Porter County residents calling 911 will have a more fluid experience after a system switch scheduled for Tuesday morning and, as an added benefit, the change will improve the quality of life for firefighters.
Porter County E911 is migrating from Tiberon to Motorola Premium One, a task four and a half years in the making.
“Tiburon, it’s been very good for us, but it’s beyond end of life,” said Porter County E911 Director Debby Gunn. The county went live with Tiburon in 2002 or 2003 and all the data stored with them had to be mapped and transferred. “You want that data to be converted or transferred as error-free as possible,” she explained.
She gave a shout-out to Tanya Gear from the records department of the Porter County Sheriff’s Office and Nadine Johnson from the city of Portage for their crucial role in that work. “If it weren’t for them we could be looking at a reduction of data or errors in data,” Gunn said.
Beyond data preservation, Gunn said at least 25 different interfaces have been built out since the 10-year, $2.1 million contract with Motorola was signed in the fall of 2020. She likens the computer-aided dispatch system, or CAD, to the center of a wheel with each interface coming off like a spoke.
Those separate interfaces include fire stations, portable radios, body cameras for police, Porter County Juvenile Detention Center data, the prosecutor’s office, adult probation and even animal control. “It literally touches every single aspect of public safety throughout Porter County,” Gunn said.
Her department has been working with Motorola architects and third-party vendors to put it all in place. “People have to have credentials and certification so we can allow them into the system,” she said. “It’s been a massive undertaking.”
Porter County’s first-class telecommunicators have also been training extensively for the switch since 2021. “I am incredibly proud of the dispatchers here,” she said of their efforts to share notes and create cheat sheets as they master the new system. “It has really been vital that we stay on top of these skills because when somebody calls you can’t be fumbling.”
People calling 911 for help may not notice the improvements because there will be an elimination of stressful back and forth for all parties. Before the switch to Motorola and the concurrent addition of fire station alerting software, telecommunicators would have to put callers on hold to dispatch emergency responders.
Now a digital voice run by artificial intelligence will go over the air only to those stations needed while the dispatcher remains in constant contact with the caller. “That can be at times upward of a minute or more,” Gunn explained of the time callers might wait on hold while emergency services were dispatched.
“That does nothing for customer service,” she added. “Can you imagine being put on hold while your house is burning?”
Assistant Valparaiso Fire Chief Jon Daly has been working to get the system in Porter County since 2017. He said it offers multiple benefits, from a clear, digital voice that sounds the same every time, to the automated population of engine and ambulance response while providing those crews with automatic information about the patient. If the geographically-preferred ambulance from the closest station is already out on a call it will call for one from another station automatically.
All while the telecommunicator can maintain strong customer service with the caller. Built into the new approach are logistics that will improve the quality of life for firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics.
As an example, Daly explained that Valparaiso’s two fire stations receive 6,000 calls a year. Moving forward those firefighters, and those in Portage’s three stations, won’t be inundated by tones that don’t apply to their station. “It’s about when that fire department shows up at your house with just a little bit more sleep, hopefully, you’ll get a little bit better care,” Daly said.
Industry-wide the fire station alerting system is believed to be equal to half a dispatcher. “If it doesn’t call off sick,” Daly said.
And while Valparaiso and Portage already had their own channels there are still times when calls come in simultaneously, leaving a dispatcher to choose between the calls. Moving forward they can take one call and still rely on the internet-based CAD system to deploy for the second call.
With police and EMS dispatchers in high demand and short supply, every efficiency matters. Hamilton, Marion and Lake counties already use fire station alerting. “It’s not a luxury,” Daly added.
All of the county’s 18 fire departments and 10 police departments were also given a host of other options to purchase for their staff. The Valparaiso Fire Department, for example, bought new speaker and lighting systems.
Vendor representatives did a walkthrough of Valparaiso’s fire stations and created a light plan with red pathway lights to make it safe for those called out to see where they’re going once they’re woken in the wee hours without jarring their bodies. “These white lights like in an office go off,” Daly said of the old system. “It’s super-bright. It’s like, ‘Ugh.’ A little bit softer is a little bit better for firefighters to live longer.”
Throughout the first day with the new system, Motorola staff is expected to be on-site at the E911 dispatch hub and sheriff’s office to help with behind-the-scenes tweaking.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.