Minn. County`s 9-1-1 Upgrades Mean Faster Response

March 25----Calling 9-1-1 on a cellphone? Say where you are

When there's a crash on a St. Paul street, dispatchers now have real-time information about which fire department ambulance is closest to respond.

Not just in St. Paul, but throughout Ramsey County, emergency vehicles have been outfitted with Automatic Vehicle Location technology. That marks the most significant change to an overhaul of Ramsey County's Computer-Aided Dispatch, the backbone of the 9-1-1 answering and dispatching system. Launched Tuesday, the project was budgeted at $9.5 million.

"It definitely has the potential for shortening response times," Scott Williams, director of Ramsey County emergency communications, said of the Automatic Vehicle Location technology and a change to the fire-station alerting system.

Overall, the new system is a big deal to the staff of the 9-1-1 center and the 18 police and fire departments in the county that use it, though it's intended to be mostly invisible to the public.

Staffers at the 9-1-1 center and first responders in Ramsey County are accustomed to using CAD -- the new system replaces one that dated to the 1980s, Williams said. It was upgraded various times, with the last major one in 2006.

Anyone calling 9-1-1 in St. Paul and suburban Ramsey County (except in White Bear Lake, which has its own center) reaches the Ramsey County Emergency Communications Center in St. Paul. The center also takes non-emergency calls for agencies.

New Vehicle Location, Fire Station Alerts

Here's how the CAD system works, in a nutshell:

A call taker answers -- "9-1-1, where is your emergency?" -- and types information about the caller's report into the CAD system.

If it's a crime in progress or an immediate emergency, the operator sends updates through CAD to a dispatcher while talking to the caller and collecting more information to transmit to a dispatcher.

The old CAD system provided dispatchers with recommendations about what emergency vehicle to send, but that was based only on who was assigned to a particular area of the city and was not busy on another call.

Now, with Automatic Vehicle Location technology, dispatchers see locations of emergency vehicles on their computerized maps and CAD provides more accurate recommendations about which to send, Williams said.

The fire station nearest to an incident, for example, doesn't always translate to which ambulance or fire rig is the closest because a crew could be heading back from taking a patient to the hospital.

A change to how emergency calls are sent to fire stations also could improve response times, Williams said.

In St. Paul, when firefighters are needed to respond, there are station alerts -- flashing lights and audible warnings, which can also wake firefighters working overnight, 24-hour shifts. That alert system will be expanded to suburban fire departments.

Previously, St. Paul firefighters would get word from a dispatcher where the call was and its nature. With the new CAD system, calls are announced via a computer-generated voice.

In the past, the alert system would notify stations one at a time. Now, several fire stations can be alerted simultaneously, which will be a timesaver, Williams said.

Screens in the fire stations will spell out the call's location. That can help firefighters verify whether they heard, for example, "Grand Avenue" or "Graham Avenue," said St. Paul Fire Capt. Bob Pitts, an EMS coordinator for the department.

Overall, maps in CAD are greatly improved, Williams said. They include all fire hydrants in the county, so firefighters will see their locations as they respond to a call. The hydrants are color-coded on the map, based on what size water main they're attached to, which will also help firefighters determine what's available to them to fight a blaze, Pitts said.

Training, Working Through the New System

Emergency Communications Center staff and first responders all were trained in the new CAD system, though a learning curve is to be expected, Williams said.

They planned for it by having extra staff at the ECC beginning Tuesday, including people who can help call takers and dispatchers when they have questions, and setting up a help desk to field inquiries from public-safety workers on the streets.

St. Paul police officers and firefighters were working to get accustomed to the new system on the rollout's first day, their unions said.

"The technology is great, but there are minor kinks to get through," said Mike Smith, who heads the union representing rank-and-file St. Paul firefighters.

Some officers reported they didn't find the system user-friendly, according to Dave Titus, St. Paul Police Federation president. For example, entering information into the new CAD system on mobile squad computers involved more steps than officers were accustomed to, he said.

"The verdict isn't in, but as of right now they're not used to it," Titus said. "We'll have to wait and see."

The ECC can potentially make more changes, Williams said.

$9.5 Million Budget

Planning for the new CAD system has been in the works since 2011. The ECC started by assessing needs of their own workers and the agencies using the 9-1-1 center, Williams said.

The county sought bids, selected TriTech Software System and reached a $4.1 million contract with the San Diego company in 2013.

The overall project was budgeted at $9.5 million, though Williams said it will come in "significantly less." Other costs included building a network for the CAD system, new computers and servers at the 9-1-1 center, and staff, Williams said.

The project is funded through county bonds, county funds set aside for ECC capital needs, and a $2 million federal grant for the fire station alerts, Williams said.

Operating costs for CAD annually will be about $2.5 million, 60 percent paid by taxes in Ramsey County and the rest by departments using the system.

Some departments bought new equipment for the new CAD system, depending on the age of their existing equipment, Williams said. First responders have computers or tablets in emergency vehicles that are connected to CAD. Dispatchers use them to send responders more information about a call, and responders can relay to dispatchers when they're en route to an incident and when they've arrived.

The Ramsey County sheriff's office bought 58 new mobile computers at a cost of about $300,000. The St. Paul Fire Department spent about $230,000 on 67 tablet computers and docking stations for their vehicles.

St. Paul police did not need new equipment, and the Maplewood fire department didn't require much, spending about $8,000, the fire chief said.

Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at 651-228-5262. Follow her at twitter.com/MaraGottfried.

At the Ramsey County 9-1-1 center in 2014 ...

18: Agencies the Ramsey County Emergency Communications Center takes 9-1-1 calls for and dispatches for

321,743: 9-1-1 calls received

447,502: Nonemergency calls received

4.2 seconds: Average speed for the ECC to answer 9-1-1 calls

78 percent: 9-1-1 calls coming from cellphones

452,757: Incidents/requests for service entered into the Computer-Aided Dispatch system

Copyright 2015 - Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.