Published: 02/20/2007 New dispatch center saves time in emergency By Dan Atkinson
NEWBURYPORT - "911, what's your emergency?" "I need someone to plow my driveway." The Newburyport Police Department does get these phone calls on its emergency line, but it will now be able to divert them away faster, thanks to its new Orion Mapstar dispatch center. And should the call be an actual emergency, the caller's location pops up on an onscreen map of the town. "You can see right where they're calling from," said Lt. Richard Siemasko. "It's very helpful." While landlines are traceable to the address, finding calls from a cell phone is not as accurate, Siemasko said. GPS-based cell phones can be traced to a radius with a certain degree of accuracy - for example, learning that the caller is 80 percent likely to be in a 30-meter radius of a certain area is very accurate, Siemasko said. Other cell phones can only be traced to the closest tower of the phone's company. But tracing cell phones at all is far beyond the previous center's capability, Siemasko said. The Windows-based computer system allows the dispatcher to transfer calls to the fire department, ambulance services or any other police department in the state with the push of a button. The new transfer process will save the time of putting people on hold and manually placing them through to the department they need. Newburyport is one of the first area communities to get the new centers, which are mandated by the state, Siemasko said. Every police station must have one by the end of the year. The centers are funded through part of residents' phone bills, Siemasko said. Dispatchers and managers had to go through two days of training for the new system before it was switched on last week, but head dispatcher Dawn Gettman said the learning curve wasn't too steep. "I love the map ... especially when officers are having trouble finding a street," Gettman said. Siemasko said the new system should help police respond even faster to emergencies. "We're happy to have it," Siemasko said. "We hope it saves lives."
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