HIGH TECH COMPUTER DISPATCH
SYSTEM & PROFESSIONAL OPERATORS FREE PARKWAY TROOPERS FOR PATROL
RESPONSE
Highway Authority & State Police At Work To Provide
A Safe, Modern Roadway
Woodbridge - Colonel
Carson J. Dunbar, Jr., Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police
and Joseph E. Buckelew, Chairman, New Jersey Highway Authority,
today unveiled a new "high-tech" computer dispatch system designed
to provide instantaneous communications and law enforcement information
to troopers involved in motor vehicle stops and which quickly and
effectively dispatches emergency services to motorists traveling
the Garden State Parkway.
In announcing the capabilities
of the Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) system for Troop E (Garden
State Parkway patrol), Col. Dunbar noted that 25 fully-trained professional
dispatch operators now handle more than 560 state police dispatch
assignments and nearly 900 emergency 9-1-1 and operations-related
phone calls serving the nearly 1 million drivers traveling the Garden
State Parkway every day. (Note: the Troop E CAD system become operational
last November. The transfer of dispatch operations from troopers
to professional staff was recently completed.)
The implementation of
the CAD dispatch system further professionalizes Troop E operations,
keeps traffic flowing and will serve to reduce motor vehicle accidents
and fatalities," Dunbar said. "Perhaps the most significant aspect
of having fully-trained, professional civilian operators dispatching
information to troopers and Parkway personnel is that it allows
troopers previously assigned to dispatch functions to resume patrol
responsibilities and to further serve and protect the motorists
driving the Parkway.
With the implementation
of the Computer-Aided Dispatch system, combined with other technologies
that improve highway operations, the Garden State Parkway continues
to be one of the safest and most modern roadways in America," Highway
Authority Chairman Buckelew said.
The Chairman noted that last
year, with nearly 200 troopers assigned to patrol the 173-mile roadway,
the Garden State Parkway recorded the fourth lowest fatal accident
rate in the highway's 49 year history. (30 fatalities in 2000; with
12 fatalities recorded thus far in 2001)
According to Dunbar, the
Computer-Aided Dispatch system is a statewide computer network that
monitors State Police patrol resources along with police, emergency
and incident response and dispatch operations. The CAD system is
also one of the tools being used to better track trooper activity
and to aid in data collection and reporting. With the implementation
and activation of the State Police Troop "E" CAD network, all State
Police patrols throughout the state are now dispatched via the same
centralized dispatch system.
Overall, the CAD system
provides each dispatcher at a State Police regional dispatch center
(Troop A @ Buena Vista Headquarters; Troop B @ Totowa Headquarters;
Troop C @ Division Headquarters; Troop D @ Cranbury Headquarters
and Troop E @ the Garden State Parkway Offices in Woodbridge) with
a visual display of all dispatched events, events awaiting dispatch,
the status and location of all State Police units assigned to incidents
and the status and location of all units on duty. The CAD information
is also distributed to the supervisor's computer at each station,
thus providing supervisors with real time information and updates
about ongoing incidents and patrol status. The system also allows
for better allocation of State Police resources.
Dunbar noted that the
gathering of incident and patrol resource data via an electronic
format provides the State Police with the capability to better serve
the public and to safeguard troopers while on patrol. The visual
displays, coupled with timer functions that monitor how long it
has been since an incident or patrol status has been updated, aids
in preventing incidents or patrols from being lost and/or forgotten.
Additionally,, storing electronic data allows for immediate access
for analysis to aid in patrol allocation, supervisory oversight
and public reporting.
The implementation of the Troop
E CAD dispatch system involved the coordination of numerous state
agencies including the New Jersey Highway Authority (Vice-Chairman
Ronald R. Gravino and Commissioners Jerold L. Zaro, Christine V.
Bator, Harry Larrison, Jr., Elizabeth S. Rozler and Jerome C. Licata),
the Attorney General's Administrative Office, the Division of State
Police Emergency Management Section, Operational Dispatch Bureau
and the Records and Identification Section Criminal Justice Records
Bureau and Information Technology Bureau.
# # #
|