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Integrated public safety system goes fault-tolerant with Tiburon software and Stratus^® ftServer^® system

First responders understand better than anyone that computer-aided dispatch (CAD) is crucial to getting the right resources to the scene fast. The need to dispatch emergency units quickly was therefore uppermost in the minds of decision-makers in Kansas City, Missouri as they planned an integrated public safety system to replace separate CAD and records management systems (RMS) used by the city's police and fire departments, in addition to revamping the corrections management system (CMS) at its jails. A collection of disparate systems for dispatch, records, and corrections had grown over the years, and the city wanted to improve the speed and quality of the information flow that supports public safety.

Kansas City also called upon a first responder with frontline experience, its former fire chief Rick Brisbin, to serve as project manager for the implementation. After 26 years of service and a brief seven-month retirement, Brisbin was enlisted to help the city realize its goal of reengineering its information technology to protect the city's more than 440,000 citizens well into the future.

Brisbin emphasizes that a clear priority exists. "Rapid delivery of public safety resources to emergency scenes has to be the main consideration," he states. "And selecting a system is such an important decision that you want to make the right choice and not have to make it again for many years." The new system is projected to handle approximately one million police and fire calls annually within five years.

After a rigorous RFP process and a complete evaluation that examined responses from multiple vendors, the city's executive committee and project team chose Tiburon, Inc., a CompuDyne Company and a leader in public safety and justice information systems, to provide a comprehensive public safety solution that included four fault-tolerant Stratus^® ftServer^® systems.

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Integration calls for reliability

The new plan called for a suite of Tiburon software to replace unconnected, separate applications running on multiple systems at police and fire departments, including a mainframe-based CAD system long used by police.

As valuable as the rest of the integrated public safety capabilities are, the criticality of computer-aided dispatch would guide the selection of the server platform. The alternative of a high-availability cluster was not a serious contender for CAD. Says Brisbin, "The project team decided that CAD is so important, it has to be supported on a fault-tolerant box. The choice could not be justified to the public if there were to be a problem and we didn't choose fault tolerance."

To support the critical dispatching environment and the associated records management system, Tiburon recommended fault-tolerant ftServer systems from Stratus Technologies and PC workstations, both using Microsoft^® Windows^® operating systems. The distributed solution effectively provides each user a complete desktop CAD system and enables automatic and efficient synchronization for each workstation.

The Stratus family of Intel^® processor-based systems for Microsoft Windows server environments automatically averts unplanned downtime with Stratus Continuous Processing^® features, including lockstep hardware, failsafe system software, and ActiveService^TM capabilities. Windows-based server applications benefit from these built-in availability safeguards from the moment the applications are loaded onto the servers. And with uptime protection designed in, affordable ftServer systems have proven themselves to meet or surpass the computer industry's gold standard of 99.999% availability in real-world customer installations.

Tiburon's CAD/Ti^TM software would be installed at the public safety answering point (PSAP) operated by the police department. Emergency calls handled by the police department or transferred to the fire department would be dispatched more efficiently. Incident records would seamlessly flow to Tiburon's RMS application to provide police and fire with records automation suited to each department. Both CAD/Ti and RMS would run on ftServer systems.

Information would likewise be shared between police RMS and Tiburon applications running on other servers, including a CMS system supporting the city's two jails. In addition, Tiburon software would provide interfaces between CAD and RMS and the Mobile Dispatch System (MDS) and Automated Reporting System (ARS) software accessed by police officers in their vehicles. An interface to a regional criminal history database with access to state and federal public safety databases complete the solution.

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The velocity and quality of information

Sharing information between police and fire is crucial to rapid response, and is the big payoff of a new system for public safety agencies. "We will be able to share public safety information between departments with a simple keystroke instead of making phone calls," Brisbin says.

In addition to enhancing the coordination of first responder units, there is the promise of after-the-fact advantages. Data captured once will be accessible from all appropriate Tiburon applications without the need for time-consuming reentry, a major source of mistakes. Incident analysis will be improved by having a repository of public safety information that spans an event's entire lifecycle, so that police and fire will gain insight into any areas for potential improvements.

Moving to a standard Windows server environment brings a further substantial benefit that will be less visible to most. Instead of requiring different sets of technology skills to maintain the various computing platforms, IT professionals with Windows knowledge will be able to oversee the Tiburon and Stratus solution. The project team expects that the new systems will be easy and cost-effective to administer because Windows expertise continues to become more widespread.

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Success is in the plan

A phased implementation of the new applications is currently underway. The process is designed to allow a smooth transition and training time for everyone who will interact with the system. The organizational element is a highlight of the reengineering effort, because the integrated system provides an opportunity for the city's public safety professionals to work even more effectively and take full advantage of best practices.

"With the enormous number of issues involved in implementing a public safety system, we don't need any more worries. We believe Tiburon software and the Stratus ftServer system represent the industry's best combination to meet the city's mission-critical public safety automation requirements," Brisbin notes.

"Peers from many places have related stories over the years of good people being unable to do the best job because of bad systems," he continues. "In public safety, it's not about 'buying more stuff'; you have to plan carefully for success. That's precisely what Tiburon and the ftServer systems are helping us to do."

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