Neighboring cities to combine emergency communications

[tonypl056]

Strength In Numbers: I received this post 01/15/2014

FARMERS BRANCH ~ The creation of a four-city, consolidated public safety communications center took a giant step towards reality Tuesday with approval by the Coppell City Council of an interlocal agreement to create the operation, following previous adoption by the cities of Farmers Branch, Carrollton and Addison.
The inter-local agreement creates the Metrocrest Quad Cities Local Government Corporation that will oversee and operate the consolidated communications center, which will handle 9.1.1 calls as well as Police and Fire dispatch for all four cities.
Further, the agreement establishes a Board of Directors, consisting of the four City Managers, who will select an Executive Director or Communications Call Center Manager to supervise the new facility.
"This is the best of all worlds," said Farmers Branch Police Chief Sid Fuller. "Police activity can frequently spill over borders of small communities as close as ours are. With a consolidated communications center, the transfer of information between agencies will be completely seamless."
Farmers Branch Fire Chief Steve Parker echoed those sentiments when addressing multi-jurisdictional issues.
"We assist, and are assisted by, our neighboring agencies every day," he explained. "When we're out on a full response, Carrollton or Addison will cover our station for anything else that happens. Consolidated dispatch will make that process even better and should improve response times for everyone."
The consolidation of emergency communications functions for the four cities will result in approximately $12 million in savings in the first 20 years, according to a report on the project.
Additionally, with the current advent of an all-new radio system in the four cities, cost for installing the system in a single facility, rather than four, could result in a $500,000 savings.::

I just wanted to put this out there for anyone who like me lives in these cities
This is huge especially where there is going to be an "all new radio system" for all four cities. the actual date for this "combo" has not been released yet but i will do my best to keep all informed. to the Admin, if this has already been posted or does not belong please remove and advise.

Thank you ! Tony

 

[n5ims]

These two of my threads provide some details on the changes to the system. One has links to the council discussion and approvals for upgrading the system and some discussion on the combined dispatch center. The other is about two new sites being added to the system to improve existing coverage and expand it to better cover the Coppell area.

http://forums.radioreference.com/te...lton-tx-trs-upgrade-phase-ii-p-25-system.html

http://forums.radioreference.com/te...sites-carrollton-tx-public-safety-system.html

Please continue to update with information you find since that's how we all get informed. My sources may have half the information while your may have the other half so combining them we may get more of the whole picture!

 

[BenScan]

When Colleyville, Southlake, Keller, & Westlake combined dispatching not too long ago, it was fairly easy for me to distinguish what cities the fire calls where, because I'm very familiar with the fire unit numbers. It took a little more time for me to figure out the police stuff, primarily based on addresses they were going to. For those who are monitoring these cities now, you'll have a leg up on recognizing major streets, land marks, facilities, routines, etc. Once they go live, please post in the wiki or here and share any tips for those of us who may not monitor those particular cities as often. Of course, they may very well change up unit numbering as part of the switch, making it a challenge for everyone.

 

[tonypl056]

Thanks for the info guys, i'll try my best to keep updated, i guess my only issue now it to figure out
which Home patrol unit, 1 or 2 is best going to suit my needs for all of this i am thinking that investing in a P25 scanner is going to be a waste and frankly i am not going to have the time or patience to keep reprogramming the several scanners i will have. my wife and i are volunteers
for the city of FB and we need to be kept informed as to what is going on whereas they do not give
us radio's to keep at home so i rely on my scanners and or a Home Patrol unit(s), etc. but again, i'll do my best to follow this and hopefully everyone will be well informed. i know they have been actively working on the site on the " water tower" but i am not sure when all of this will be complete.

Thank you again folks.
Tony

 

[n5ims]

Thanks for the info guys, i'll try my best to keep updated, i guess my only issue now it to figure out
which Home patrol unit, 1 or 2 is best going to suit my needs for all of this i am thinking that investing in a P25 scanner is going to be a waste and frankly i am not going to have the time or patience to keep reprogramming the several scanners i will have. my wife and i are volunteers
for the city of FB and we need to be kept informed as to what is going on whereas they do not give
us radio's to keep at home so i rely on my scanners and or a Home Patrol unit(s), etc. but again, i'll do my best to follow this and hopefully everyone will be well informed. i know they have been actively working on the site on the " water tower" but i am not sure when all of this will be complete.

Thank you again folks.
Tony

Since the new system indicates that it will be a Phase II system, you'll need either one of the two new Unidens (the BCD436HP or BCD536HP) or one of the GRE PSR-800 (or whatever that model is called by Whistler when they release their version in late March 2014). Currently they are the only scanners that will work on P-25 Phase II systems. The older Home Patrol units handle Phase I systems, but not Phase II. Since GRE has gone under (although they've sold their designs to Whistler) the PSR-800 may be difficult to find and the new Unidens have yet to ship to dealers (should in a week or two so it won't be long) you'll probably need to wait a bit to get your new scanner. The good news is that the new system has yet to be built out (it's not even licensed yet) so there should be time to wait until they're all available to compare and buy.

 

[tonypl056]

I see, thanks for the info n5ims, i guess i have some searching to do i was hoping to steer away from the " scanner" deal but who knows,. also they must have been granted a license because i have seen posts from folks here that have seen " building" going on at certain sites
i can't imagine you can build a radio system especially being public safety and not have all the variances, licenses, etc on paper and in force as they say, but you folks here no better than i do, i only know what goes on at the water tower here in FB because i'm around to see the radio crew and changes are being made rather fast i must say. but thanks for the info again, i'll have to see how things go and move from there.

Take care,
Tony

 

[n5ims]

There has been quite a bit of construction on microwave links recently connecting the various sites (transmitter sites as well as others) like they're building out the infrastructure in preparation to upgrading the radio system. Lots of new licenses and modifications to existing microwave licenses by the city have gone through the FCC so far.