is very experienced in the handling of wireless calls—they should be since 80% of their 9-1-1 calls were from wireless phones in 2006.

The Jersey Village Police Department Communications division includes 7 part time, and 7 full-time telecommunicator positions. 

Although small, the police department is equipped with the same state of the art 9-1-1 equipment as the larger 9-1-1 call centers throughout the GHC 9-1-1 territory. The department has been a long supporter of utilizing innovative technology to help with responding to emergency calls for service. It was the very first PSAP to go live in 1986 with the first enhanced 9-1-1 call for service and has participated on several other innovation tests and technology installations. 

Supervisor Profile: Tracy Martin
Jersey Village communications Supervisor Tracy Martin has worked in emergency communications for 17 years, 13 of those at the Jersey Village Police Department. He has been a supervisor at Jersey Village for 10 ½ years.

His most favorite part of emergency communications is the people at the department. “We have a very good group here,” said Martin. His key to dealing with stress is not to internalize it and don’t take it home.

His least favorite part of the job is that communications does not always get recognized the same as officers. Martin said that calls involving children are the hardest to handle.

Martin’s advice to telecommunicators and dispatchers is to “learn as much as you can about the job. Be a sponge and develop your own opinions.” Martin also suggests that telecommunicators think before they speak. “You can’t take it back and I can’t fix it,”  says Martin.

Tracy Martin also has been a volunteer firefighter with the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department for 20 years. He is a proud husband and father to two-year son.