Emergency Control and Command Centre

The Emergency Control and Command Centre is located in Coleman House. The centre is responsible for receiving Emergency 999 calls for assistance from the public and dispatching the required assistance from Police, Fire, Sea Rescue and Ambulance Services.

The Control Centre is the first point of contact for members of the public contacting the Police Service for information or to report a crime.

It is also responsible for monitoring the Maritime radio service for St Helena and Ascension Island as St Helena Radio and Ascension Radio. They monitor the emergency frequency on VHF Channel 16 for any maritime distress calls and also provide a first point of contact for information for visiting vessels and also our maritime community.

The centre is staffed by six control operators and one control supervisor who between them provide 24/7 cover 365 days of the year.

During a large scale emergency incident the Command Centre provides a Tactical Command function to deal with the incident and is staffed by multi-agency representatives.

The centre has recently been upgraded and now has a new Digital Radio Network that provides the emergency services with Island-wide secure radio communications. The network has also upgraded the VHF maritime radio network and provides AIS (Automatic Identification System) coverage to identify vessels.