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Thursday March 28, 2024

Rescue 15 to be revamped on 911 pattern

LAHORELAHORE Police are all set to launch Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) being developed to improve the response of Rescue 15 through its integration with all emergency helplines, including Rescue 1122 and Fire Brigade.The Punjab government had allocated Rs2.8 million to Lahore Police to revamp the outdated control room of

By Arshad Dogar
February 26, 2015
LAHORE
LAHORE Police are all set to launch Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) being developed to improve the response of Rescue 15 through its integration with all emergency helplines, including Rescue 1122 and Fire Brigade.
The Punjab government had allocated Rs2.8 million to Lahore Police to revamp the outdated control room of Rescue 15 at Police Lines Qila Gujjar Singh replicating emergency helpline like 911 in the developed world.
The new system will be made operational during the first week of March, 2015 to cater the needs of emergencies for one year. After one year, the system will be merged into Central Command Control System being Command, Control and Communication Centre at Qurban Lines.
Under the new system, once the caller will dial Rescue 15 helpline, it will be connected to the PSAP. The PSAP will then forward the call to dispatcher and the latter would assign the task to the relevant emergency service. DIG Operations Dr Haider Ashraf has personally been training the dispatchers psychologically so that they could handle distress calls in an effective way.
The dispatchers would be able to gather information about the caller and emergency quickly to finally communicate situation to the relevant rescue team quickly.
The PSAP will be equipped with computer-controlled radio interface to automatically activate electronic pagers; with Computer-aided Dispatch (CAD) to automatically provide directions to the caller’s location and identify any particular hazards or special information, the responders might need to know; with recording equipment to record phone calls and all radio communication into and out of the centre. The PSAP will also be backed up with generators and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) in case of power outages.
The software being used to improve the response time of Rescue 15 will have different features, including the geographic diverse deployment for physical distribution of critical infrastructure and personnel for maximum protection against natural disasters. It will also bring efficiency and balance even when call volumes will be at their highest.
DIG Operations said that the Computer-Aided Dispatch Software will have multiple features ranging from incident information, location verification, Geofile, incident display, emergency service (Unit) display, time stamping to report generation. The software will be connected with the mobile data terminals in vehicles, law enforcement data bases besides having ability to locate vehicles automatically and managing records.
Moreover, a number of interfaces of the CAD would help dispatchers to see the details of the selected incident; check the prior location history and incidents in proximity. The emergency caller would not have to waste time in telling his/her name and location as the CAD is equipped with Automatic Number Identification (ANI) and Automatic Location Identifier (ALI). The dispatchers would also be able to get feedback from callers to judge their performance.
The documents available with The News further show that the latest combined CAD and Call taking software will also include: present emergency information of all forms (voice, text, image, video, and more) received via Internet protocol, cellular, and public switch telephone network devices; Interactive SMS and MMS messaging ability in call taking screens; GIS data to route calls, data from the citizens, and data about locations and people; all active calls are displayed with colour cues indicating their dispatch status; by utilising street network to determine a unit’s estimated arrival time, system provides recommendations for the closest unit to the incident by actual drive time, not distance; dispatcher can schedule home checks, pre-planned events such as funerals, and wrecker dispatch using automatic company rotation; dispatcher can give emergency/law enforcement personnel information on street directions, hazardous situations, or medical histories related to the address; produce custom designed reports of incident and unit response times; supervisory personnel can use the messaging feature to leave employee messages which appear when the dispatcher logs onto the system at the shift start.
The software has also features to prioritise incoming calls. It will easily identify duplicate calls to provide users with an immediate awareness of incoming calls and their location relative to other incidents nearby. Call takers will have the option to segment and prioritise calls based on potential duplicates or additional caller and location information.
The software would easily triage calls before they are answered through software links from each database/system, such as caution notes and caller or location history, to present meaningful information to the call taker.
The CAD will provide right time intelligence to responders by processing incoming calls while continually monitoring vehicle locations. It will alert field units within a designated range with a ‘Heads Up’ notification of a nearby incoming call while it is still ringing. The intelligence system in the software would also help en-routing field personnel to dramatically improve response times and upon formal dispatch, the call recording could be played back for improved situational awareness.
DIG Operations Dr Haider Ashraf confirmed the launch of the PSAP during the first week of March. He said that the training of the staff has almost been completed. To a question, he said that they were giving final touches to the infrastructure, including operation room.
It is worth mentioning here that Lahore Police were not getting fruitful results of all new initiatives just because of delayed response to emergencies. Once the new system will be made operational with its all features, it is expected that it will bring relief to the victims in time and help in controlling crimes.