Wednesday, August 22, 2007
UPDATED: Dallas replaces 30-year-old 911 mainframe with new computer assisted dispatch system
Updated 12:15 p.m., August 23, 2007
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More on the DPD
On Wednesday, August 22, 2007, the City of Dallas implemented VisiCAD Command, a new Computer Assisted Dispatch (CAD) system, replacing a 30-year-old mainframe system. The new system is used by the 9-1-1 Call Center, the Dallas Police Communications Dispatch Center, and the Dallas Fire Rescue Dispatch Center, the nerve centers that direct the City’s first responders to answer as many as 4,000 calls from Dallas citizens daily.
From 4:15 am to 5:30 am, Dallas Police Department and Dallas Fire Rescue mobile data computers were logged on to the system in preparation for call entry, and the first incident was recorded in the new system at 5:38 am. Police and Fire Rescue dispatchers agree that the CAD system is performing well. The City’s new system is developed by TriTech Software Services of San Diego, CA. Their VisiCAD Command system is in use in numerous locations in North America and internationally, including Austin, Oklahoma City, Denver, and Minneapolis.
The City expects the new system to provide the following improvements:
Improved automatic vehicle location (AVL) integration into the CAD system for DPD, which allows the system to recommend the closest available unit for each call. This should improve DPD’s response time, especially for high priority calls.
Automated inter-departmental incident sharing between Police and Fire Rescue, so that the system can send an incident to both agencies automatically.
Automatic identification of potential duplicate incident calls. Call takers and dispatchers will have the ability to append additional information to the call and that information will be transmitted to the officer(s) in the field.
Police’s hazardous address location and Fire Rescue’s tactical information locations will be shared with each other, improving officer safety.
Historical information about the incident location will be automatically retrieved and sent to the dispatcher and to the officers in the field, further improving officer safety.
Expanded use of the CAD system with other departmental agencies such as DPD Physical Evidence Investigation (crime scene).
Improved ability to share data with other regional jurisdictions.
UPDATE: CBS 11 says there are still bugs to work out...
CBS 11: Working out the bugs
Source: City of Dallas Public Information Office
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Comments
angelsuga Anonymous
I'm a 911 Operator in Minneapolis and we currently have this nightmare of a system. It has been nothing but cumbersome since it was implemented in April. It has so many problems I couldn't even begin to go into it. All I can say is if you want your citizens to be safe get rid of it asap. I truely feel sorry for the 911 operators, dispatchers, officers and fire fighters because I can empathize with them. Hopefully Dallas won't be like Minneapolis and choose to keep a system that is dangerous for its citizens, officers and fire fighters.
1 year ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Mike Orren Staff
An update from the city:
The weekend was relatively quiet from the perspective of the new system implementation that occurred 6 days ago. The core computer aided dispatch system continues to function well. The dispatchers and the 911 call takers are doing very well.
A critical component, MDC connectivity, remained stable throughout the weekend. There have been two issues with MDC connectivity reported this morning; they were corrected and functional within less than 5 minutes. Engineering staffs are working on the problem for a permanent solution. In the meantime, the system is being monitored constantly and reaction to issues is immediate, often before officers realize there is an issue.
There have been issues with the ability to write police offense reports into the legacy mainframe system. We continue to experience problems in this area. It should be noted that not all of the problems experienced this weekend were related to the new system; there have been occasional outages in the past.
Several system adjustments have been made to improve the interface with the field officers but there does remain some level of officer frustration. In addition to further stabilization of the MDC connectivity and the ability to more easily do offense reporting, additional field training will be a key component to reducing these frustrations. An MDC trainer is on duty at all times at the substations and they will be the first line of defense for officer issues.
At no time during this implementation has public safety or officer safety been compromised.
After a period of stabilization, the City will be in a position to look for other opportunities to improve processes that support our public safety delivery to the public.
Frank J. Librio Director, Public Information Office City of Dallas
1 year ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
DC Anonymous
I had one occassion to call 911 here in Dallas. Called in regards to an unresponsive individual on the street. Spent 11 minutes on hold before a couple of fire fighters passed by whom I waved down.
Good luck if you're having an MI.
Maybe Flav was right about somthing
1 year ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Mike Orren Staff
A note to all those signing up for new user accounts and flagging angelsuga's comment for removal:
We are very unlikely to remove that comment.
There is no chance we will do so without some sort of information as to how or why it is wrong.
1 year ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
blackknight Anonymous
I'm not surprised to see that there are people trying to get angelsuga's comment removed. Our new CAD system hasn't worked right since it went on line. My guess is, they either work for the City of Dallas or Tri-tech and they don't want the public to know what a mess it is. It is bad enough out on the street, but the dispatchers I have talked to are looking for other jobs because they are afraid of getting one of us killed. Someone should contact the Austin TX or Minneapolis MN Police Unions and see what they have to say. There is also a lot of stuff on line about it, Google is a wonderful tool.
