Wednesday, November 18, 2009.
ledsCAD, the computer-aided dispatch system by Zuercher Technologies, went live earlier this month at the Union County Sheriff’s Office Communication Center in Elk Point, South Dakota.
The Union County Sheriff’s Office Communication Center maintains seven full-time staff and serves as a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for a population of around 13,000 throughout the county, which is located in the southeast corner of South Dakota. The Communication Center dispatches for eight law enforcement agencies as well as fire and EMS responders.
Union County Sheriff Dan Limoges says the agency is benefitting from the better documentation provided by the new system. Prior to installing ledsCAD, Union County dispatch staff used a handwritten paper log to record radio traffic and unit response times. Now, as dispatchers use ledsCAD’s command line to update incident and unit statuses, the system automatically generates a detailed radio log, complete with to-the-second time-stamping. "Dispatchers no longer have to read each other’s handwriting, making far fewer mistakes,” said 911 Coordinator/Communications Supervisor Judy Oberg.
In addition to improving documentation, the automated radio log has also brought considerable time savings. Behind the scenes, ledsCAD links radio log entries to the appropriate incident, and for each incident generates a log of unit response time. "Ambulance and fire departments always want their (response) times when the call is finished,” said Oberg. "We used to have to go through the paper log and add all the times to the incident report. ledsCAD now does it automatically. There is no going back to find times.”
The Communication Center handles around 9000 calls per year, a significant number of these generated by traffic incidents along the nearly 50-mile stretch of Interstate 29 running through Union County. Traffic stops are generally considered one of the more dangerous activities for law enforcement personnel, but ledsCAD is now aiding Union County’s dispatchers in their efforts to ensure officer safety. With the system’s real-time display of each unit’s current status and assignment, dispatch staff -- and even the sheriff -- can see each unit’s status at a glance. If several minutes go by without radio contact with an officer who’s on a traffic stop or other incident, ledsCAD reminds dispatch staff with both audible and visible alerts to check on the officer. “It definitely has made the safety issue 100% better,” said Oberg.
With the implementation of ledsCAD, the Union County Sheriff’s Office has rounded out its fully integrated software suite. The agency has been using ledsRecords, ledsCivil, and ledsJail since 2007.
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About Zuercher Technologies, LLC
Zuercher Technologies, LLC provides best of breed public safety software solutions to agencies across the U.S. under its flagship product, ledsSuite©, encompassing Computer-Aided Dispatch, Mapping, Criminal Investigations, Crime Analysis, Jail, Civil, Financial, Records, Public Administration, and Mobile CAD and Records. Founded in 2003, Zuercher Technologies is based in Sioux Falls, SD. Information about Zuercher Technologies' products and services can be found at www.zuerchertech.com.