Cumberland County Emergency Communications District Builds a More Connected, Ready Center with Frontline

The Challenge

Cumberland County Emergency Communications District, located in eastern Tennessee, answers for every public safety agency in their county, serving law enforcement, fire and rescue, EMS, and emergency management. Between local police departments, the county sheriff, fire departments, and more, the District serves 10 agencies total in their area.

In 2025, the District handled more than 29,000 911 calls and more than 130,000 total inbound and outbound calls. When fully staffed, that work falls to a team of 16 full-time and 5 part-time telecommunicators working 12-hour day and night shifts.

In 2021, the district was looking to replace their current software for tracking conduct and was also looking to begin a quality assurance (QA) program. They had previously tried to run QA on paper, but according to the Director, “it wasn’t working.”

The Choice

The Director encountered Frontline at an industry conference in Kentucky. QA Tracker had just been released, and the timing was right. They were also interested in being able to fulfill their needs for professional standards and quality assurance with one vendor.

“When we realized that we could get Pro Standards Tracker and QA Tracker together in one system, we knew we were going to give this a shot,” he said.

Since then, the district has added every Frontline module that applies to 911, and the Director is in the platform at least once every day.

“Everything I’ve wanted out of Frontline, I’ve been able to do,” he said.

The Change

Through Frontline, Cumberland County Emergency Communications District has:

• Streamlined accessing, storing, and reporting on important data by consolidating information into one system, allowing leadership and supervisors to quickly access information without relying on multiple sources or asking staff to provide it.
• Improved accountability by simplifying tracking conduct and wellness and providing leadership and supervisors with continuous updates as documents move through the system.
• Maintained important documents such as policies and memos in a secure, digital repository, making it easy for telecommunicators to access them from any computer or web-enabled device.
• Jumpstarted their quality assurance processes with QA Tracker, which helped them build a dedicated QA process.
• Delivered strong return on investment by saving time, improving efficiency, and providing improved access to data and important documentation.

According to the Director, Pro Standards Tracker is checked daily for any conduct entries or wellness checks that have been logged. Telecommunicators and supervisors can document what they need to, the right people are assigned, and leadership gets continuous updates as documents are signed.

“It makes tracking really easy for that stuff,” the Director said.

The wellness side has been especially valuable for supporting telecommunicators. Points can be assigned to each occurrence based on the severity of the incident, which then serves as an early intervention signal.

“We can assign points to those things, every occurrence that triggers something as an early intervention. We really like that,” he said.

He also understands why tools that support telecommunicators matter, having seen firsthand how hard it can be to reach dispatchers who are struggling.

“One of the biggest issues we see with morale and wellness is that even if they need it, they won’t tell you they need it,” he said.

QA Tracker gave the District an easier way to get their QA program started. Today, QA Tracker is integrated directly with the agency’s CAD and is used every day. The QA supervisor can also make changes on his own, without waiting on the Director, which keeps the program moving.

In Policy Tracker, the District manages dozens of administrative policies, operational policies, personnel policies, and active memos in one place, along with years of board meeting minutes, newsletters, and the in-house forms their telecommunicators use every day. Everything is organized in one place and accessible from any computer or phone where staff can log in.

That access also strengthens operational readiness and allows telecommunicators to check policies and other materials from their regional backup facility and find all the same information.

Policy Tracker’s shared library has also saved the Director the time of tracking down examples from other centers.

“It’s really nice to be able to pull examples that other comm centers have shared without having to send out an e-mail saying, ‘hey, can you send me your policy on this?’” he said. “I can pull up the Frontline shared library and pull up five or six different examples from agencies across the US.”

The district also uses Performance Tracker for annual performance review campaigns, as well as utilizing Training Tracker and DOR Tracker for training purposes, which it plans to lean on heavily over the next couple of months as new trainees come on board.

For the Director, Frontline is now part of running the center every day. Between conduct and wellness checks, QA reviews, and policy updates, he and his team are logging in at least once a day.

“I have been immeasurably satisfied by everything that I have had to do with Frontline,” he said. “I can’t recommend Frontline enough.”