DeKalb County’s patrol and transport cars are now equipped with Global Positioning Systems, GPS.
Sheriff Patrick Ray said the system will assist DeKalb Central Dispatch in dispatching the closest unit to a call, allows patrol supervisors to monitor when service is needed, track where the cars have traveled, their speed and time idled.
“The new GPS system will allow DeKalb Central Dispatch a quicker way to dispatch patrol units to calls,” said Sheriff Patrick Ray. “The dispatcher will now be able to look on a computer screen and see the closest unit located to a call. Before installing the GPS system, dispatchers would rotate calls to the patrol deputies. If another deputy was closer to the call, the deputy would have to tell dispatch by radio they would be responding. By doing this, it would cause excessive radio transmissions and it would sometimes be confusing to the dispatcher. It sometimes might take extra time when dispatching calls when seconds mattered.”
The GPS system will also be used as a safety tool for the sheriff’s department and jail. With the deputies, the system will allow dispatch to view the location of where a deputy is located in the event of a pursuit. It will also track the patrol vehicle even if the pursuit travels into another county.
“Sometimes a pursuit will go beyond the DeKalb County line into another county,” added Sheriff Ray. “DeKalb deputies may not know the names of roads in another county, so with this GPS system, the dispatcher can advise other backup officers and other county law enforcement officers of the pursuing deputies location. In the jail, correctional officers are used to transport inmates to medical facilities. They also transport inmates to and from other jails. The dispatch can monitor these transports in case there is a problem. We also have installed GPS units on the sheriff’s department’s two litter trucks.”
The system also allows patrol supervisors to keep up with the maintenance on the patrol vehicles.
“Patrol supervisors can be alerted when a vehicle is needing to be serviced,” said Sheriff Ray. “Oil changes and other maintenance issues are the life of a patrol vehicle. Patrol vehicles are not like civilian vehicles. We not only have to look at the age of the vehicle and the mileage, but we have to account for the patrol vehicles idle time at wrecks, crime scenes, and other calls. Another thing we look at is the transmission of a patrol vehicle. Every night we do security checks on around 40 businesses. Once a week we also do security checks on around 55 churches. That is a lot of shifting from park to drive and back to park.”
The system also allows the Sheriff to view where the patrol deputies have traveled while on their shift.
“The system will allow me to track where the patrol cars have traveled, their speed, and how long the car idled,” he added. “The system will also allow me to see in real time what the vehicle is doing.”
“The system was bought on a State Contract price,” Sheriff Ray said. “There is a monthly payment for data use. The fees will come out of his current budget, and we will not be asking for an increase to next year’s budget for the GPS system.
Sheriff Ray says “If the system saves any maintenance cost to a patrol vehicle it should pay for itself. If it saves an officer’s life, it will pay for itself for many years to come,” Sheriff Ray concluded.
