Communications (Dispatch)

Communications within the Police Department is responsible for police, fire, advanced and basic life support and heavy-duty rescue dispatching in the town. Communications personnel are highly trained and have often sustained life, or revived patients while awaiting the arrival of emergency medical services. They are the "first responders" in EMS situations.

CAD, or Computer Aided Dispatching, is a fully interactive system providing computer based support for daily call taking and dispatching of single and multiple units of police, fire and emergency medical services. All call and unit activity are automatically time stamped and tracked. "Run cards", programmed for all of the mutual aid agreements between fire departments and EMS quickly identify the appropriate units to dispatch, and thereby eliminating any delay. Access throughout the system by all officers and telecommunicators can be made directly to state and federal criminal/informational systems from any terminal.
 
CAD also coordinates all information coming in to the police department and records information about persons, addresses, offenses and incidents. This data is instantly available when an inquiry is made about any of these subjects and provides life saving information to units responding to an emergency. CAD can provide information such as hazardous material storage, medical histories, history of violence with a person or at an address and other information that is readily available to the first responders to an incident. CAD allows them to more efficiently, safely and effectively serve the public.