History

Southern Oregon Regional Communications (SORC) is located in Medford Oregon and serves the population of the beautiful Rogue Valley. SORC is a combined emergency dispatch facility and Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for the Jackson County Oregon 9-1-1 lines. The Center is also a regional "drop point" for emergency information that needs to be given to Jackson and Josephine counties. This may include severe storm warnings or notice of a foreign enemy attack. This information is received through the National Air Warning Alert System (NAWAS) radio channel that covers the entire United States.

    SORC has a rich history, starting initially as a Fire Communications Center in 1973. In 1975, by resolution and support of the County Board of Commissioners, the Center became a combined, centralized communications facility the includes law enforcement dispatching under the organizational structure of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.

    Between 1976 and 1980, numerous other emergency service agencies joined the Center and implementation of the 9-1-1 emergency telephone system was initiated countywide. During this period, the financial and operational activities of the Center were under the guidance of the Jackson County Advisory Council, which was made up of representatives from each user agency.

    In 1981, the Center was transferred from the Sheriff’s Office and placed organizationally under the County Administrator. In the several years that followed, control of the Center became a hotly debated issue. This finally culminated in the drafting of an agreement allowed under O.R.S. 190.10, which, in turn, established Southern Oregon Regional Communications as a stand-alone public entity. In essence, this agreement enabled the user agencies of the Center to come together as one organizational public body providing its own control and direction of emergency communications services. This is accomplished under the Council, consisting of representatives from the political jurisdictions that act as a Board of Directors for SORC. The SORC User Board handles center operational activities and subsequent recommendations to the Council. This entity consists of representatives such as police and fire chiefs from user agencies of the Center as well as those agencies that respond within the jurisdictional areas served by SORC.

    In 1997, SORC implemented the Clawson system of emergency dispatch and all dispatchers are now certified in Medical Priority Dispatch Systems by the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch.

    In April of 2000, SORC made a huge leap into the computer age with the addition of a Tiburon computer aided dispatch (CAD) system. This technology upgrade did away with the antiquated paper-based system, allowing for quicker and more effective use of user agency resources.

    In November of 2001, the center was given a whole new look. The old furniture was replaced with new ergonomic furniture and a new computer based radio system from Motorola was installed, giving us even more communications flexibility.