Southampton Town’s New Computer Aided Dispatch System Will Improve Efficiency Of Police, Fire And EMS Services

The Town of Southampton has launched a new state-of-the-art Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and information system, which has already gone into effect.

“This transition will greatly improve the efficiency of our public safety operations by instantly providing a suite of powerful tools to our police officers and other emergency personnel,” noted Supervisor Anne Throne-Holst.

All active E-911 calls are now being processed with the new system. Part of implementing the new CAD system included installing new hardware and terminals in the Dispatch Center, as well as new units in all primary police vehicles. The approximately $350,000 upgrade also put in back office servers and redundant backup systems for 27/7/356 reliability.

One key feature of this new system includes a real-time activity view of active incidents to the dispatchers, supervisors and patrol officers. This will include information on the location and known threats. Other features include live up-to-the-minute crime mapping and analytical data, public obtainable accident reports through www.getcrashreports.com, and improving the efficiency of filling public requests for records, therefore eliminating the need to access paper files. The CAD is part of the Town’s plan to improve its public safety technology infrastructure.

“This is a powerful and welcome technology upgrade for both our police officers and the community,” stated Councilman Brad Bender. “Streamlining the reporting process and providing real time information and data access will greatly improve efficiency and response times of the police and emergency services to the public.”

Supervisor Throne-Holst credited key members of the police and information technology departments for the success of the project. “Several members of our police and information technology departments deserve high praise for the success of this highly challenging project,” said Throne-Holst. “Those people are Randy York, Marty Knab, Chris Bramfeld, Paula Pobat, John Capone, Ross Baldwin of the Town’s Information Technology unit, as well as Lt. Michael Zarro and public safety dispatchers Linda Fabiano and Jayme Ditta of the Police department.”

The next step for Southampton is to upgrade the two-way radio communications systems. Implementation will begin next fall and will take approximately two years to complete.