Years ago all patrol units in Opelika were numbered in the 200's 200 was the Chief 201 was the patrol captain 202 was the special service captain 271/272 was the patrol LT on shift depending day or night shift now I hear a range of units, way back in 2005-09 when I was with OPD the shift commander assigned units to sectors and the officers usually kept the same cars, car 230 may be the sector 1 car the first night of the 4 day work week next night car 230 may be the sector 5 car. Around 2008 MDTs and GPS were installed in the patrol units and admin units. A large GIS mapping display was installed in the old building then, it would auto-populate 911 calls even phase 2 E-911 calls with good accuracy to the location of a cell 911 call. We would dispatch the closest unit based on GPS if the sector car was tied up. OPD had 3 dispatchers on duty, one on Fire and Phones, one on TAC 1, and one on Dispatch. The Fire/Phones dispatcher took 911 and admin line calls and entered them into the AS400 CAD and dispatch the FD that operator was supposed to monitor APD and LCSO, TAC 1 ran tags, DL's and took calls if multiple 911 calls started in at one time, dispatch did just that dispatch the calls for service and log traffic stops and other self-initiated calls by the officers. Opelika had ringdown lines to LCSO and ETS (EAMC Ambulance) Lord forbid whoever was on the FD channel at night DO NOT bump the mic it would wake every station up, the system had no individual station alerting and just a quick key up would sound an alarm at all the stations and just about at the same time all the station's direct lines would light up! Sorry, my foot slipped on the switch! I used the footswitch on that station the others did not so they would set a bag or something on it keying up the FD Dispatch Channel not looking under the station.
OPD Dispatchers worked like a well-oiled machine, I remember many nights of a hot call coming in and each station had an understood role like hit the SO's ringdown line and another hit the speed dial to APD's direct line. TAC 1 would take over dispatching regular calls while Dispatch was 10-33 traffic only (emergency traffic all other units maintain radio silence, go to TAC 1) I try to listen as much as possible I used to be able to watch TV and listen to the radio and never miss a beat now I have to focus on radio traffic to figure out what is going on.
OPD Dispatchers worked like a well-oiled machine, I remember many nights of a hot call coming in and each station had an understood role like hit the SO's ringdown line and another hit the speed dial to APD's direct line. TAC 1 would take over dispatching regular calls while Dispatch was 10-33 traffic only (emergency traffic all other units maintain radio silence, go to TAC 1) I try to listen as much as possible I used to be able to watch TV and listen to the radio and never miss a beat now I have to focus on radio traffic to figure out what is going on.
