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Newton Falls 911 can find cellular callers
By ED RUNYAN
NEWTON FALLS
Though Trumbull County officials have talked for several years about upgrading to enhanced-wireless 911 dispatching, the Newton Falls Police Department quietly secured grant money and installed a computer-aided dispatching system that makes use of that technology.
The global-positioning-based system, purchased from TAC Computer of Cleveland, has been operational for about two months and is the first one in use in Trumbull County.
The Newton Falls Police Department secured grants of $100,000 and $51,000 from the Ohio Department of Criminal Justice Services to buy the dispatching system, Police Chief John Kuivila said.
Kuivila said one of the most exciting uses for the new technology is having a map of an incident location and being able to use it to best deploy officers.
Tom Craven, president of TAC Computer, said the Newton Falls dispatching center puts the city’s police and fire departments “way ahead of everyone else” in Trumbull County in being able to locate and assist wireless 911 callers and put first-responders where they can do the most good.
Craven gave an example of how the new system could help a wireless caller:
A person is visiting a park in Newton Falls from out of town and needs a police officer or ambulance but doesn’t know enough about the park to describe where he is.
A 911 call to the city’s dispatching center allows the dispatcher to see where the person is and places the person’s location on a map that is visible at the dispatch center and on the officer’s on-board computer.
If a wireless 911 caller is at an address, that address is identified on a map for the dispatcher and officer.
And because Trumbull County authorized spending about $450,000 in 2007 to “accurize” the map of Trumbull County, meaning identifying all of the addresses in the county and correctly locating them on the map — Newton Falls is receiving the benefits of that upgrade as well, Craven said.
Meanwhile, neither the Trumbull County dispatching operation in Howland nor the other independent dispatching operations in Warren, Niles, Hubbard, Liberty, Girard or Lordstown are yet using GPS and mapping-enhanced technology.
Warren Police Chief Tim Bowers said his department is still using 12-year-old dispatching equipment with 5-year-old software that does not make use of GPS technology or the county’s new map.
Like other departments in the county, he’s having to wait to upgrade his dispatching equipment because of a pending lawsuit filed by many Trumbull County communities that is holding up the release of money set aside by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio for that purpose.
“I’m very jealous. I’d love to have it,” Bowers said of the technology Newton Falls is using. “It improves efficiency, response times and safety.”
Bowers and Craven say one key advantage of a GPS system is that it allows a dispatcher or superviser to see the location of officers — even off-duty officers or those working side jobs — so that the officer closest to an incident can be asked to respond.
In Warren, an officer’s location is determined through radio communications, Bowers said.
Since the Newton Falls dispatching center takes fire calls for Newton Township and Newton Falls, the maps and global-positioning system can help locate a wireless 911 fire call in areas that might be difficult to find, such as remote parts of the township, Kuivila said.
The system also might help Newton Falls police officers and firefighters assist other departments outside Newton Falls and Newton Township, the chief noted.