In Catawba County, Timing is Everything

Why This Case Study Is Relevant

It demonstrates the benefits of time synchronization in a Public Safety Answering Point.

Background

The Catawba County (Newton, North Carolina) E911 Communications Center had a problem: The inability to synchronize its systems to determine what time an incident occurred.

They had agencies such as Emergency Services and EMS that were not all located in the same building. In the E911 Center, they utilized three different computers at each position – and none of them had the same time. This caused the dispatch time on the CAD to differ from the radio log.

Solution

The Center implemented an Orolia NetClock® GPSGlobal Positioning System is a navigation satellite system. See also system that connected directly to a server. It is now the time server for the complete County network of over 1,000 computers.

Results

Orolia’s NetClock keeps all computers set at the same time and allows the E911 Center to keep their checks and balances in place for times given to units during response.

Everyone now uses the same time, from reports to verbal communications, and from E911 dispatchers to shift supervisors in EMS.