breaking news

New GPS System Cuts Response Time in Springdale

By: Cassidy Hodges

Updated: December 11, 2012

The city of Springdale is installing new technology to speed up response times when heading to emergencies.

911 response time: "It's very important. Especially on a lot of these calls where seconds matter," says Lt. Derek Hudson, with the Springdale Police Department.

So the city of Springdale is updating the way dispatch works, now tracking officers at every step.

"This is a huge tool to allow us to be more efficient in what we're doing as far as the way we're dispatching officers,who's responding and also for officer safety to keep an eye on our guys at all times," says Hudson.

Previously, officers would be dispatched based on zone, no matter which car was closer to the emergency, but with the new AVL system, that problem is no more.

"They can actually look and see where the officers are and actually dispatch the officer that's closest to the call regardless of what zone they're assigned to."

And equip the officers patrolling with more information.

"To have all of that knowledge right there in their car where they can see where everybody's at and where all the calls are."

Knowledge--that's saving time and passing moments on to people on the other end of the emergency.

"We can get there a lot quicker hopefully from a dispatch standpoint, we'll send the right people to start with and it will cut down on response times," says Hudson.

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