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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 09-21-1993 - VII-A 1 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Action Agenda Item No -A ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: September 21, 1993 SUBJECT: Update on Implementation of Computer Aided Dispatching (CAD) DEPARTMENT County Manager/Emerg Mgmt PUBLIC HEARING YES NO x ATTACHMENT(S) INFORMATION CONTACT Report Rod Visser, ext 2300 Nick Waters, ext 3030 TELEPHONE NUMBER Hillsborough 732-8181 Chapel Hill 968-4501 Mebane 227-2031 Durham 688-7331 PURPOSE: To receive a report on implementation of the County' s new Computer Aided Dispatching system. BACKGROUND: On August 19, 1993, Orange County Emergency Management implemented the Computer Aided Dispatching (CAD) component of the E911/CAD/GIS system, which was undertaken beginning in January 1992 . The Orange County 911 Communications Group, which is comprised of the managers and chiefs of the County and its municipalities, and Emergency Management staff, met on September 10, 1993 to discuss the CAD implementation and other operational issues. Staff will present a brief report about this meeting and respond to any Board questions. RECOMMENDATION: The Manager recommends that the Board receive the report for information only. 2 MEMORANDUM TO: Orange County Board of Commissioners Joh Link, County Manager FROM:4 d Visser, Assistant County Manager DATE: September 13, 1993 RE: 911 Communications Group Meeting Last Friday, September 10, members of the Orange County 911 Communications Group met, with the primary subject of the meeting being the Computer Aided Dispatching (CAD) system that went on-line on August 19 . Participation at the meeting was excellent, with every County and municipal fire and law enforcement agency and the Orange County Chiefs ' Council represented. - It appears that certain procedural and software changes hold the potential for providing enhanced system capabilities that would benefit both field units and Orange Central Communications. Comments from several agencies indicated that the new system' s reporting configuration is causing problems in ready retrieval and producing hard copies pertaining to some incidents. The overall system incident numbering method does not guarantee each agency that its incidents will be reported in the chronological sequence in which 911 calls were received. As it is now programmed, the system generates reports based on a systemwide dispatching incident number. In addition, an agency specific reference number is manually assigned to each incident by the dispatcher. For various operational reasons, such numbers may be manually assigned within seconds or in a matter of hours. All agencies indicated the desirability of the system automatically generating an agency specific incident number as soon as the call is routed to a specific agency. That step would ensure sequential numbering of incidents and much easier record keeping. Consensus also indicated the desirability of having all reports based on the time the 911 call is received. Several agencies suggested that the system should provide a print screen capability that would enable the telecommunicator to print all the pertinent information about an agency incident and set it aside for later review by the agency. This might provide some short-term help to field agencies, at least until other reporting enhancements can be pursued. It appears that with the existing system set up, dispatchers must leave their active screens and call up files to respond to field officer requests for information pertaining to earlier incidents. This, along with the sheer volume of calls, seems to account for more frequent requests since CAD went on line from telecommunicators to field officers to "standby" . Another possible improvement in software would give the dispatcher the ability to assign the call to an agency without waiting to assign it to a specific unit. At present, the system does not register a dispatch as 3 having been completed until the call is "attached" to the unit that ultimately responds to the call. This apparent lengthening in the time required to complete dispatches with the CAD system may be able to be shortened if we can provide the telecommunicator the ability to attach the call to the agency to reflect a dispatch status, with the agency supervisor deciding to whom the call should be assigned if all units are engaged, for example. One other partial explanation for the perceived increase in dispatching time is that with the new automated system, response time is calculated from the instant the telecommunicator answers the 911 call. Under the old manual system, response time was measured from the time an incident card was "punched" by the telecommunicator, either after completing conversation with the caller or at least far enough into the call to evaluate the urgency of the call and make the dispatch. At the meeting, there was also agreement to try several procedural changes that may improve responsiveness. Probably the most significant change would involve telecommunicators making the initial dispatch with less information provided to field units than is currently provided. Telecommunicators typically try to provide field units with as much information about the situation they