KCDA Project Overview and TAC Update. June 27 th, 2011

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Eleanor Bradford
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1 KCDA Project Overview and TAC Update June 27 th, 2011

2 Background

3 Background Central Dispatch idea had been discussed for 20+ years with several studies being completed, but no lasting momentum This model lacked sufficient backup as none of the surrounding counties would be able to handle all of our call volume Some agencies were not convinced that a Central Dispatch was the best idea for their communities

4 Background Problems existed in the 911 system that needed to be addressed Example: Just one year ago, a 911 cell phone caller reporting a medical problem in Lowell MSP Rockford answered the 911 cell phone call MSP conferenced the caller with medical dispatch Medical dispatch determined the priority of the call Medical dispatch dispatched an ambulance MSP hung up and called Kent County Communications Center (KCCC) to advise them of the call KCCC dispatched the fire department to the call KCCC then hung up with MSP and called Lowell Police to advise them of the call

Former Wireless 911 Call Route 911 Call Michigan State Police Rockford Post MSP Call-Taker Determines Nature of Call MSP Call-Taker Transfers Call to KCCC If

5 Former Wireless 911 Call Route 911 Call Michigan State Police Rockford Post MSP Call-Taker Determines Nature of Call MSP Call-Taker Transfers Call to KCCC If Medical, conference Ambulance for Med Level and Then Pass Along Information to KCCC KCCC Determines Nature of the Call and Enters Into CAD Dispatches Police and Fire

6 Former Land 911 Call Route 911 Call KCCC Call-Taker Determines Nature of Call Call-Taker Enters Information into CAD If Medical, conference Ambulance for Med Level Dispatchers All View CAD Information at Same Time Dispatch Fire Dispatch Police

7 Background In early 2006, the Kent County Central Dispatch Authority (through the assistance of a consultant) completed a Cost Benefit Study to determine how best to proceed

8 Background That report highlighted the following main problems: Too many transferred 911 calls Lack of regional awareness of active incidents and poor interagency coordination No standardized training for 911 tele-communicators Inefficiencies in call processing time and the various disparate systems used for dispatching Lack of accountability for 911 services

9 Background In late 2006, the retained consultant suggested a model different than a typical central dispatch The suggestion was for there to be 2 primary Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) in Kent County instead of just 1 Surrounding counties did not have the needed infrastructure or staffing to handle the entire call volume of Kent County Even if the surrounding counties could take all of the 911 calls, they did not have the means to dispatch resources due to the distances and radio limitations

10 Background At that time, the name changed from the Kent County Central Dispatch Authority (KCCDA) to the Kent County Dispatch Authority (KCDA) The KCDA amended and restated charter was signed by the Kent County Clerk and Chairperson of the Kent County Board of Commissioners on August 1 st, 2006 making it a legal entity

11 Background Now that there was momentum toward the two primary PSAP model, who (out of the 5 existing) would be chosen? And what would be the deciding factors? In April of 2009, KCDA released a PSAP criteria document with facility, technical, and staffing requirements for existing PSAPs to be considered in the KCDA contract On March 23 rd, 2010, Grand Rapids Communications and Kent County Communications were chosen

12 Background By coincidence, the Grand Rapids Communications Center and the Kent County Communications Center already were nearly a 50/50 split on statistics like population served and call volume within Kent County

13 Background

14 Background

15 Progress

16 Progress Soon after KCDA was established, it commissioned a sub-group known as the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) to work through the technical aspects of their mission Responsibilities of this group have included: Writing a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a new Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system to be used by all communications centers and responders in Kent County Writing an RFP for new 911 Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) Evaluating responses to these RFPs

17 Progress Members of the KCDA TAC on CAD site visit to Nashville, TN

18 Progress KCDA TAC in Lake County, IN for phone site visit

19 Progress More Progress: All 911 cell-phone calls in Kent County are being answered at the two primary PSAPs The IP-based 911 CPE is in place and will soon be connected as one system between the two primary PSAPs The redundant, geo-diverse fiber optic network between the two primary PSAPs has been expanded to remove potential points of failure and improve reliability

20 Progress More Progress: All police and fire units in Kent County have been re-named to a standardized system Removes possibility of redundant names between different agencies System has room for growth Reduces chances of conflicts in systems such as CAD and radio identifiers in the future

21 Standardized Fire Apparatus Names

22 Standardized Police Unit Names

23 Progress More Progress: As a by-product of the primary PSAP selections, several local municipalities have closed their secondary PSAPs and contracted or merged their operations to either Grand Rapids Communications or Kent County Communications

24 Progress Kent County Communications Center 10 Law Enforcement Agencies Kent County Sheriff Department Kentwood Police Department Walker Police Department Grandville Police Department Rockford Police Department Cedar Springs Police Department East Grand Rapids Department of Public Safety Lowell Police Department Sparta Police Department Sand Lake Police Department

