Westmoreland Public Safety Department's upgraded 911 dispatch software 'working well'

Westmoreland County Department of Public Safety's $500,000 upgrade to its 8-year-old software system is running smoothly, despite a few technical glitches earlier this month, officials said.

The county paid Intergraph Solutions Group of Madison, Ala., to update its Computer Aided Dispatch system, which combines and coordinates all the information coming in to 911.

“When you dial 911, the system integrates all the information that comes in as far as your name, your location, and based on that location it gives (the dispatcher) the readout and the response program for that location, and a map pops up,” said Roland “Bud” Mertz, director of the public safety department.

County commissioners approved the update in February 2015, but it took almost a year to move all the data over from the old system, Mertz said.

The updated system went online Feb. 9 but quickly ran into some technical problems.

Some fire departments use third-party services that allow them to get emergency notifications via text message, email or cellphone call. Westmoreland County 911 does not directly provide these services, but forwards information from its computer system.

Those services were disabled for more than 24 hours after the system update, although the county was still able to reach emergency responders via traditional radio frequencies.

Youngwood fire Chief Lloyd Crago said many of his firefighters rely on phone notifications. Some of them stayed at the fire station while the system was down to monitor the siren to make sure no calls were missed.

“We had guys down at the fire hall just hanging out,” Crago said.

Youngwood's fire siren has been criticized by residents because of its loud volume. Crago said the brief outage of cellphone notification systems shows why it is still needed.

“It's the best way to alert our firemen,” he said. “We can't rely on our cellphones, because they do go down.”

Representatives from Intergraph stayed in Westmoreland County for two weeks after the system was installed to provide maintenance and make sure no more technical problems cropped up.

Mertz said everything is now working as intended, although the department needs to remain vigilant to make sure the data in the system is current.

“It's working well. We continue to enhance the data so that we can get the full use out of the technology that's inside the CAD system,” he said.

Other fire department officials said other than the one day when third-party systems were down, they haven't run into any problems with the system.

“We've worked with 911, and they've been on top of things,” said Vance Phillips, a captain with the Jeannette Fire Department.

Greg Saunders, president of the Hempfield Fire Chiefs Association and chief of Bovard Volunteer Fire Department, said the transition has been smooth.

“I haven't really noticed anything since it went online. I think it's working,” he said.

Dispatchers were trained to use the new system, which in many ways is similar to the old one, also designed by Intergraph, Mertz said.

The update does not come with any new “bells and whistles,” said Mertz. It moves the data to a more secure server and is based on current technology to help things run better.

“It was a very critical upgrade for us,” he said.

Jacob Tierney is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-836-6646 or jtierney@tribweb.com.