Dane County Unveils 911 Improvement Plan
New Protocol Known As 'Police Priority Dispatch'
Updated: 8:09 pm CDT August 20, 2008
MADISON, Wis. -- Dane County leaders have unveiled a plan to help beef up its 911 center.
VIDEO: Watch The ReportCounty Executive Kathleen Falk said a new national protocol will help the county provide the best service in the event of an emergency.Set for the 2009 county budget, Falk introduced a new protocol for the 911 center known as "police priority dispatch."Falk held a news conference Wednesday to talk about priority dispatch.The county is already providing priority dispatch for fire and medical agencies.Falk said Dane County will be the first in Wisconsin to provide all three: fire, medical, and police priority dispatch, WISC-TV reported.The program is a recently developed program that's based on national law enforcement best practices.Through a series of questions, the program helps dispatchers prioritize information."If you can picture the console that a communicator is in front of, to the side, there is literally a flip chart, which the operators go through, so it's literally these national protocol of questions sitting right at their console. And the operator walks through them one by one," said Falk."Part of the quality assurance that these national protocols call for is random review each month of a certain number of actual calls that happen in the past month," said Falk. "We have been doing that from the very beginning on fire and medical priority."Falk will include about a $200 million dollars to purchase the software for police priority dispatch and cover training costs.Also in the budget initiatives are seven new staff members which include four full time dispatchers, and one staff member dedicated to quality assurance, WISC-TV reported.If adopted, the proposals would represent more than a 10 percent increase in the 911center's budget.
VIDEO: Watch The ReportCounty Executive Kathleen Falk said a new national protocol will help the county provide the best service in the event of an emergency.Set for the 2009 county budget, Falk introduced a new protocol for the 911 center known as "police priority dispatch."Falk held a news conference Wednesday to talk about priority dispatch.The county is already providing priority dispatch for fire and medical agencies.Falk said Dane County will be the first in Wisconsin to provide all three: fire, medical, and police priority dispatch, WISC-TV reported.The program is a recently developed program that's based on national law enforcement best practices.Through a series of questions, the program helps dispatchers prioritize information."If you can picture the console that a communicator is in front of, to the side, there is literally a flip chart, which the operators go through, so it's literally these national protocol of questions sitting right at their console. And the operator walks through them one by one," said Falk."Part of the quality assurance that these national protocols call for is random review each month of a certain number of actual calls that happen in the past month," said Falk. "We have been doing that from the very beginning on fire and medical priority."Falk will include about a $200 million dollars to purchase the software for police priority dispatch and cover training costs.Also in the budget initiatives are seven new staff members which include four full time dispatchers, and one staff member dedicated to quality assurance, WISC-TV reported.If adopted, the proposals would represent more than a 10 percent increase in the 911center's budget.Copyright 2008 by Channel 3000. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
