Soon, the Andalusia Police Department’s dispatcher will be able to simultaneously listen to a caller, see the caller’s location on a map, and determine which officer could respond quickly, based on the officer’s current location.
The capability will come with the help of computer aided dispatch software, which the council agreed Tuesday night to purchase. The software will cost $63,640, which is being partially offset by a $24,000 grant the department recently received from ADECA.
Danny McKinley, who sold the software to the APD, was on hand to answer questions, and said Covington County E911 and the Covington County Sheriff’s Department also is considering the software.
“If they go with this, you would be able to transfer cad to cad,” he said. “The same screen can be seen and transferred to other agencies.”
Chief Paul Hudson said the system also will shorten the response times for calls for service, and provide communications officers with important information to provide to the officers including, call history as related to location, similar incidents or active warrants for service on all calls for service dispatched by the Andalusia Police Department.