Littleton & South Metro dispatch practices

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natedawg1604

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Recently I noticed that Littleton dispatches EMS/Fire calls for certain South Metro Units on Littleton FD-1. In fact, it appears that certain South Metro units have one radio assigned to METCOM-2 and one for Littleton Dispatch. Why are certain South Metro units assigned to Littleton's dispatch channel, and which units typically get so assigned?
 
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I don't know all of the units that get affected by it the most but the reason that you hear South Metro units getting dispatched by Littleton Dispatch is because they're doing what is right for the patient or victims. They're sending the nearest unit(s) to a call no matter what agency owns the "dirt" that the call is in. Some of Littleton can get quicker service by a South Metro station that is bordering the districts.
 

jimmnn

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Exactly Chris they share a CAD so what your hearing is dispatch of the closest most appropriate units not boarder wars like most other departments have.

LFR also dispatches for Cunningham.

Jim<
 

Spitfire8520

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In fact, it appears that certain South Metro units have one radio assigned to METCOM-2 and one for Littleton Dispatch. Why are certain South Metro units assigned to Littleton's dispatch channel, and which units typically get so assigned?

I believe a lot of the crews on the border of the South Metro/Littleton border will proactively scan the Littleton channels, but otherwise I see a lot of radios switching between the two channels as needed. As for the specific units that Littleton constantly dispatches for their calls, well it's basically all the South Metro stations are free game. Both agencies as well as dispatching centers have what I consider beyond excellent working relationship as you can very often hear MetCom-1 monitored in the background for Littleton Dispatch and hear Littleton Dispatch in the background for MetCom. Both dispatch centers quite often dispatch their side of the response as needed within 30 seconds of the initial dispatch as opposed to many of the other dispatch centers in the area which can have a dispatch delay as long as 4 minutes while information is given over phone or Metro Net.

Units I have recorded responding on Littleton Dispatch for the past 2 days are Medic 31, Battalion 32, Tower 32, Medic 32, Engine 33, Medic 34, Medic 37, Engine 38, Medic 41 (likely for Cunningham), and Medic 42 (likely for Cunningham). On the reverse, South Metro also requests Littleton units as needed and in the past 2 days I have seen Littleton's Squrt 12, Engine 15, Medic 15, and Engine 17 running calls for South Metro. Cunningham also responds for South Metro as needed, but I haven't sorted out their Radio IDs as of yet. I definitely remember hearing Engine 63 and Medic 63 running for South Metro sometime in the past week.
 
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MikeyB

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For a long time I had heard dispatches on Littleton Fire Channel where there was a Littleton unit responding with a South Metro unit. What surprised me when I heard it for the first time (a few years ago) was when 2 South Metro units got dispatched on the Littleton Fire Channel with no Littleton units responding. At least from my experience, the calls like that are all in the Littleton district and just getting only South Metro units.

A perfect example is the assisted living center at Orchard & Holly. It on the SW corner, so it is Littleton's district, but station 32 is about 1 mile away while station 14 is about 2 miles away. It used to be you'd get E14 and M15 (4 miles away) for medical calsl, then it was E14/M32 and now it's T32/M32 (no Littleton Unit at all) a lot of the time. But I hear the calls on Littleton Fire Channel.
 

MikeyB

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I don't know all of the units that get affected by it the most but the reason that you hear South Metro units getting dispatched by Littleton Dispatch is because they're doing what is right for the patient or victims. They're sending the nearest unit(s) to a call no matter what agency owns the "dirt" that the call is in. Some of Littleton can get quicker service by a South Metro station that is bordering the districts.

For the NE part of Littleton's district (Centennial), if M15 is out of service, South Metro's medics become the closest very quick.

There was some discussion a few years back of changes with Littleton's FD, including one option where the Littleton FPD/Highlands Ranch would join South Metro and Littleton FD would cover only city limits. Does anybody know the current status of that?
 

Toneslider12

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Good observations everyone. South Metro, Littleton & Cunningham have agreed to a boarder drop where the closest units respond regardless of jurisdiction. This works well since MetCom and LFR Control have a CAD to CAD link and share data on GPS location and status of all units. Most of the units scan the neighboring dispatch centers on the radio and also receive alpha pages from them. By October our new CAD project will be complete and all MDT data including call notes from each dispatch center will be shared. There is even talk about station alerting being done by the requesting dispatch center to speed up the process.

After several consolidation studies there will not by any mergers between Littleton / Highlands Ranch and South Metro in the near future. There is however still discussion about the possible merger of Englewood Fire & South Metro.
 

Spitfire8520

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Thanks for the input Eric! I would hope that someday Douglas County's Fire side would someday get on the MetCom's JACC (JADCC if Douglas joins?), but as I understand it the fire side currently shares CAD jointly with the Sheriff's Office and I haven't heard of any interest to move over to a new CAD system.
 

Toneslider12

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Thanks for the input Eric! I would hope that someday Douglas County's Fire side would someday get on the MetCom's JACC (JADCC if Douglas joins?), but as I understand it the fire side currently shares CAD jointly with the Sheriff's Office and I haven't heard of any interest to move over to a new CAD system.

Douglas County purchased a new CAD system built by New World a couple years ago, so theirs is still pretty new. The JACC CAD will be from TriTech so Douglas County won't share it at least in the foreseeable future. A CAD to CAD link with Douglas and JACC will probably happen in 2015 tough and some data will be shared then.
 

Steve2003

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Toneslider12

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Thanks for sharing Eric! This may have been posted before, but here is an older video I dug up about METCOM's cad system. I am sure plenty has changed since 2011!

South Metro Fire Rescue - every second counts


On a somewhat related note, Dallas PD uses TriTech and has all their active calls listed on a public website. Any thoughts on something like this coming to JACC?
Dallas Police Department - Non Dispositioned Calls For Service

That was a great news story, pretty much everything is the same technology wise today. I haven't heard any talk yet of making CAD info public but I'm all for it. I think what Arvada did with their 911 app is great.
 

Steve2003

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That was a great news story, pretty much everything is the same technology wise today. I haven't heard any talk yet of making CAD info public but I'm all for it. I think what Arvada did with their 911 app is great.

Thanks for letting us know about the Arvada app. If the discussion ever comes up on making CAD calls public put in a good word for all of us!
 
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