FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 17, 2001
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

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.