FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 1, 2025
Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office receives grant to explore possible 911 center at Cape Cod Community College
BOURNE — The Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office has received $384,302 in grants from the state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.
Out of the total, $300,000 will be used to explore the feasibility of building a new 15,000-square-foot Regional Emergency Communication Center on the Cape Cod Community College campus. The remaining amount will go toward expanding services.
“Winning this competitive grant brings us one step closer to providing a facility that will accommodate the regional emergency communication needs of Cape Cod,” said Barnstable County Sheriff Donna D. Buckley.
The proposed facility would house the BCSO’s current regional 911 call-taking and emergency dispatch, and include police dispatch, as well as serve as an academic training resource and practical skills laboratory for the College, consistent with the College’s educational mission.
Pending findings and approvals from the college’s Board of Trustees and the Sheriff’s Office, this could be a unique partnership between public safety and higher education.
The Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office has provided regional emergency communications since the 1930s. While expansion of a new facility has been on the table for years, interest in emergency regional communications services is especially high now. Chatham fire dispatch joined the Comms Center earlier this year. Also, this past spring, two new towns, Provincetown and Eastham, shifted their 911 centers and their fire dispatch to our center. The remaining $84,302 of the grant will provide our service free to them in 2026 to cover the transition costs.
Currently, the Sheriff’s Communications Center answers 911 calls for 10 communities: Falmouth, Mashpee, Joint Base Cape Cod, Harwich, Chatham, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, and Provincetown. The “Comms Center,” as it is known, also handles emergency fire and medical dispatch for 13 fire departments: Barnstable, West Barnstable, Bourne, Mashpee, Orleans, Wellfleet, Brewster, Eastham, Provincetown, Dennis, Harwich, Chatham, and Joint Base Cape Cod.
With the current Comms Center on Joint Base Cape Cod at maximum capacity, Sheriff Buckley has made expansion and relocation a priority of her administration. Shortly after taking office, the Sheriff’s Office assembled a team to analyze the programmatic and financial feasibility of various options.
“The decision to award us this grant reflects the high level of confidence the State 911 department has in a regional facility generally and the quality of our facility’s operations in particular,” Sheriff Buckley said. “This is largely due to our staff who, every day provide the highest level of professional and exceptional emergency communications service to our community.”