Fairfax County - GPS transponders for emergency vehicles?

[W3MAL]

I've been listening to the Fairfax County police and fire/rescue recently and I've noticed that fairly often, I'll hear something like "show me at _______" or dispatch asking for someone's location. Do Fairfax County police and fire/rescue vehicles not have some kind of GPS transponder/tracker that shows dispatch the exact location of the vehicle? This seems like it would be a really valuable safety and accountability measure, so I was surprised when I heard locations being given by voice. Does anyone know why units would be providing their locations this way?

 

[BoxAlarm187]

Yes, the units do have AVL/GPS.

Generally, when a field unit is saying, "show me at _________," they're having the dispatcher change their status in the CAD so they won't be recommended for calls, or for tracking when they're out at the jail, etc.

As for the dispatcher asking where a unit is, there are a couple of items - one, it's just quicker than finding a single unit across an electronic map of a 406 square mile county, or simply, sometimes the mapping isn't connected and/or current. It's a situation I've faced with every MDT I've ever used.

 

[W3MAL]

@BoxAlarm187 thanks for the quick and concise answer!

 

[spanner]

Wondering if AVL/GPS was down yesterday, there were a lot of "status checks" over the air yesterday both Fire and LE side....

 

[BoxAlarm187]

Wondering if AVL/GPS was down yesterday, there were a lot of "status checks" over the air yesterday both Fire and LE side....

Status checks are generally done to check the welfare of the officer/firefighter/EMT who assigned to a call, even if the dispatcher physically knows where they are.