PHOTO GALLERY: Joint Communications Center faces challenges

March 11, 2013 | 6:00 a.m. CDT

Crowding, understaffing and failing equipment have long been problems at the Joint Communications Center. Officials hope to overhaul the system using proceeds of a three-eighths-cent sales tax that appears on the April 2 ballot. If voters approve the tax, it would generate an estimated $9.3 million per year.

Suzanne Fred, supervisor in the Public Safety Joint Communication Center, works Feb. 23 at her station after a snowstorm. | Hany Hawasly

The office of Joe Piper, the interim operations manager of the Public Safety Joint Communications Center, is used for training and as a conference room. Because the heating and cooling room is attached to this office, people constantly go in and out to fix problems. | Hany Hawasly

The second server room in the Public Safety Joint Communications Center does not have enough room for maintenance or appropriate wiring. To access the room, people have to go through the Police Department offices. | Hany Hawasly