Technology Enhances Sheriff's Office Patrol Capabilities

NEW PORT RICHEY- Pasco Sheriff's Office dispatchers and road patrol supervisors have a new capability that enhances the coordination of assigning deputies to citizen calls for service.

This capability is based on a technology that the military and then civilians have been using for years. Global Positioning Satellites, or GPS. An automatic vehicle locator (AVL) is a device that makes use of GPS technology to enable the agency to remotely track the location of its vehicle fleet. Sheriff's Office patrol cars are now equipped with the devices, which displays the locations of the cars in real time on interactive maps on large LCD terminals in the Communications Center (See photos), and on supervisor's laptop computers in their cars.

"One of my campaign promises eight years ago was to reduce the time it takes our deputies to respond to citizens' calls," Sheriff Bob White said. "We have cut in half the response times to our highest priority calls for service, but we continue to strive to reduce all response times, and this is our latest endeavor in that area."

In 2005 and 2006, the Pasco Sheriff's Office was awarded more than $330,000 from two federal grants to purchase 320 AVL units. An AVL system is able to pinpoint the longitude, latitude, ground speed, and course direction of a given vehicle. The primary use of the AVL system is for dispatchers to see where the deputies are located in relation to incoming calls for service. This allows more efficient dispatching of deputies to those calls, where a timely response could be a matter of life or death.

Another use of the AVL system is for road patrol supervisors to have an accurate, real-time snapshot of where their squads are in relation to holding calls, which also allows them to assist dispatchers in deploying deputies. They can view the AVL map from the computer laptops in their vehicles or from their office computers.

A third use for the system is for individual deputies to map out which roads will lead to their destination the quickest, a common use for civilian GPS systems. A fourth use is for deputies to see each other when setting up a perimeter, as in a search for a missing person or a criminal on the run. A fifth use is for deputy safety. In case of trouble, dispatchers and supervisors can find the last known location of a deputy's vehicle. For example, this could be vital information if a deputy had to leave his vehicle for a foot pursuit of a suspect. A sixth use would involve a worst-case scenario, such as a hurricane. Normal landmarks might be moved, destroyed or obstructed, but deputies would be able to determine exactly where they are located by using the system. Pasco deputies saw this used during Hurricane Katrina relief operations when they were deployed to Mississippi in 2005.

"I have no doubt that this new enhancement to our deployment strategies will have a profound impact on our ability to provide even better service to Pasco citizens," Sheriff White said. "Best of all, it was implemented using federal grant money, saving local tax dollars."