SUMMIT COUNTY, Ohio — A project several years in the making to consolidate safety dispatch operations of several Summit County communities will become official this month.
Summit County officials and mayors from Akron, Cuyahoga Falls, Fairlawn, Stow and Tallmadge will gather at 10 a.m. on Feb. 17 for a ceremonial signing of an agreement creating the Summit County Regional Dispatch Center.
The ceremony will be lived streamed on County Executive Ilene Shapiro’s Facebook page.
Collaboration started in 2018 to jointly acquire, own and operate software for a consolidated, computer-aided dispatch system to eliminate the communities’ aging 9-1-1 systems. The consolidated CAD system is expected to boost speed, accuracy and safety for residents and first responders, officials said.
When fully activated, the system will provide service to 18 communities and the University of Akron, officials said. The system is licensed to enables use by every community in Summit County.
Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro called the project “an incredible undertaking” and acknowledged the work of many entities, from community leaders to IT professionals, in a release.
“As local government officials, we are constantly being asked to do more with less,” Shapiro said. “The consolidated CAD system is a perfect example of rethinking how we do business for the benefit of our residents.”
Costs for the new system will be divided between the communities based on their call volume. Officials estimate the consolidated CAD system will save the communities more than $7 million in the first five years of operation over the cost of buying individual systems.
The cost of buying and installing the consolidated CAD system is $3.4 million, the county said. To buy new individual systems would have cost the communities $8.7 million. The municipalities are expected to save $1.8 million in maintenance costs in the first five years of owning the system.
Additionally, the new system has many capabilities older systems lacked, such as the ability to provide safety officials with patient alerts, medical information and door codes for faster entry, officials said. The system also provides as well as details from prior 9-1-1 calls.
Another feature is the system’s ability to locate and track a caller within a foot of accuracy if the call was made from a cell phone, officials said. Previous systems could only narrow the location down to a city block.
Other features of the new system include:
- Access to customized maps created by GIS teams for up-to-date information such as fire hydrant flow rate and location, road closures and daily traffic patterns
- Quick analysis of trends and safety hot spots to enhance crime prevention
- Streamlined work flow between the partner communities’ safety departments
- Accurate safety information sharing between agencies, such as known warrants at addresses
- Immediate turn-by-turn navigation to emergency locations
The intergovernmental agreement also establishes a Council of Governments that will jointly own and operate the dispatch center, while an oversite committee will be made up of one member from each community, the county said.
Summit County’s Division of Public Safety will operate the system in the day-to day with help from the county’s IT department.
Renovation is underway at the site of the former Weaver School in Tallmadge where the new center system will be housed.
