By Ashley Hughes
Hays County Sheriffs Office, how may I direct your call?
According to Erica Carpenter, communications director of the Hays County Sheriff’s Office, calls will soon be dispatched a lot more efficiently.
“Our CAD is quickly approaching its end of life,” Carpenter said.
The Computer Aided System (CAD) serves to input 911 and non-emergency calls into the computer system to send a police, fire or EMS response and to maintain responder status, such as en route, on scene, and transporting.
“This system is our most critical system as we use it to input emergency calls,” Carpenter said. “We’re a really big communications center and we are very busy.”
However, the current system is in need of a tune-up as technology changes have rapidly outdated its services.
“The current CAD system has a lot of critical problems,” Carpenter said. “It’s 13 years old and it does not have the functionality we need for daily operations.”
The current system does not support fire and EMS dispatching and only works for police. Carpenter said one of the biggest problems with the current system is that it doesn’t have a vehicle location GPS component.
“This is an officer safety issue,” Carpenter said. “With a GPS we could see where the calls are located on a map and we can send the closest units.”
Carpenter said that because the outdated technology, nothing is interfaced together. She has to work with many different computers at once, something that increases the amount of time it takes for an emergency to get responded to properly.
“I work with six different computer screens in front of me,” Carpenter said. “Luckily, I have a swivel chair.”
Carpenter also has a problem with vendor maintenance and often has trouble getting problems handled in a timely manner. In fact, the vendor that supplies the current system will no longer be available in 2015. Problems have arisen when the dispatchers need vendor support because the system had problems with shutting down on a whim and the vendor is the only one who can get it up and running.
“It shuts down often,” Carpenter said. “The new CAD system is a need. Not a want — it’s a need.”
This type of problems create more issues, such as losing track of officers and becoming unable to dispatch officers to calls. When the system does shut down, Carpenter must rely on pen and paper to track emergency communications, slowing down the process when time is of the essence.
The new system is called the Computer Information System, or CIS. It provides police, fire and EMS dispatching, has enhanced dispatching features that the current system lacks and will create immediate interoperability with the police, fire and EMS agencies throughout the county
“We want to share information and purchasing the new CIS system will help us share information and help each other out,” Carpenter said.
CIS has been adopted as the common CAD System for all public safety agencies in Hays County. This system will help the entire county be on the same page and to be able to work together more efficiently.
The San Marcos Police Department is already successfully using this CIS system and the Hays County Sheriff’s Office will be using the system through the San Marcos Police Department’s server to help save money.
“We are moving forward with this very quickly and we are hoping to purchase it immediately,” Carpenter said. “We are in a critical state where we need to improve the service in the 911 center. Overall this CIS system is the best option to move forward with providing a system for countywide improvement.”
