Tinley Police, Fire Need New Dispatch System by 2012

Although the system for dispatching Tinley Park police and firefighters has worked well for 12 years, the village has to find a new way to get the first responders to where they're needed most.

This week, the Tinley Park E-911 Committee met to discuss, among other issues, a request to look at a new dispatch system for Tinley Park's police, firefighters and emergency management workers. While the village has had no problems with the current system, in place since 1998, manufacturer Sungard Public Sector is dropping it and will no longer support it, Assistant Village Manager Steve Tilton said.

The village has $25,000 in its budget for a consultant to help select a new system, but current consultant Municipal Services Consulting quoted the village $15,000 to do the work, Tilton said. Options include upgrading to Sungard's newest product or seeing what else is on the market. 

This will entail talking to the village departments that use dispatch and seeing what their needs are, then seeing what on the market offers that.

One step would be moving to a system that runs on Microsoft Windows, village IT Department Systems Administrator Steve Clemmer said. The current system uses a different operating system that would require going back to the vendor if the system crashes.

(If you're curious, the system is called an AS400 solution and it's even unfamiliar to a lot of techies.)

A Windows-bases system would be "easier to maintain, easier for us to work with because it's something we're more familiar with," Clemmer said.

Although the current system is reliable, Fire Chief Kenneth Dunn said dispatch systems have seen a lot of improvement since 1998. His department wants some of those new features.

"The system doesn't do what we need it to do," Dunn said. "It might have 12 years ago, but it doesn't today."

One thing the fire department wants is a system that keeps track of which equipment is closest to the where a call is coming from and which equipment can be moved from one station to another to replace equipment that's out on calls.

"Right now, dispatch have to do that and it makes it difficult for them to juggle," Dunn said.

Police Chief Michael O'Connell said the police department's CAD-based system can't keep track of equipment either, but that it's not as much of an issue for his department. All police vehicles, etc., are stored at the station on 183rd Street. The fire department has four stations scattered throughout town, making it harder to keep track of which equipment is where.