Dispatch upgrade needed
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
By DAVID REID
[email protected]
HOLYOKE - The city's police headquarters, which opened in 1997, is badly in need of a major upgrade of its central dispatch and communications center, a consultant has reported.
The consultant, Carl A. Signet, a city resident, was paid $16,000 from a community policing grant to assess the department's communications systems.
Police Chief Anthony R. Scott said last week he has hired Signet for another $11,000 to oversee updating and modernizing the department's computerized communications systems.
As summarized by Scott in a September letter to Mayor Michael J. Sullivan, the upgrade will focus on the following actions:
Reconfiguring the phone system so that incoming non-emergency calls bypass the E-911 dispatch center. Allow direct calls to all departments, redesign voice-mail system and integrate phone system with city's main PBX system.
Converting existing analog system for recording incoming emergency phone calls to digital format, which would allow for instant retrieval of victim information, accident locations and evidence.
Replacing existing radio system desktop control board and outdated desks with replacement parts impossible to order. New control boards, computer monitors and radio phones must be modernized.
Establishing a redundancy network or emergency backup for information recovery is there is a power outage or "brown-out."
Switching police department over to available "322"-prefix exchange similar to other city departments. That would allow integrated 4-digit and speed dialing functions.
Installing new headphones and foot-switch to allow dispatchers to quickly interface with outside agencies, internal phone calls, E-911 calls, patrol officers in their squad cars or on cell phones.
"We're totally redesigning the way the way the phone and communications systems work," Scott said last week.
How much the system upgrade would cost, Scott said, remains undetermined, although he estimated it would cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Signet has recommended piggy-backing purchases on statewide contracts that could save money.
Mayor Sullivan said yesterday he supports the communications upgrade, although he has some thoughts about aspects of the new communications system.
For instance, he said, instead of using walkie-talkie-type phones, individual police officers could use Nextel-type cell phones that criminals could not monitor as they currently do with the dispatch system through scanners.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
By DAVID REID
[email protected]
HOLYOKE - The city's police headquarters, which opened in 1997, is badly in need of a major upgrade of its central dispatch and communications center, a consultant has reported.
The consultant, Carl A. Signet, a city resident, was paid $16,000 from a community policing grant to assess the department's communications systems.
Police Chief Anthony R. Scott said last week he has hired Signet for another $11,000 to oversee updating and modernizing the department's computerized communications systems.
As summarized by Scott in a September letter to Mayor Michael J. Sullivan, the upgrade will focus on the following actions:
Reconfiguring the phone system so that incoming non-emergency calls bypass the E-911 dispatch center. Allow direct calls to all departments, redesign voice-mail system and integrate phone system with city's main PBX system.
Converting existing analog system for recording incoming emergency phone calls to digital format, which would allow for instant retrieval of victim information, accident locations and evidence.
Replacing existing radio system desktop control board and outdated desks with replacement parts impossible to order. New control boards, computer monitors and radio phones must be modernized.
Establishing a redundancy network or emergency backup for information recovery is there is a power outage or "brown-out."
Switching police department over to available "322"-prefix exchange similar to other city departments. That would allow integrated 4-digit and speed dialing functions.
Installing new headphones and foot-switch to allow dispatchers to quickly interface with outside agencies, internal phone calls, E-911 calls, patrol officers in their squad cars or on cell phones.
"We're totally redesigning the way the way the phone and communications systems work," Scott said last week.
How much the system upgrade would cost, Scott said, remains undetermined, although he estimated it would cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Signet has recommended piggy-backing purchases on statewide contracts that could save money.
Mayor Sullivan said yesterday he supports the communications upgrade, although he has some thoughts about aspects of the new communications system.
For instance, he said, instead of using walkie-talkie-type phones, individual police officers could use Nextel-type cell phones that criminals could not monitor as they currently do with the dispatch system through scanners.
