News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Putnam County’s new 911 system has sped up the process for connecting callers to responders.
911 Director Penny Foister said it has been a smooth transition over the last three months, with only a few speed bumps. Foister said the biggest benefit is they can now connect callers to responders who used to be more difficult to reach.
“This is for if we need to connect the caller with a neighboring county,” Foister said. “Another agency that is not one of those that we use all the time, that we have one button for.”
Foister said it used to be a multiple step process, with the old system never providing one button transfer. She said that using a system provided by Motorola ensures they will continually update and be ready to answer the public’s needs in all emergencies.
“Connecting the 911 callers to other dispatch agencies in Putnam County like Cookeville Police Dispatch and Putnam County Sheriff’s Dispatch, Tennessee Tech Dispatch and also Tennessee Highway Patrol Communications, those have always been a one button transfer,” Foister said.
Foister said through computer aided dispatch, 911 call information gets relayed to the responding agency. She said this system works throughout the county.
“They get a CAD card spawned to them and they’re getting that and the caller at pretty much the same time,” Foister said. “So even if sending the caller, if we couldn’t get it to them just immediately, they’ve already got the information on that CAD card.”
Foister said the CAD or computer aided dispatch system helps with all the agencies inside Cookeville, Baxter, Algood and Monterey.
