Raleigh Fire " Refer to Pager" issue

[murrayustud]

lately on raleigh fire they don't give the nature of the call just the units followed by "Refer to pager" for incident type. Any idea if this is a permanent change? I can get all the correct information off Pulse Point.

 

[AA4BK]

Are you saying they do this on all calls now? I have heard a lot of calls that don't use this, although I'm not certain it was Raleigh Fire and not some other fire channel (I have a number of them programmed in). Do you mean the Locution Dispatch channel? What's the talkgroup ID you're listening to?

I always figured they used this when either they were still gathering information about the situation and just wanted to get a truck rolling quickly, or when the information was sensitive (domestics, etc.).

 

[murrayustud]

Yes it’s the vhf dispatch paging channel and the talk group 800 dispatch channel.

 

[murrayustud]

It’s probably happening on 60% of calls makes having a scanner useless. Some of the calls on the other hand don’t give the street address but do give the nature of the calls.

 

[LoneOwl]

lately on raleigh fire they don't give the nature of the call just the units followed by "Refer to pager" for incident type. Any idea if this is a permanent change? I can get all the correct information off Pulse Point.

I've often heard the "refer to pager...", but can't say it's the majority of the time.
I would almost bet they're suicide/attempted suicide calls.

 

[dave3825]

I can get all the correct information off Pulse Point.

I would almost bet they're suicide/attempted suicide calls.

from Palm Beach County website https://discover.pbcgov.org/publicsafety/dem/ems/PDF/PulsePoint-Fact_Sheet.pdf
• Since the app requires a connection to the local public safety communications center, it is only available where adopted and implemented by the local Fire/EMS agency.
• Learn more at www.PulsePoint.org.

Pulse Point site stats say there are 4398 CONNECTED COMMUNITIES

I am not sure if all fire depts submit data to Pulse point. Do you guys know if the dept in question does? I mean Pulse Point is getting all the call info from somewhere and if they are not providing it to Pulse Point, then someone else with a scanner is one would think.

 

[BoxAlarm187]

I am not sure if all fire depts submit data to Pulse point. Do you guys know if the dept in question does? I mean Pulse Point is getting all the call info from somewhere and if they are not providing it to Pulse Point, then someone else with a scanner is one would think.

PulsePoint is a (very expensive) subscription service that the local fire department contracts with PP to push the information to subscribers. The information you see on PP comes directly from the locality's CAD through an API.

 

[dave3825]

I know how it works and have been using it for years. What I was saying is not every fire dept or community is participating with Pulse Point and was asking if your dept does participate.

 

[PKnight56]

lately on raleigh fire they don't give the nature of the call just the units followed by "Refer to pager" for incident type. Any idea if this is a permanent change? I can get all the correct information off Pulse Point.

Hey Murray, sorry I couldn't jump on this sooner. I haven't noticed an uptick of this on the county side but it may be happening on the city side more often. They have done updates recently

Locution will say "refer to pager for incident type" / "refer to pager for incident address" / "refer to pager for units" if:
- It doesn't know how to say the location/call (Robot lady can't do it all, typically those are the two quick beeps you hear)
- The length of the locution alert is over a certain threshold (For large calls with many trucks, the locution with all info could be 1 min 45 secs plus, they want it to stay short so they may cut the address or other info as needed.
- There are pending calls in queue and the computer is trying to push them out faster. Kinda the same reason as above, the shorter the message the easier it is to get things moving. You dont want a 1 min delay on tones just because the computer is behind reading.

Locution is a computer program that can also "learn" (Like an AI if you will). It will do whatever it thinks is fastest without external input. Recently, they pushed an update where it will read the dispatched units in order of proximity (If you hear your truck first, you're first due). This appears to have broken some of the speech and other things as they shifted the order of things around. They also added some other shortening features to cut down on time. It won't redact call types unless it has to, for sensitive calls like Psychiatric Problem and Stab/Gunshot, it will still say so in the page, but it won't go to pulsepoint. It will cut call types that aren't important though, like "Fire Test Call" and other message calls dont readout.

It seems to be a very temperamental system, one change breaks other things. I am willing to bet that the city had issues with calls stacking and tones alerting too late. You can imagine that even a 20-30 second delay on pager activations could be dangerous.

Hopefully, this answers the question, sadly there's nothing that can be done on the listening side, I'd just keep listening to and pulling as much info from the locution as you can to match it with the call on pulse point.

 

[KO4RJX]

Depending on when RW911 does updates they could have simply updated ProQA for call processing but not updated the information with locution. On the ProQA admin side you have to map out the coding back to CAD then map CAD back to your third party systems, in this case locution. One release for EFD, EMD, and EPD (which Raleigh does not do) could equal a hundred or more adjustments that need to be made.

 

[fredva]

they are not providing it to Pulse Point, then someone else with a scanner is one would think.

PulsePoint is a (very expensive) subscription service that the local fire department contracts with PP to push the information to subscribers. The information you see on PP comes directly from the locality's CAD through an API.

I know how it works and have been using it for years. What I was saying is not every fire dept or community is participating with Pulse Point and was asking if your dept does participate.

I believe that BoxAlarm187 was pointing out that a scanner listener providing info to PulsePoint isn't an option.