Emergency Number Professional - June 2009

Staying on Top In a Growing City
By Angelina Ruiz

According to Judith Goins, Assistant Division Manager,"Our call-takers are better able to serve the citizens of Fort Worth by being able to locate callers more efficiently and input calls into the TriTech {San Diego, CA} CAD system even if the citizen is not familiar with their location or address. Our CAD system automatically compares addresses to alert call takers if a call they are inputting has already been entered into the system. Instead of duplicating an existing call, the call taker can add information to the call already int the system. Cross Agency Data Sharing also allows real-time access to information on whether subjects had contact with other agencies. Officers can see immediately when a name check shows previous offenses, warrants or arrests involving violence or weapons. This is crucial to officer safety, which Mark Pacheco, chief of police in Dartmouth, Mass., says drove the initial decision to try to get agencies integrated. "In one jurisdiction, an officer made a traffic stop on a speeding vehicle," he says. "The officer queried the Cross Agency system and found out the offender was wanted in a neighboring jurisdiction on a domestic violence charge, which had been brought less than an hour previously. He never would've known that otherwise, and he was able to call for backup and make the arrest."