“It’s quite a system and
it has come a long way over the last
10 years,” said Steven Savage,
the center’s communications manager.
The center
on Route 68 provides Coordinated Medical
Emergency Direction — which helps
emergency medical responders communicate
with hospitals — for 22 cities
and towns, including Naugatuck, Beacon
Falls, Southbury, Waterbury, Watertown
and New Milford. The center also dispatches
911 calls for nine municipalities, including
Woodbury, Seymour and Oxford.
A new
system for radio communications is one
of the biggest changes for the center.
Instead of a console with buttons, dispatchers
watch a computer screen and listen to
speakers to monitor radio communications
with local police, public works and
fire departments.
The computerized
system can work with any kind of radio,
including new, high-band systems enhanced
with features like caller identification,
Savage said.
Savage spent most of Wednesday afternoon
explaining to groups of emergency responders
how new technology helps the center
locate 911 callers who are using cellular
phones.
The system
often can locate and map the location
of callers within a certain range of
cellular telephone sites.
Usually
callers know where they are, but the
technology can be useful to find people
who are lost in parks or wooded areas,
Savage said.
The center’s
system also allows dispatchers to attach
notes about certain 911 calls, such
as whether a caller has guard dogs or
a home that sits at the end of a 1,500-foot
driveway.
Susan
Webster, the center’s executive
director, said the technological upgrades
are making the center’s services
attractive to communities like Seymour,
which began using the center for 911
dispatch earlier this month. |