will be getting into as possible. Under the new procedure, telecommunicators will dispatch with only essential information - for example, "shots fired, 400 block of West ' Franklin Street. " This will get officers rolling, and dispatchers will attempt to keep callers on the line to gain additional information that will be useful to field officers as they approach the scene. Another procedural change that will be pursued is that when the situation permits, telecommunicators will provide a brief explanation to field officers of the reasons for giving "standby" . For example, if the telecommunicator is handling a critical 911 call at the same time, he or she will answer officer requests for additional information with "standby, handling domestic violence call" . This will not solve the problem of field officers having to wait, but will indicate to them they have not been forgotten. Moreover, if the officer understands that an immediate response from Central is not possible, he or she may be able to take some other action while waiting. There was also substantial discussion about the need to move in the direction of discouraging non-emergency calls to 911. While all agreed on the need for balance to ensure that legitimate emergency callers do not hesitate to call 911, there was consensus that continued public information effort is needed to promote proper usage of the 911 system. With the recent installation of the Sheriff ' s E911/CAD workstation, we should be able to pursue a pilot program for downloading certain non- emergency calls to the Sheriff' s office in the near future. The Sheriff indicated that his office is receiving as many as 300 non- emergency y c alls a day that come directly to his office. If enough of these calls can be handled over the phone, without dispatching a deputy, some relief may be provided to both Orange Central Communications and Sheriff ' s Department staff. Several town staff members also indicated their intentions to examine during the year ahead the issue of taking on their own non-emergency calls. 4 Throughout the E911/CAD system implementation, IBM has been extremely supportive and responsive. They have worked with the software vendor, Logisys, to make- a number of software modifications requested by the County or municipalities, without billing the County for any additional project cost. IBM Project Manager Gar Keaton attended the September 10 meeting, and seemed optimistic that Logisys would be able to accomplish some or all of the suggested software improvements. There is a new CAD release expected in November, and it may be possible to incorporate some of the suggested changes in that release. IBM may also be able to provide some interim solutions. You may recall that when Orange County made the decision in January 1992 to go ahead with the integrated E911/CAD/GIS system, we indicated that we would proceed carefully and incrementally to ensure that new technology did not outstrip our staff' s ability to use it effectively. The Enhanced 911 component came on line in late March 1992 . Integration of the CAD, DCI (Department of Crime Information) and electronic road mapping capabilities have continued since then. Telecommunications staff began training on CAD in early September 1992 . In the year since then, staff practiced extensively with CAD and passed rigorous in-house examination before the decision was made to go live with the system. I believe our telecommunicators are very well trained with the new CAD capabilities, as they are in other facets of their f jobs. They do make some mistakes, of course, but they will only get ' better as they gain more experience working with CAD. I believe the telecommunicators collectively are proud of, and pleased with, the system that the Board selected last year. We also discussed renewing participation in the interagency exchange program which was the recipient of a NACo award at the last Commissioners ' meeting. There was acknowledgment of the value of telecommunicators and field officers spending time observing the others ' environment to reinforce an appreciation for the working conditions and complexities inherent in their counterparts ' jobs. In sum, concerns about the new CAD system expressed by emergency response agencies focused on the reporting and record keeping side of the house. There seemed to be general satisfaction (or at least a lack of expression of any dissatisfaction) with the operational side of the system. Procedural changes indicated by consensus of opinion should be implemented quickly and monitored for effect. County staff will work closely with IBM, Logisys, and staff of the emergency response agencies in the weeks ahead to develop the software improvements sought at last Friday' s meeting. While we may not be able to accommodate every requested improvement, we do want to examine suggestions from response agencies and pursue evolutionary system modifications that seem advisable based on actual experience with the system. The 911 Communications Group will continue its regular meetings to review performance of the entire E911/CAD/GIS system and to promote cooperation and smooth functioning of the emergency response system in Orange County and its municipalities. This memo will be included as a report on the September 21, 1993 Commissioners ' meeting agenda.