[Scan-DC] DCFD now using voice synthesis for dispatching

[Doug Kitchener]

Not directly on topic, but Dave mentioning that the dispatch is only given once reminds me of one of the sillier things you often hear... units will be on the scene of an obvious incident, be it a wreck, building involved in fire, or what have you, and a unit not yet on the scene will say, "Can you give us the numbers on `Easy Street' (for example) again?"  I always think, "Yeah, it's the house with the roof on fire", or, "the building with the big red ambulance and the white police cars in front of it", or whatever...

And another good one is, "Engine 771's on the scene with fire showing from Quadrant C, we have command and we're stretching a 300-foot inch & 3/4 attack line, Ambulance 779 is our two out."

Command officer, from a mile away:  Battalion Chief 789 to Command, gimmee a report as soon as you can and I'll take command from you when I get on the scene!"

(Well, Chief, I just told you what I know we have so far and I'm a little busy putting out a fire right now and you know I'm going to give you whatever information I can as soon as I can, so why don't you just trust me to do my job, stay off the radio until I get things sorted out and not ask a bunch of unnecessary questions and give me a bunch of unnecessary orders when I'm standing in the middle of a fire...)

:)

/rant...

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> Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:29:05 -0400
> From: afdltret at comcast.net
> To: scan-dc at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Scan-DC] DCFD now using voice synthesis for dispatching
>
> I am no fan of computerized voice dispatching however Palm Beach
> County FL. Fire Rescue uses it for initial dispatch on all fire and ems
> calls. My understanding is they also receive a hard copy via MDT in each
> station and MDT in each mobile and also each member carries an
> alphanumeric pager and gets it that way also. The dispatch is only given
> once. Sometimes responding units will ask for the address again, but
> rarely. In a busy department as they are, it can be annoying to me. On
> sensitive calls the Dispatch will say "check pager for address" better
> than encryption I guess? They are a fully career department and also
> dispatch for a few other towns and cities within the county.
>
> I think there are a few other large jurisdictions in the country with
> synthesized voice, but I have never read any discussion about same
> either pro or con.
>
> Dave M.