Linking Emergency
Personnel to the Information Infrastructure
Valley Emergency Communications Center
Murray, Utah
Move over, Dick Tracy. Tracy, the comic-book character, made the wrist phone famous, but police and other emergency personnel near Salt Lake City have an even more sophisticated communications system: they can connect with dispatchers and tap into vast databases from laptop computers right in their vehicles.
Their system was developed by Valley Emergency Communications Center in Murray City, Utah, about three miles south of Salt Lake City. VECC dispatches emergency services over a 120- square-mile area that spans seven political jurisdictions serving a population of about 566,000 people. It uses a communications technology known as Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) to give police, fire, and rescue personnel access via laptop computers to public safety databases for information ranging from vehicle registrations and drivers licenses to outstanding warrants and investigative reports. In effect, the officer on patrol has at his fingertips all the data that can be found in the computer back at headquarters.
Reducing Crime
Though relatively new VECC received its TIIAP funding in 1996 the system already has produced impressive results: Recoveries of stolen vehicles have jumped 300 per cent since the system was installed, according to Terry Ingram, VECC's executive director.
The reason is fairly simple. Previously, an officer who needed to check a license plate or some other information would have to radio the communications center, and then get switched to a "service channel," where a staffer could look up the information. At a busy time, such calls from the field could stack up at headquarters; officers would sometimes find themselves waiting in line to be helped. In many cases, officers were reluctant or unable to wait. Now, however, officers can retrieve the information themselves in just seconds. The process is so much easier that many officers routinely check more license plates than they ever did in the past and this has translated directly into more recovered vehicles.
Ingram says the system also is producing significant cost savings. In the last seven years, the number of calls between the dispatch center and police has climbed 90 per cent. Normally, Ingram says, he would have to be installing more radio channels and hiring more dispatchers and central office staff to handle information requests from the field. But, despite the increase, the center has managed without increasing either.
Ingram also believes the system is cutting the time police have to spend doing paperwork. In some routine cases, reports can be filed automatically, using computer functions keys. But even if a more detailed report is required, officers often can type the information they need directly into the computer, rather than having to take notes in the field, give them to a clerk to type at headquarters, and then review them for accuracy.
Greater Public Safety at Affordable Costs
Ingram sees even bigger gains in the future. He says VECC plans to start using the system to dispatch officers and emergency vehicles. "Voiceless dispatch" should reduce administrative costs by automating many of the routine messages that flow back and forth between headquarters and the field. More important, it will increase the amount of information available to personnel in emergency situations. Because radio transmissions can easily be intercepted, police, fire and rescue departments currently limit how much information they broadcast. The CDPD system, however, allows much more extensive information-sharing because it has several levels of encryption that ensure security.
Ingram says VECC has managed to avoid the kind of technical problems that complex communications projects can entail by using the existing cellular telephone network, rather than creating its own system. Besides the cost of central servers, laptops (about $1,200 each) and CDPD modem-transmitters (priced at under $600 each), the department pays a cellular provider $50 a month per laptop connected to the system. "We lease the service, and they maintain and upgrade it," he says. Moreover, as competition increases in the communications business, cellular costs are coming down; in some places, Ingram says, connections can be made for as little as $35 a month. If that still seems expensive, Ingram notes, the alternative new radio towers, more channels and more central office staff is costly too.
Police forces that participate in VECC are persuaded of its value. One participating department is developing scanners that will enable officers to check fingerprints from their laptops. Another wants to develop electronic mug shots.
Ingram believes cellular data communications will catch on among more police and emergency departments as the advantages are recognized. And that, in turn, could bring new benefits. Among other things, it should facilitate communication among departments scattered over a wider area. Currently, with some agencies using VHF and others using UHF frequencies, communications among different emergency agencies can be spotty. But a cellular system could allow seamless communications over wide areas a capability that could come in handy in natural disasters and other emergency situations.
Terry Ingram
Executive Director
(801) 265-4002
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
National Telecommunications and Information Administration
Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications
Last Modified: 18 Dec 97