(The Center Square) – Spokane Regional Emergency Communications announced Thursday that it will allow Spokane to remain in the network until 2028 as the city stands up its own 911 dispatch services.
The SREC Governing Board voted last January to kick the city out of the network after disagreements over funding and voting power. The breaking point was a law the state passed months later, requiring Spokane County to give the city some of the tax revenue funding their regional 911 dispatch services.
Mayor Lisa Brown hired consultants last spring who said it would cost the city nearly $100 million to stand up a dispatch service over the next five years. The launch would take at least 14 months, but ideally two years, despite SREC’s 2026 deadline. Each party agreed to an extension until 2028 on Thursday.
“The transition includes key operational milestones over those two years,” Brown said during a press conference on Thursday, “and, most importantly, ensures uninterrupted 911 service for the public.”
The Spokane Police Department already has a dispatch center, but SREC answers those calls and then transfers them to SPD, which dispatches a response. The Spokane Fire Department relies on SREC, as do 20 other member agencies, but will join SPD under the city’s Spokane United 911 Network in 2028.
City, county and SREC officials confirmed Thursday that residents should expect no interruptions under this transition. Their new agreement allows the city to stand up its dispatch service over the next year with SREC’s help, with the city starting to accept Crime Check calls by October 2026 as the next step.
By January 2027, the city will take over dispatch for SFD, so SREC will still answer those 911 calls, but Spokane will be the one dispatching units for SFD and SPD at that point. The city must fully transition to its new independent dispatch service by January 2028 in exchange for its share of tax revenues.
“This wasn’t about any agency, any single entity winning,” SREC Board Chair Cody Rohrbach said on Thursday. “At the end of the day, the service follows the funding, which has always been the concern.”
Under the agreement, Spokane must pay $2.8 million in member fees in 2026, but will only have to pay 50% of the 2027 member dues. County Commissioner Chris Jordan said the big takeaway is that the city and SREC aren’t fighting over funding. Commissioner Al French called it a win for the citizens.
Both networks will build in redundancies in the event of an emergency so they can assist one another.
The Spokane City Council, the Board of County Commissioners, and the SREC all thanked each other Thursday for meeting and working out their concerns after years of back-and-forth over participation.
“We were put in a room together, and the door was closed, and we stayed there until we hammered out our differences, and because of that, we have a system that will serve the entire county,” Council President Betsy Wilkerson said. “Christmas came early this year.”
