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News release
4/18/2007
210 Years of Emergency Management: One Million Each Day
The Baltimore Police department began service back in 1797 and today serves more than one million citizens (during the daytime hours). An operation of this stature, employing over 3,500 and handling over 1,150,000 calls each year, generally has wisdom to offer given their many years of experience.
Issues ranging from how to best service the needs of their community, the needs of their officers and employees, as well as how to maintain an efficient and effective business operation, are all considerations that must be integrated into well-run system. One only needs to speak with Michael Roosa, Director of the Baltimore Police Management Information Systems, to realize the impressive extent to which the Baltimore Police have accomplished this objective.
What Makes Baltimore Police Unique?
1) Permanent Shift Vehicles
Baltimore Police operates their fleet of police cars 24/7/365. With an officer staff of 3,000, significant savings are realized when officers rotate their vehicles, keeping them “on duty” all the time, rather than sitting in a parking lot or drive way during the hours an officer is not on duty. Expense savings in one area can then be shifted into another area, such as technology, to improve overall objectives. Technology such as automatic vehicle location (AVL) tracking for each unit is an example of an invaluable tool that Baltimore Police uses to improve the safety of the community as well as officers, and enhance communication and information exchange for smoother operations. Baltimore Police will deploy the AVeL-MobiCAD system to dispatch officers to a new location and to display the location of other officers responding to the same event on map. Fewer vehicles also mean fewer AVL Enabled Modem licenses. There are some disadvantages of permanent shift vehicles, such as higher wear and tear on the vehicles and minimal downtime tolerance for vehicle repairs.2) Fire Department Integration
Baltimore Fire and Police have shared the implementation for AVL, thus not only sharing the expense, but also map displays that show an integrated, live fire and police status at any given time. This knowledge of which vehicles are closest and best qualified for an incident improves overall emergency management.
How Does Baltimore Police Use Technology To Improve Community and Officer Safety?
Baltimore Police plans to use map layering in their AVeL-MobiCAD system (in their police cars), which will help to improve officer safety, to facilitate officer assistance and to heighten officer awareness by notifying officers of critical information. Such information can be displayed on map and then layered into a single image so that the critical information, such as proximity of schools and public areas to criminal activity (open warrants, sex offenders, parole and probationers) can be quickly identified. “Additionally,” Michael Roosa adds, “the base functionality of assisting an officer in call locations and self positioning for themselves and their supervisors is considered critical to increasing the efficiencies of the department.”
What advice would Baltimore Police offer other agencies?
“Because of the multitude of uses for an application [AVL and CAD] this well developed, make sure you know your customers. First and foremost, for officer acceptance, know how the applications and information can benefit the officer on the post. Second, develop a clear plan with outlined procedures for reporting and analysis so all personnel are clear about what the system can and cannot do. Some officers may not like the ‘big brother’ possibilities, but they appreciate a warning. An example that could swing as a pro or con for the officer is to ensure the officer recognizes the ability to playback accidents in case they are involved in an accident that needs clarity to determine fault; additionally, develop a strong inspection infrastructure to promote adherence to the implemented policies and procedures.” Michael Roosa, Director of the Baltimore Police Management Information Systems
Ortivus is proud to supply Baltimore Police with their AVL and mobile CAD systems. For more information about the Ortivus software systems, call 800-537-3927 or email sales@ortivusna.com.
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About Ortivus:
Ortivus offers integrated software solutions for Emergency Medical Services and Public Safety. The North American Subsidiary develops and markets the following pre-hospital applications: EMS billing, patient care reporting, computer-aided dispatch, automatic vehicle location, mobile data application, and patient vital signs monitoring and data transmission.
The Ortivus vision is to be the customer’s preferred provider of integrated information and decision-making software support systems in the Emergency Medical Service, Public Safety and Healthcare industries.
Ortivus operates out of two North American corporate office locations (Decorah, Iowa, US and Montreal, Quebec, Canada), as well as several international locations (Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Great Britain).