Terrebonne Parish Gets in Sync with NetClock®

Why This Case Study Is Relevant

It demonstrates how a time synchronization device time makes a Public Safety Answering Point more efficient, reliable and accurate.

Background

Terrebonne Parish (Louisiana) operated two PSAPs to answer emergency 911 calls. One was located at the police dispatch, which also handled city fire department dispatching, and the other was located at the Sheriff’s office dispatch, which also handled dispatching for 11 volunteer fire departments.

The Parish relied on wall clocks to provide less-thanaccurate time. As a result, CAD reports were depicting fire apparatus arriving prior to the call being received. Police and deputies’ times were equally as skewed.

Upon evaluation, the Parish needed to synchronize 10 radio dispatch consoles, 17 LAN/WAN computers of which 12 operated CAD records software, three voice/radio logging recorders, three dispatch wall clocks, and several building security door locks. Because these items were in three separate facilities about three miles apart, a viable solution seemed hopeless.

Solution

After attending NENA and APCO and visiting numerous time synch vendors, the Parish decided to purchase an Orolia NetClock solution. Its hardware provided out-port time sync within their facility to their 911 server, LAN/WAN CAD and GIS servers, five local dispatch consoles, one wall TimeView display, and their voice-radio logging recorder.

Their NetClock MasterClock also time syncs their sheriff’s office logging recorder, one wall display, three dispatch consoles and four CAD computers, and their police department’s logging recorder, TimeView display, two additional dispatch consoles, and three CAD computers.

Results

Terrebonne Parish now has the ability for its agency and remote agencies to add numerous items and offices for synchronization, ensuring that all their reports are accurate. In addition, the product’s reliability has been significant: zero problems in more than eight years.