911 awards grant to Summerdale Police for new CAD system

By Jessica Vaughn / jessica@gulfcoastmedia.com
Posted 6/21/17

SUMMERDALE – The Summerdale Police Department is receiving an upgrade. Recently the department applied for a grant through 911 in order to purchase a computer-aided dispatch system, otherwise known …

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911 awards grant to Summerdale Police for new CAD system

Posted

SUMMERDALE – The Summerdale Police Department is receiving an upgrade. Recently the department applied for a grant through 911 in order to purchase a computer-aided dispatch system, otherwise known as a CAD system.

“We need to have a CAD, it will tell us all the information that is pertinent for us,” said Police Chief James Davis. “The present system that we have now is a fire and paramedic CAD system, so it can’t keep up with police information.”

The current CAD system is not able to balance the many reports needed by the police, such as the number of calls or how many times an officer goes to a certain area. Once filed, the records become lost due to the number of archives, which causes it to take an extended amount of time to locate a particular file.

“Spanish Fort, Daphne, Fairhope, Robertsdale, Loxley, and Foley all have this system,” said Davis. “We’ll all be able to intertwine and share information, and if people want times and records of things, we’ll be able to get them in a shorter period of time. So we’re very lucky.”

The grant received from 911 by the Town of Summerdale will pay for everything, and will also include one year of service. The yearly service, which will become the town’s responsibility around the budget time of 2019, will be a joint charge to Silverhill, Summerdale, and Elberta split three ways. Thus the amount is reduced for each area, and the service will be available to everyone. If Summerdale ever opted to start their own dispatch, though, they wouldn’t have to worry about losing the system or the service.

“This is a grant given to the Town of Summerdale, so if Summerdale ever decides to have their own dispatch, all of this comes with us,” said Davis. “It’s ours, it’s in our name.”

In the future, Summerdale plans to sign contracts with Silverhill’s and Elberta’s mayor and chief of police to enter the service together.

“Before we sign for the system, we are going to obtain signatures of Elberta and Silverhill on an agreement,” said Mayor David Wilson. “And I want to say thank you to 911 for granting us the funds to purchase this CAD system.”

The system is a rewarding addition to the police force, and will help to maintain records and will make swapping information between cities and towns a quicker process.