County unveils new dispatching system

Goshen — Orange County recently began using the Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL) dispatching system. “Tis new AVL system will now enhance our efforts to keep the public safe by dispatching the closest available law enforcement unit to the scene of a priority call and by improving officer safety by knowing their location,” Orange County Executive Edward A. Diana said in a press release announcing the program. Participating in Orange County’s AVL dispatching system are 31 police agencies, 29 town, village, and city, in addition to the county sheriff and New York State Police with 20 local police agencies. The state police have full computer aided dispatch dispatching capabilities and AVL mapping that is connected to the 911 center. “We can now automatically determine the closest geographic location of police vehicles to life threatening incidents by the use of GPS Technology and computerized mapping software,” said Commissioner of Emergency Services Walter C. Koury. Priority calls will be dispatched by both 911 and local police CAD users depending on which agency received the initial call using AVL software recommendations of the closest cars on any call that is entered in the system. Project funded by a $500,000 County 2009 capital project, in addition to federal grants totaling $549,231. Price included 300 wireless modems installed in all municipal and County Sheriffs’ patrol vehicles, the New York State Police provided their own modems, as well as Motorola AVL software, related hardware and system implementation costs.