Cedar Park, Texas installs a new Computer-aided Dispatch System as well as US Digital Designs’ Phoenix G2 Fire Station Alerting System after learning that San Antonio’s response time was cut in half.
Watch the news video here:
Video Transcription:
Published by KVUE ABC News
In an emergency, every second counts. From the 911 call, to the dispatcher, and then out to every agency and crew on call.
Each step takes up those vital moments.
Cedar Park is now cutting down that time. The goal: 8 minutes for fire, and 6 minutes for medical calls.
“Right now, our overall for last year was 9 minutes and 7 seconds; we’re just a little bit above that.”
This morning, the city unveiled a new dispatch system designed to keep call times short.
That can be very trying because you either have to put the person on hold, which is not optimal, nobody likes to be on hold when they’re on 911.
Those moments on hold are now gone. The system frees up the dispatcher so that they can continue talking with the caller.
Here’s how it works: Once the dispatcher enters the address, nature of the call and basic information about what happened, the system will automatically determine what crews are needed.
A computerized voice and tone will play out to crews on patrol, lines flash at the stations, warnings go out so crews automatically know if there’s a potential hazard like gas lines or chemicals in a building.
“You can’t memorize every building in town where everything is so give them a very quick reference point.”
For police, the new system let officers checked the license plate number and write up reports directly from their cars.”
“Before we had to contact dispatch and have them run that information, and have them printed off and come back to the station.”
What remains to be seen is exactly how this will impact call times, but the expectations are high.
Cedar Park modeled its system after one in San Antonio. Response times there? Cut in half.