25 Progress Grand Rapids Communications Center 2 Law Enforcement Agencies Grand Rapids Police Department Wyoming Police Department

Progress Kent County Communications Center 27 Fire Departments Kentwood Fire Department Plainfield Township Fire Department Cutlerville Fire Department Grandville Fire Department Cascade Township

26 Progress Kent County Communications Center 27 Fire Departments Kentwood Fire Department Plainfield Township Fire Department Cutlerville Fire Department Grandville Fire Department Cascade Township Fire Department Alpine Township Fire Department Sparta Fire Department Lowell Area Fire Department Cedar Springs Fire Department Walker Fire Department Courtland Township Fire Department Oakfield Township Fire Department Rockford Fire Department Ada Township Fire Department Caledonia Township Fire Department Dutton Fire Department Algoma Township Fire Department Cannon Township Fire Department Kent City Fire Department Byron Township Fire Department Sand Lake Fire Department Solon Township Fire Department Spencer Township Fire Department Grand Rapids Township Fire Department East Grand Rapids Department of Public Safety Grattan Township Fire Department Alto Fire Department

27 Progress Grand Rapids Communications Center 2 Fire Departments Grand Rapids Fire Department Wyoming Fire Department

28 Progress More Progress: Training for 911 tele-communicators has been standardized based on the KCDA contract with the two primary PSAPs Primary PSAPs must comply with the State of Michigan recommended standards for tele-communicator training within 2 years of implementation of contract

29 Progress KCCC tele-communicator training plan is as follows: 40 hour APCO Project 33 certified course Approximately 28 hours of in-house block training per year Send each of our employees to an average of 32 hours of outside classes per year Have begun touring key facilities such as Gerald R. Ford Airport, fire stations, ambulance headquarters, and other 911 communications centers *Averages based on 2008 Statistics

30 Kent County Communications Center

31 Kent County Communications Center

32 Current Status

33 Current Status CAD Why are we delayed? Several key interfaces such as the Core/Talon interface for querying names and license plates was not ready Several key features that we believe we need for go-live were not fully engineered by Motorola at a time where they needed to be complete for our training materials to be developed

34 Current Status CAD When will we be going live? We have been spending significant time trying to narrow that down We have been working to determine what a realistic estimate on how long each remaining task will take and then assigning the various teams to each task The team with the longest task list determines how far out our push-back is It now appears that our training will begin late in Q3 of this year and go-live will likely be in late Q4

35 Current Status CAD Benefits of new CAD: All public safety responders will be connected somehow Police and Fire will be using the same system and EMS will be interfaced Better interagency cooperation and awareness Reduced need for transferring callers - Even if the caller calls the wrong PSAP, the 1 st person to answer the call for service can process it and enter the incident in CAD CAD then routes the information to the appropriate dispatcher whether or not they are in the same communications center

44 Current Status 911 Phone CPE Have had several meetings with Advanced Wireless Telecom and Cassidian (formerly Plant/CML) recently to discuss the go-forward plan with merging the two phone systems into one Since all of the plans require some type of outage for one center at a time, considerable thought has been put into creating a viable solution Scheduling has become an issue as well since both centers will need their key support staff in place for this transition As of right now, this 2 week transition period has been slated for the weeks of September 26 th and October 3 rd

45 Current Status 911 Phone CPE Merging of the two systems is important because: It allows for a phone call to automatically re-route route to an alternate center if it goes unanswered for a pre- defined amount of time It provides integrated reporting and accountability because calls can be tracked using the same tools and same methods It provides additional redundancy for administrative lines which may also have emergency components to them (alarm companies calling in fire, medical, and hold-up alarms, persons trapped in elevators, etc.)

47 Current Status Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) The two primary PSAPs will eventually begin handling the EMD process which is the prioritization of emergency medical calls for service This additional task will be accomplished after the CAD and 911 CPE systems have been completed, installed, and deemed stable Likely to occur 3 to 6 months after successful go-live of both systems

48 Current Status Today, our telecommunications professionals are responsible for a wide variety of call-handling and dispatching functions Both primary PSAPs have increased staff and number of served agencies We have both participated in the decision making process for the systems that we are implementing as well as the procedures that we will adopt to make our model of call-taking and dispatching as efficient and safe as it can be

49 Current Status The Kent County Communications Center has also undergone a complete facility renovation Used to be in a 900 square foot room Used to have 8 consoles Now in a 2600 square foot room (with additional offices bringing the total to 3200 square feet) Now have 18 consoles 14 with 911 answering capabilities (CPE) 16 slated to have full CAD functions Operations Manager s s office will be equipped as a full workstation to assist during high volume times 9 workstations will have VHF or UHF (or both) back up radios available with high quality roof mounted base station antennas to handle backup dispatch functions for other centers or in cases of radio console equipment failures

52 Thank You

BROWARD REGIONAL 911 SYSTEM. Final Report: Assessment Findings & Recommendations

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