City of Louisville and Jefferson County, Ky., Combine Public Safety Communications Systems

Last year, the city of Louisville and Jefferson county merged, and the Louisville City Police Department and the Jefferson County Police Department became the Louisville Metro Police Department. Then, in April of this year, the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government decided to implement an integrated public-safety communication center.

There are two phases of the project. The initial phase will be to resolve interoperability problems in radio communications and data exchange among the city of Louisville and Jefferson county police, fire, and emergency medical services (EMS) departments. PEC Solutions is designing an interim solution to consolidate dispatch centers, implement an interoperable radio network and enable mobile computing facilities to serve the new departments.

The second phase of the project is the implementation of MetroSafe, a fully unified dispatch center joining all public safety and transportation personnel, first responders and emergency medical agencies into a fully interoperable system. Mayor Jerry Abramson describes MetroSafe as a lasting infrastructure that will "know no arbitrary boundaries between agencies and jurisdictions responding to serious events involving major crimes, acts of terrorism or natural disaster. MetroSafe will allow all of our emergency responders -- including nine different dispatch centers -- to communicate seamlessly and serve our hometown more effectively."

MetroSafe is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2006.