A suburban Philadelphia county is rolling out improved data communication for its police and fire departments as well as its ambulance crews with the installation of $5 million in ruggedized mobile laptop computers from Motorola Inc.

Chester County, based in West Chester, Pa., is home to 450,000 residents who reside in 73 municipalities. The county's Department of Emergency Services purchased the system and 685 laptop computers to upgrade the way emergency responders receive and share information in the field.

One hundred ruggedized laptop computers purchased for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) vehicles have been installed and were deployed last September. Police vehicles serving the county are now being fitted with the rugged computers and installation in fire vehicles will follow.

The installation is expected to be completed later this year. At that point, the 57 fire companies and 44 municipal police forces serving the county will be seamlessly linked to the countywide data system.

"This opens a whole new era for us in data sharing. The ambulance crews are impressed with the amount of data they can store and the mapping and GPS (Global Positioning System) capabilities,'' said Ed Atkins, director of emergency services for Chester County.

The system allows data to move more quickly than the previous mobile data system, and provides first responders with more incident information from dispatchers while they are en route to calls. This means an EMS crew can start a patient care report in the ambulance and provide it to the hospital upon arrival, Atkins said. And some hospitals are equipped to allow the crew to transmit the report electronically to the emergency room.

The police departments will be able to generate their arrest reports on the data system in their vehicles, which Atkins said will give them more time on the street. They are also gaining quicker access to databases for processing license plate checks and checking on outstanding warrants with Motorola's Tx Messenger software, which links mobile computing devices to dispatch operations.

Atkins said the county had very limited data available to firefighters in the past, and the new system will enable crews to locate water sources before arriving at a fire scene.

Atkins said he was pleased the county received about 90 percent of the funding for the project from a Department of Homeland Security grant and a state department of health grant.

Information provided by Motorola.
KW