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BALTIMORE POLICE
210 Years of Emergency Management:
One Million Each Day
Given the relatively young age of our nation (compared to other
countries), any operation that has been in existence for 100 years
or more seems quite impressive. How about 210? 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. |
