How Incidents Are Received and Transmitted
When a person dials 9-1-1 in Palm Beach County, it goes to the local Public Safety Answering Point, which is usually the local Sheriff Office or police agency. If the call is of a fire or medical nature, and is in PBCFR's jurisdiction (or one of the agencies that is dispatched by PBCFR), it is transferred to the PBCFR Communications Center located in the Palm Beach County Emergency Operations Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. A calltaker will ascertain the location and nature of the emergency, enter it into the Computer Aided Dispatch system, and give the caller medical instructions if needed. Meanwhile, another dispatcher, who received the call via the CAD system, verifies that the closest unit(s) are available for the call.
In July, 2006, the PBCFR Communications Center switched over to a new CAD system, made by Intergraph as well as a new Enhanced 9-1-1 telephone system, made by Positron Public Safety Systems.
Once the unit response is verified, the call is sent to a printer in the fire station and a computerized voice announces the call both in the firehouse and on the radio, alerting the crews to the call. The calls are also sent to the crews via an alpha-numeric paging system and in some units to their Mobile Data Terminal (laptop computer in their vehicle). In July, 2006, this computerized voice dispatch system, which is made by Locution Systems, Inc. was put into service. This system notifies the units via a computerized voice over the dispatch channel as well as their fire station directly via the computer network. This system cuts down the time it takes to dispatch a unit to a call, especially if there are other calls holding. The old two-tone paging system is still in place as a backup in the event the computerized system fails.
Read more about this topic: Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue
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