This past July there was a major lightning strike at the Cape May PD Headquarters and dispatch center. I believe there is a thread on this event in this forum the last week of July. There was also a story on the event in the Atlantic City Press and some local papers. The strike fried most of the electronics including radio equipment and computers. The replacement cost was extremely high so it made financial sense for them to make a quick switch to Cape May County Dispatch. I read that the Cape May Dispatchers were given jobs at the County Center. I was in Cape May a couple of weeks after the strike and recall they were still working through some communication issues with the switch but on my last visit in October comms seemed to be working smoothly.
Cape May
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Thank you! I remember reading that in the news back over the summer and have seen the other thread as well. Does seem to be both an advantageous and economical solution. I know in the other thread they had been discussing the possibility of merging over to the county talk groups on the state P25 System, but I imagined that unlikely due to the associated costs. Thank you for the info.
That being said, is it safe to say the Cape May city dispatch frequencies are no longer in use? Other than Cape May County Fire Dispatch, is there any other county channels the FD may be operating on now after the switch? Also, did the merge over to the county also include Cape May PD? Sorry for all the questions, appreciate the info.
No apology for questions necessary, that is what these forums are for. I Haven't been down to the Cape May house in a couple of months, so I don't have the most current information. I can say that the PD made the switch at the same time as the FD. The dispatch center at the PD damaged by lightning dispatched both departments so all dispatching had to relocate to the county center. The county FD frequencies were updated in Radioreference in the past few months so I would suggest adding them to any scan list. When I was last there the FD was using the usual frequencies. I am going down for a week at the end of this month so if your questions haven't been answered by then I will provide an update if possible. Things will be quiet around town so there may not be much PD and FD activity.
I don't know about the status of any consideration of going to the NJICS. That would of course require funding all new radios and certainly a study of in building reception so it would not be a sudden switch. It would be nice to have all of the towns on the same system for interoperability but North Wildwood torpedoed that when they when to conventional DMR.
I've included a link to an old study about the benefits of Cape May County using a central dispatch. It does make the point of the limitations of having a single dispatcher during a serious event. I remember Cape May Dispatch having trouble keeping up with phone and radio calls during a tropical storm. They did call a second dispatcher in, but central dispatch provides immediate backup when a serious incident requiring coordination of multiple agencies occurs.
Cape-May-County-Public-Safety-Dispatch-Consolidation-Study-PDF (capemaycountynj.gov)
I was looking over this report and discovered the company preparing the report acknowledges using RADIOREFERENCE as source for some of the frequency data in their report.
Cape-May-County-Public-Safety-Dispatch-Consolidation-Study-PDF (capemaycountynj.gov)
Well technically it is a paid database service and does consolidate the information for you in a usable manner. It is just a matter of using your resources to generate a report.
Thank you agin for the information sharing, that clears up quite a bit. I actually happen to be down at the moment and did some additional scanning yesterday. Even with the recent storm it has been quieter than usual. I've heard more chatter over the Cape May Point Beach Patrol Frequency that the Point DPW uses for operations (Plowing) than I have heard on Cape May FD or PD channels. However, it appears Cape May City PD is still utilizing their legacy dispatch channel and is contacting the county for dispatch. I have also heard Cape May City FD on the air talking with county but did not catch if it was over county dispatch or the Cape May FD channel. Will keep a look-out today.
EDIT - Right at posting Cape May FD went out with a BLS response in the city. Same legacy radio operations utilized as when dispatched by the city. County Dispatched Cape May over County Dispatch Channel and Cape May FD Operations on the Cape May FD channel. So only difference is they communicate with the county and not the city dispatch.
A Central Dispatch has more pros than cons, but I can understand the want to keep it in house and oversee such services. I happened to be talking with some of the volunteers on the Point and they stated that their first due includes some areas within Lower Township. When responding to these locations they are to communicate with the county and for areas within the Point they were to communicate with Cape Island Dispatch. However, the jurisdictions are not quite so clear cut so it can become confusing as to where the incident truly lies. Hopefully with the change in dispatch this will streamline some of the nuances for the agencies like the Point that also cover some county jurisdictions.
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Making this more complicated than required. There are no changes in Cape May City for police or fire operations except that they communicate with Cape May County dispatch located at the comm center at the airport in Lower Township. The dispatchers that you heard in the past at on the Cape May City frequencies are now located at the county comm center. So technically they are talking to their old dispatchers (along with some other county ones - they just happen to work at the county dispatch now and not in Cape May City.
Otherwise business as normal and quiet as normal for the winter time.
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