[Scan-DC] $6.6M dispatch system under fire (Anne Arundel County, MD)

[Matt Stevens]

$6.6M dispatch system under
fire<http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/TOP/2011/12/14-34/6-6M-dispatch-system-under-fire.html>
Police, firefighters complain new system is dangerous By SCOTT DAUGHERTY,
Staff Writer <sdaugherty at capgaznews.com>
Capital Gazette Communications
Published 12/14/11

In the week since county officials launched a new computer-aided dispatch
system, police officers have gone into calls "blind" and dispatchers have
lost track of ambulances and fire crews, according to the leaders of some
local unions and several officers and firefighters
The $6.6 million system, which went live eight days ago, was plagued with
problems over the weekend, said O'Brien Atkinson, president of the
Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 70.

And in interviews, police officers complained that they could no longer
review an address' prior calls for service before responding to an
emergency and that dispatchers couldn't identify or properly locate them in
the county.

"They implemented the system before it was ready," Atkinson said Tuesday
after a three-hour conference call with the department's officials and
representatives of the company behind the new software. "The dispatchers
don't seem to know the system … or the system doesn't work."

County officials defended the new system, which was purchased four years
ago after a competitive bid process.

"Sure, there are a few little kinks, but the main functions are working
fine," said Bill Ryan, the county's director of information technology.

Justin Mulcahy, a spokesman for the county Police Department, stressed that
the department is working to iron out the kinks. He said representatives
from the vendor - Tiburon Inc. of Pleasanton, Calif. - will stay on site
until Friday.

"As with any new technology … growing pains are expected and there will be
a learning curve," Mulcahy said.

The county purchased the Tiburon E911 Computer-Aided Dispatch and Record
Management System in January 2008 after an 18-month selection process. The
system is used by the county police and fire departments, the county
sheriff's and state's attorney offices and the county's detention
facilities.

The system was purchased to replace two aging computer programs installed
in 1986. Ryan said the old record management software was antiquated and
would have effectively stopped working on Jan. 1 due to a Y2K-style glitch.

According to a spokesman for County Executive John R. Leopold, the county
put out a request for proposal July 24, 2006, and received four responses.

Ryan said representatives from his office and the five agencies that use
the systems were involved in the selection process and that Tiburon
received the highest marks.

The new system, which will cost $300,000 a year to maintain, was turned on
at 11 p.m. Dec. 6.

Ryan said the system will let the county do more things and keep closer
tabs on resources.

The new system also is based on a modern, graphic interface with windows
and pull-down menus, he said. The old one was text based.

Ryan said that due to the complex nature of the new system, the county
could not run the old and new systems at the same time.

"Nothing can really be run parallel. It's got to be one way or the other,"
he said, stressing that his staff did extensive testing over the past four
years to make sure it would work. "We waited to get this right."
Complaints

While police officers, 911 call takers and emergency dispatchers received
between 12 and 32 hours of training on the new system earlier this year,
the transition last week was far from smooth, union leaders said.

Over the weekend, complaints from officers and firefighters poured into *The
Capital *and the various unions. They said the system kept crashing and
locking up, and lacked some of the features they had come to rely on over
the past 25 years.

They new system, police and firefighters said, forces them to sift through
each other's calls to find what is happening in their area. Its graphical
layout, they said, is too complicated and hard to read.

"Right now, the system can't do what the old system did," said Lt. Timothy
Zywiolek, the president of the union representing the county's police
lieutenants. He said he likes the new reporting software, but thinks the
new dispatch system is putting the county "back several years."

Craig Oldershaw, president of the union that represents the bulk of the
county's firefighters, agreed.

"The department and the county executive have not only potentially
endangered the lives of the citizens (of Anne Arundel County), but those
that are there to protect them," he said.

Among the chief concerns for county police officers contacted by *The
Capital *was whether the new system still lets them search an address'
prior calls for service.

Under the old system, officers had access to one year's worth of prior
calls. Several officers said the new system seemed to lack most - if not
all - of that information. They feared they were going into calls "blind."

Mulcahy said Tuesday the new system offers access to 90 days worth of prior
calls and all "caution notes" the department has ever amassed on a
particular address. He said programers are working to make it so
dispatchers can use the system to search an additional 10 months' worth of
prior calls.

While hopeful that this is true, Atkinson remained skeptical.

"I know they believe the past 90 days are in there, but I've heard from
officers that is clearly not the case," he said. "We rely on these
computers to know what to expect. … Every bit of information we can get is
good."

Atkinson said he was heartened that the department's brass was willing to
speak with him and a member of his board about the new system. But despite
the county's apparent willingness to address concerns, Atkinson said he is
not ready to support the system.

"If they can't get it to work," he said, "they need to pull the plug."
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Copyright © Capital Gazette Communications LLC, 2011.

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