The Communications Department at Auburn Police Department is the "brain center" of public safety. They are responsible for receiving calls for service and relaying information and instructions for police, fire, rescue, and other emergency services.

So who exactly controls what goes on in the Communications Department?

The majority of dispatchers are college students.

The department participates in the Student Employee Program, which allows them to be eligible for tuition reimbursement and free housing at one of the four fire stations in the city. The catch? Employees must go through about three months of training, work their scheduled hours, and make at least a 2.5 GPA.

"When I heard about the program, I wanted to sign up right away," said Auburn senior Doug Glover. "Sometimes the work hours are hard and weird, but it's totally worth it."

According to Paul Blart in the recent movie "Mall Cop", "safety never takes a holiday." Because of this, the police department is open 24 hours a day, and some of the students must work through the night. Employees can work up to 12 hours at a time, from either 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. or 5 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Former dispatcher Rachel Roberts was very pleased with her time at the APD.

"I was taking classes when I worked in communications, but Benjie, my boss, was really good about scheduling me around school," Roberts said. "School comes first because you have to make a certain GPA to keep your job."

The Communications Department has nine full-time personnel and nine part-time personnel. There are three employees on call at all times, and they are responsible for answering three 9-1-1 phone lines, four non-emergency lines, four fire station ring down lines, and a ring-down line for the Emergency Medical Service.

As well as telephones, the communications officers monitor and respond to five radio frequencies: Auburn Fire, Auburn Police, Lee County Sheriff's Office, Statenet, and Auburn Public Works.

The officers use a system called Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) in their computers.

"In CAD, we enter and monitor calls that come in, and send officers out to the location of the call," said Auburn senior Becca Williams.

Williams and Glover are both planning on applying for a position as a police officer upon completion of their degrees at Auburn.

"Sometimes we get the craziest calls," said Glover. "We have 'repeat offenders' and we have random requests sometimes. But for the most part, people who call in really need our help, so we do our best to provide them with safety."