The San Diego Harbor Police Communications Center is staffed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The current staffing structure consists of a Lieutenant in charge of the management of the Communications Division, one Public Safety Dispatch Supervisor, five Lead Public Safety Dispatchers, and 9 Public Safety Dispatchers. The Communications Center has four workstations that are equipped with three 19-inch monitors; two monitors used for Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and Law Enforcement databases and one radio monitor. Each workstation is completely adjustable from a sitting to standing position and has personal lighting and climate control equipment. The Harbor Police also has an Emergency Communications Center (ECC) that can be utilized in the case of an emergency or for training new dispatchers.

The Communications Center is located at the US Coast Guard Base on North Harbor Drive. The endeavor to create a Joint Harbor Operations Center began in 2002, and is now the National model for Port/Seaport Security. The Harbor Police Dispatchers moved into Sector Command Center - Joint (SCC-J) in January 2006 and now work side by side with Coast Guard, Navy, National Guard, and Customs/Border Protection personnel creating the first co-located Communications Center with Federal, State and local entities. This is an integral component for dealing with homeland security issues in and around San Diego Bay.

Harbor Police Dispatchers have a unique and challenging job. They answer emergency and non-emergency phone calls, monitor and respond to emergency and routine calls on the marine VHF radio, dispatch officers to calls for service, record these calls for service in the CAD system, track and monitor officer activity, and conduct records checks on people, vehicles, and property for the officers in the field. The dispatchers are responsible for coordinating all law enforcement service for the San Diego Bay, public Tidelands surrounding the bay, and the San Diego International Airport and fire service on San Diego Bay.

In February 2007, Harbor Police will come online with the San Diego/Imperial County Regional Communications System (RCS). This 800 MHz trunked radio system will allow Harbor Police personnel to communicate with almost every law enforcement, fire, and public service agency in the County.

In fiscal year 2008, the Harbor Police Communications Center handled just over 53,000 calls for service. When calling to report an emergency you should be prepared to answer questions and provide as much information as possible, including:

• Where is the emergency?
• What occurred?
• When did it happen?
• Are there any injuries?
• Are there weapons involved?
• Suspect Description (sex, race, height, weight, hair color, eye color, clothing, etc.)
• Vehicle description (make, model, color, year, license)