The Helena Police Department was awarded a grant for $477,000.00 from the State of Montana 9-1-1 grant program to upgrade the 9-1-1 Center phone system. The upgrade will bring the 9-1-1 Center up to modern standards with an IP based Next Generation 9-1-1 phone system. City staff received 6 bids for this project. After through review and evaluation Central Square with the 911 Pro telephone solution was selected by staff. Though they were the second lowest bidder, Central Square's product not only checked all the required boxes they offer technology that exceeded the other bids..
From the 911 operator’s perspective 911 Pro offers the most comprehensive and integrated features such as RapidSOS™ integration, patented Caller Location Query (CLQ), Text-to (and from) -911 & integrated Google mapping. CentralSquare utilizes its own short message services (SMS) for Center Initiated Text which allows a telecommunicator to initiate an outbound SMS message to any SMS enabled phone. Text responses can be pre-configured and organized for a quick and concise response to text messages. With Center Initiated Text, phone calls could be replaced with text for callers who cannot speak or are hearing impaired in order to assist them without the help of a third party. RapidSOS™ Clearinghouse is another robust feature with the CentralSquare 911 Pro system. With this technology, 911 Pro locates and uses the caller’s latitude, longitude, and reverse geocoded address to create a plot point of their location on the map. This is a great advancement in locating wireless 911 callers that other vendors do not have implemented.
On top of this, CentralSquare 911 Pro also offers patented technology called Caller Location Query (CLQ) that no other vendor can provide. It allows a public safety telecommunicator to send an SMS message to any number to obtain the location of the wireless phone. Once the location is captured, it will automatically send the phone’s location to CentralSquare 911 Pro, allowing the call-taker to access the phone’s GPS. For missing, abducted or in search and rescue cases this would be a tremendous improvement to determining a wireless caller’s location.
CentralSquare 911 Pro offers the most comprehensive and forward leaning call-taking remedy for the City of Helena. Its integrated features, patented caller location query, visual appeal and ease of use makes this an ideal call-taking platform for the public safety telecommunicator.
|