Arlington County, Va., home to major national security and transportation assets like the Pentagon and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, has upgraded its computer-aided dispatching (CAD) infrastructure to a cloud-based platform, better equipped to communicate and share data with the dozens of neighboring agencies across the National Capital Region.
Because of its cloud-based architecture, the new system by Hexagon interfaces with other emergency communications systems easier and allows the county’s public safety nerve center “to get more data in different ways,” Jacob Saur, the county’s Emergency Communications Center administrator, said.
These data sources can come from 911 calls, Internet of Things technology, and other software systems used by first responders.
“All of that connects to the CAD. And with the legacy CAD system we had that wasn’t necessarily [the case],” Saur said. “There was some legacy connections. But as technology changes rapidly, they’re looking for interfaces that a cloud connection can easily do.”
A cloud-connected system, he said, “makes it much easier for us to get that data.”
The Emergency Communications Center at Arlington County responds to more than 300,000 calls for service a year, and supports organizations including local police, fire, emergency medical services and the Fort Myer Army base. The county is also a partner among other emergency dispatch organizations in the region, touching 18 counties and 15 other CAD systems, which collectively manage more than 15 million calls a year, according to officials.
“We have the ability to connect our CAD to all of those CADs, which we have done. And that allows us to select first responders that might not necessarily belong to Arlington, but might be the quickest response, might have the most appropriate equipment, etc.,” Sauer said.
The ability to communicate with other dispatching organizations across the region is a modern need and expectation among first responder organizations, Ben Ernst, Hexagon vice president and general manager of North American Public Safety, said.
“When you think about the responsibility that Jacob and his team, and all the other first responders at Arlington County have, they need a system and a solution that’s flexible and resilient,” Ernst said. “They wanted to kind of be on the leading edge, pushing to a cloud solution, so they could meet that flexible and resilient requirement.”
The new technology, which took about two-and-a-half years to solicit, develop and implement, includes Smart Advisor with assistive AI, OnCall Analytics and expanded mobile capabilities.
Prior to this upgrade, the county was operating on a legacy CAD system installed in 2007. It “wasn’t meeting the demands of today, or the future,” Sauer said. “So for us, it was not just a CAD upgrade. We were far behind in our CAD software.”
