Penn. City to Replace Troubled 9-1-1 System
Oct. 08--Over the next year, Bethlehem will replace its dispatch and record-keeping system that officers said has often crashed, making it difficult for officers in the field and 911 dispatchers who coordinate police, firefighters and paramedics during emergencies.
The $921,000 contract, which City Council approved Tuesday, is with New World Systems, a Michigan company that serves 1,600 public sector clients nationwide, including in Berks, York and Lackawanna counties.
City officials say the new system will be more reliable and, in particular, will be able to update software without shutting down. Updates took the current system down for two or three hours, forcing dispatchers to take notes by hand and leaving officers in the field unable to access the database.
The New World system includes a new feature for fire records, allowing all emergency personnel access to information such as fire inspection reports and occupancy limits. And it will include more training for officers.
Mayor Robert Donchez said the city has been closely vetting several companies and believes New World is the best option not only for police but firefighters and EMS.
"This is something we don't want to make a mistake on," said Donchez, who has made public safety issues a cornerstone of his administration.
Bethlehem police Chief Mark DiLuzio said the new system will eventually be capable of sharing emergency technology, similar to what Northampton County and Allentown are doing with modern phone equipment.
In the future, Allentown and Lehigh and Northampton counties might use the same 911 dispatch and record-keeping infrastructure, cutting expenses.
Robert Haffner, Bethlehem's 911 director, said the system will be online by this time next year.
Money for the project was budgeted in last year's borrowing for capital projects and the 911 fund.
The New World system replaces a $740,000 system the city has been using since 2008. It's provided by Pottstown-based CODY Systems.
Police say the system often crashes, forcing dispatchers to take notes from callers by hand and leaving officers at a standstill in their investigations until the system can be rebooted. Some officers complain that reports occasionally go missing from the system.
In 2012, when the city convened a committee to review whether to change vendors, officials at CODY stood behind their award-winning product and said they would work with the city to solve any problemsit was having.
Officials at CODY did not comment Tuesday.
Haffner said the problems with CODY began with its rollout and "mistakes were made on both sides of the fence" between the city and the provider.
He said Bethlehem was CODY's largest client, and the city's needs might have been too large for the system. He also said it was the first time the city had an electronic record management system and "there were some things we didn't do right."
Haffner said New World is a "more robust" company with larger clients, including Orlando, Fla.
DiLuzio said the current contract contains assurances the company will properly train the users, from patrol officer to chief.
CODY was billed as a powerful tool for investigators that would eliminate piles of paperwork generated by police and help the department gain national accreditation, a stipulation in a $7.89 million civil rights lawsuit settlement with the family of John Hirko Jr., who was killed by police during a 1997 drug raid.
Copyright 2014 - The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.)
