CCSO To Launch New CAD System Tuesday

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office is replacing its 17-year-old computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system. Three years of planning and preparation; 15,000 hours of provisioning and network preparation and installation; and 14,000 hours of training for 911 telecommunicators and first responders have gone into the project, making it the most ambitious system upgrade in the agency’s history.

This upgrade will give all Collier County EMS, county fire departments and Marco Island police and fire departments in-vehicle access to CAD, providing first responders with live updates to incidents as captured at the CCSO 911 center.  Enhanced 911 maps will provide supplemental data such as floor plans, hazardous materials, hydrant locations and shortest-distance routing.

It’s part of Sheriff Kevin Rambosk’s vision of a Next Generation Communications System, a group of initiatives being implemented to enhance public safety. These initiatives will shorten response times to calls for service by streamlining the communications process, providing closest unit response and agency-to-agency coordination, and enhancing resource allocation.

“This has been a major undertaking, and I am proud of everyone who helped make it possible,” Sheriff Rambosk said. “The new CAD system and the rest of the Next Generation 911 initiatives provide our community with technology that will enhance public safety and reduce response times.”

The new CAD system will go live Tuesday, Jan. 26. The activation is in accordance with the timeline that was established at the outset of the project in 2013. The agency has established a controlled and deliberate process for migrating to the new system, which is comprised of multiple elements. The CCSO Communications staff will move to manual call processing during the migration. This will ensure that all calls continue to be serviced. Communications staffing will also be increased as the new system is activated. The migration process is expected to be completed within 15 to 30 days, although certain elements may take slightly longer.

Elements of the CAD system are:

Locution – Network-based fire and EMS alerting in stations with digitized voice.  Locution allows near simultaneous dispatch for multiple calls, reducing time from call receipt to unit dispatch.

ProQA (EMD) – Computerized software to guide 911 call takers through medical protocols and provide Emergency Medical instructions

Zetron (backup VHF paging) - CAD interface to Zetron model 25 paging encoder to send Motorola two-tone paging signals over VHF radio system to alert fire/EMS units in case of Locution failure

Deccan Live MUM - Move-up module that monitors fire/EMS unit status from CAD and provides dispatchers with visual coverage indicators and recommendations for moving units to areas needing coverage. An additional feature from Deccan International dynamically monitors fire and EMS incidents and “identifies holes in coverage or changes in a unit’s status then recommends instantaneously the optimal move-ups for apparatus.”

E911 ANI/ALI - Interface that takes the automatic location information from the 911 call and populates the information into the CAD application

HipLink (SMS notification) - SMS (text) and e-mail notification module that allows dispatchers to send messages to groups or users via cellular devices (SWAT and dive teams, Emergency Management notifications, personnel call-outs, etc.)

P1 Mobile (WinGS) - Application interface to provide incident data from a mobile CAD device into an officer’s incident report

TriTier RMS - Interface to take CAD incident data and automatically populate the CCSO Record Management System (Windows for Government Systems-WinGS)

FCIC/NCIC Queries – National Crime Information Center and Florida Crime Information Center databases, which provide information on fugitives, missing persons, stolen property, sex offenders and other data that helps law enforcement officers perform their duties

Spectracom NetClock – Provides fault tolerant GPS time source for time synchronization of CAD, 911 and related systems

Image Trend Fire RMS - Interface to take CAD incident data and automatically populate several fire and EMS records management systems around the county

Firehouse RMS - Interface to take CAD incident data and automatically populate the Immokalee Fire Protection District’s records management system

PulsePoint (public notification smartphone app) - In addition to life-saving CPR notifications, the application provides a complete virtual window into the emergency communication center. Mobile users will have real-time access to emergency activity as it is occurring. There will also be an app that members of the community may download to smartphones to be alerted of certain incidents in the county such as fires and vehicle accidents.

ASAP to PSAP (Automated Secure Alarm Protocol) - CCSO will be the first in  Florida to integrate professional commercial and residential alarm monitoring companies into our CAD system, eliminating thousands of phone calls per year and reducing the dispatch time for fire, medical and burglar alarms.

As each element is brought online, but prior to it going live, functional testing will be performed to ensure a smooth migration. Once functionality has been verified, Communications will then gradually bring up individual agencies and CCSO districts.

The transition will not affect 911 lines or the county public safety radio system. All lines of communication between callers, dispatchers and first responders will be operational throughout the transition.

The current system uses computers to plot the caller's location. Under the upgraded system dispatchers will use global positioning (GPS) to identify the closest responder to the emergency and send the call information, including text and map instructions, to the responders in a fraction of a second over fast network connections. Each first responder agency in Collier County is responsible to either install the GPS hardware that CCSO provided, or purchase GPS hardware in order to take advantage of this function.

“When seconds can mean lives, location information and details obtained during 911 calls are crucial for first responders on the way to help,” said Robert Marshall, territory vice president, Motorola Solutions, makers of the new system. “We congratulate Collier County on this major Motorola Solutions PremierOne CAD and PremierOne Mobile deployment that will provide first responders the critical information they need, when and where they need it most, to help them better serve local Florida communities."

Once the migration period ends, CCSO will host a demonstration of the CAD system for the media in the Communications Center.