New dispatching software garners positive response

Time if of the essence in protecting and serving a city. An essential tool in The Colony’s emergency response time received an upgrade when city’s police and fire dispatch switched over to a new computer aided dispatch (CAD) software, Monday morning.

“This new software is really going to help the dispatching of police and fire departments,” said Lise Rizzo, dispatch communications supervisor.

“It is going to be relieving us of several redundant tasks,” Rizzo said. ”Now, instead of the dispatcher having several computer windows open and entering data, the new software will be doing much of that work in the background. “

The previous software was purchased in 2002, but it was in need of several major updates to keep up with the city’s growth. However, the company that produced the software had gone out of business and no other companies could do the updates. The new software has been developed by New World Systems. They have been providing software for public safety departments for over 25 years. “They know what we do and what it will take for the software to help us,” Rizzo said. “Most of the people that have been here training us were former dispatchers. When we say that there is something we need they know exactly what we are asking for.”

The existing 911 software that we have now feeds directly into the dispatching system. There is no longer a need to type the information from one screen to another. It will also link to a database that will show the dispatcher if there have been other calls to the same address. “This will allow us to inform the officers if there have been problems in the past,” Rizzo said. Once the police cruisers are added to the new system the same data will be sent to the cruiser for the officer to see as soon as the call is received.

They are expecting the police cars to be added to the system over the next three to four months. The fire department will take a bit longer but is expected to be on the system before the end of the year.

“The new system is going to streamline our paperwork and bring us closer to a paperless process.” said Lt. Mike Fox of the TCPD Criminal Investigations Division.

Now the officer fills out a report on paper and turns it into his supervisor. Once approved, it is passed to the reports office where it gets typed into the system, and filed. Once the new system is implemented then the officer will type his report into the system in his car. This entry goes into the database and then a notice is sent to the supervisor for approval. Once approved, the report will be available to the records department without a clerk having to type it into another system. After that, it can then be made available to the rest of the department on an as-needed basis.

“This new system is going to improve the response time for police, fire, and medical emergencies,” Fox said. “It is also expandable by purchasing new modules that are available for the software. There is even one module that will allow the dispatchers to see the video from the dash camera of the cruisers. This is a package that can grow with the city. We are very excited that the City Council approved this software.”

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