The Communications Section is comprised of a supervisor, Sergeant Ray Ostrander and six classified dispatchers whom are certified by the Department of Criminal Justice Services. The Dispatch Center is a twenty-four hour, 365 day a year communications center which fulfills many duties to include: answering emergency and non-emergency telephone lines, alarm monitoring, alert notification and data retrieval from the VCIN/NCIC and DMV computer terminals.

The Dispatch Center is equipped with two alarm monitoring stations that will alert the dispatcher to fire alarms in all campus maintained housing locations, academic and administrative buildings. The Lenel system allows the dispatcher to monitor exterior door activity of residence halls and several academic and administrative buildings. This system also provides monitoring of some interior doors at several specified locations and will alert the dispatcher in the event of an unauthorized entry.

The Dispatch Office also monitors all 911 calls originating from the campus telephone system. While the actual 911 calls are answered by the Town of Farmville Communications Center, a monitoring station alerts the Longwood Dispatcher to the specific location which enables a Police Officer to be immediately dispatched.

Emergency telephones are strategically located throughout the University properties. These telephones are a direct link to the Longwood Dispatch Center. Once activated by pushing the red button, the call is automatically forwarded to our emergency lines. The dispatcher can identify the location from which the call originated and dispatch a police officer, even if the caller is unable to verbally communicate.

The Dispatch Center has monitoring capabilities for the video cameras and intrusion alarm systems located in Cole Gallery, Lancaster Gallery, Landings/Midtown and several other crucial campus locations. The communications officers are also responsible for activating the siren/voice and text messaging alert systems in the event of an actual or suspected campus emergency incident or situation.

The communications section handles a variety of communications including radio transmissions for the Student Safety Organization and occasionally from other Law Enforcement or Criminal Justice agencies. The dispatch center monitors the radio traffic from other local and neighboring jurisdictions and is also a general information center. Dispatchers routinely provide a variety of miscellaneous information to faculty, staff, students and visitors.