The city of Kansas City, MO received national recognition from the Public Technology Institute (PTI) for its integrated public safety CAD integration and systems upgrade project. The PTI is a network of leading local government agencies that offers consultancies, promotes technological development and shares best practices among its members. Each year PTI recognizes local governments that demonstrate how they apply technology to improve service delivery, reduce operating costs or create new revenue opportunities. The police and fire departments of Kansas City recently completed the installation of a new integrated public safety computer aided dispatch and records management system that provides high reliability and improves emergency response to its citizens.
Kansas City public safety agencies were operating several disparate computer aided dispatch and records management systems. The systems, in some cases, were unreliable, did not communicate with one another, had limited functionality, and no mapping capability. In 2001, the voters of Kansas City approved public safety taxes for the police and fire departments to fund a complete system upgrade. Through a competitive proposal process, the city selected Tiburon, Inc., of Pleasanton, California, to provide an integrated public safety solution for the city.
Tiburon installed a new CAD system with integrated mapping that allows police and fire dispatchers to respond to, manage, and track emergency calls more efficiently. Operating on fully distributed Microsoft Windows? workstations, the Tiburon CAD system provides server-independent processing of all critical CAD functions for a reliable configuration for virtually 100% system availability. This unique, distributed design ensures optimum availability even during catastrophic component failure.
Tiburon also installed new records management systems for the police and fire department. Both records management systems are tightly integrated with the CAD system eliminating duplicate data entry of incident information. These comprehensive records systems greatly improved the city's records storage and report generation capabilities and are compliant with NBIRS and NFIRS 5.0 standard reporting requirements.
Before the integrated public safety system, the police holding facilities and the city's Municipal Correctional Institution operated separate systems with each facility having to perform data entry. Now, both facilities use a Tiburon Corrections Management System (CMS) to enter and share information. The CMS is also used by the police department to enter arrest, booking, and mug shot information. This information is immediately available to the correction facilities and duplicate data entry has been eliminated.
By installing advanced, integrated technologies, the police and fire department now have a reliable public safety system that streamlines workflow, increases productivity, reduces response times, and promotes the safety of public safety personnel and the citizens of Kansas City.