1 year ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
SoldierofJustice Anonymous
I totally agree with blackknight. I work for the city and would like to point out that there is a line in Mike Orren's post that reads, "At no time during this implementation has public safety or officer safety been compromised" That is not true! I believe it was on the 2nd day of implementation that a priority I signal came in, yet was sent to an officer who had already logged off and ended his shift! (no fault of the officer or our dispatchers) The call was not dispatched for several hours before the error was realized. Since then the system has revealed countless bugs that make the operators job unnecessarily difficult, which translates to more time being spent on a call before the dispatchers see it. That in turn makes citizens wait even longer before officers have a chance to arrive. It's understandable that all new systems will have bugs/glitches when implemented for the first time. However, in this case their was a serious error. I can't believe anyone at all could make a statement about the safety of citizens not being compromised. As for the safety of our officers, I do not have enough information to comment on that half of the quote.
As for the comment made by DC, I'm sorry for your bad experience, but you must realize that there are approx 2.5 million (yes million) citizens in Dallas. At BEST there are only 15-20 911 operators on any given shift. On a GOOD day that means there are 125,000 callers for every one operator. It's the same for any call center, when too many people call in at the same time, of course there will be a hold time. 911 is no different. Granted, 11 minutes is a VERY long time to hold on an emergency line, however it most certainly is NOT the norm. I'm curious to know at what date and time did you call? It's likely with a hold time of 11 minutes, you probably called on New Year's Eve or 4th of July.....everybody did.
1 year ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
DC Anonymous
I had one experience with Dallas 911, which was no actual human interaction. I don't blame the staff if they are overworked, but the end user ends up suffering for it.
By the way, I called on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 at approximately 10:30 PM.
Six minutes to die. Like I said, good luck if you're having an MI.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/e...
1 year ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Scott Doyle Verified
With all due respect soldier, not all 2.5M citizens of Dallas call 9-1-1 daily.
I'd wager on the busiest day of the year...maybe 1.5% of the pop dials 9-1-1, and even that seems high. So, 37,500 calls roll in to 20 staff members over a 24 hour period. That'd be 1,563 calls per hour, or 78 calls per dispatcher per hour. Considering I imagine the average call time is at least a minute, I wouldn't want to be a dispatcher. Seems in a perfect world, a dispatcher wouldn't handle anymore than 30 calls an hour...meaning 15 dispatchers shouldn't handle more than 450 calls an hour, or 10,800 daily.
Of course, I'm just throwing out numbers...I've only personally called 9-1-1 once in my life (I'm 24).
I'm wondering if this CAD system is truly much worse than where we were at before...pure speculation based on above text leads me to believe it's superior in theory but sketchy in practice. Can it not be tweaked to the point that it's more efficient or are we boned? Also, seems volume might be more of an issue than the system itself - why not worry about training more dispatchers before blaming the system?
1 year ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
blackknight Anonymous
We have been told the reason the system continues to malfuntion is because the city only bought part of the CAD system to save money, and they are trying to "upgrade" it themselves. Amazing with all the hot news reporters in this town, no one has dug further into the whole thing and found out the truth about who made the decision to buy this system, why they bought it, and why it continues to malfunction. Oh wait, according to the city talking heads, it works great.
1 year ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Mike Orren Staff
Thanks, blackknight... We're on it :)
1 year ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
sunshine Anonymous
I worked in the Dallas 911 center for years. It's a disaster from top to bottom. Every few years the city spends millions to "upgrade" but the programs are full of bugs. About the time the kinks are worked out the city buys yet another program and we were all back at square one. The computer system is only the tip of the iceburg. Outside consulting firms are paid big money to find the most economical "cheapest" means of getting the job done. That refers to the 911 operator staffing and call requirements. Get the call in and get back in que asap. In the beginning 911 and 311 were separate but then one of these firms told the city to combine them. In theory if you are taking a 311 call and the 911 "buzzer" goes off you put the 311 call on hold and take the 911 call. The computer system didn't support this. 911 callers were holding while 911 operators were entering 311 calls...loose dogs, missed garbage, etc. In addition someone high up wanted to increase revenue so the water department customer service came into the 911 center. Water calls take a long time. Most of the time it's setting up new service or turning on water after a customer doesn't pay. The call center was already stressed from the merge of 911/311 and now the long water calls. It's all about money. When something goes wrong everyone from the top down tries to cover themselves and justify what happened or pass the buck. Another issue outside the call center is response time. On a Friday night it's common for 20 priority 2 calls to be holding for sector 2 or 3. (Dallas has 6 sectors with 2 and 3 being the heaviest.) It really hurt me inside to have to tell a caller we will send the police asap but inside I knew it could be an hour or two before held would come. The only way their call would be upgraded was if someone was shot or stabbed. What good is this new CAD if there are not enough elements out there to respond? 911 in the City of Dallas is under the Fire Dept. even though it's mostly Police Dept. calls. This means that the 911 Operators take instruction from the Fire and Police. Sometimes there is a conflict on how a situation is to be handled. The supervisors in 911 are mostly civillians, former 911 operators that have moved up. There are issues throughout the call center about conduct. People looking for advancemnet. In short I moved out of sector 2...out of Dallas. Also I took a lower paying job...but now I'm happy and actually can insure the help people need.
11 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
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