MISHAWAKA — When a 911 caller reports a family member with a medical emergency, there is an expectation that responders will be dispatched as soon as possible.
But so far this year, at least 9,500 dispatches have been slowed because of a problem with the computer-aided dispatch system at St. Joseph County’s consolidated 911 center near Mishawaka, said Ray Schultz, the center’s executive director.
The issue has raised questions about why the system, which took two years to set up at a cost of $3 million, is still deficient and whether it can be fixed. It was launched in June 2017.
Leaders of the 911 center have largely blamed problems on a software company, saying Plano, Texas-based Tyler Technologies has not done enough to resolve issues with its New World CAD system.
Some also suspect flaws with the county’s Geographic Information System data might be to blame, and studies are being planned to determine if that’s the case.
Problems have led the county Board of Commissioners, the government’s executive branch, to consider replacing the CAD system. Commissioners decided in July to seek proposals for systems from other companies, which will be due later this month.
At that meeting, Commissioner President Andy Kostielney said “better options” are being considered because of “issues from a service and performance standpoint” with Tyler Technologies.
‘Life and death’
The main problem, Schultz said, is that the CAD system sometimes doesn’t allow dispatchers to “validate” addresses of 911 callers in cases where the same street name and number exists in multiple municipalities.
Addresses are normally validated so that the system automatically determines which responders to dispatch. But when addresses aren’t recognized by the system because other addresses have the identical street name and number, other solutions must be found to dispatch responders.
Sometimes it can take dispatchers a matter of seconds to work around problems, Schultz said, but in other cases, it could take minutes.
For a quick fix, he said, dispatchers often do searches using Google Maps to find intersections closest to addresses. Once they enter intersections, responders are dispatched.
The other fix, which often takes longer, involves using “overrides” that force the system to use correct addresses, he said. To do overrides, dispatchers use the system’s map to figure out how to manually assign responders, such as police officers and firefighters, to addresses.
From Jan. 1 to July 11, there were 117,000 dispatches. Of those, 9,500, or 8 percent, involved overrides.
Schultz, however, said he doesn’t have data on how long it took those 9,500 dispatches to be made, and he couldn’t say if delays affected the outcome of responses to emergencies such as fires, shootings or heart attacks.
The 9,500 dispatches don’t account for cases in which intersections were found by dispatchers to sidestep problems, but Schultz couldn’t estimate how much that happened.
Delays are a major concern, Schultz said, because time is of the essence.
“It can be a difference between life and death,” he said, adding that dispatchers have found fast ways to work around problems. “If it’s a shooting, stabbing or high-priority call, they do whatever is fastest.”
As invalid addresses are discovered, they’re reported to local GIS specialists to correct, said Schultz, who was previously the Mishawaka Fire Department’s assistant chief.
Schultz became the center’s director in January after serving as interim director since last October. He replaced Brent Croymans, who decided to step down and remain the center’s IT director.
Is data flawed?
The system has been riddled with problems since it was launched.
It relies on GIS data to function properly, Schultz said, but Tyler Technologies didn’t send any GIS specialists to help with the installation. It instead sent only a 150-page manual that was used by South Bend and county GIS departments to set up the system.
“On a customer-service level,” he said, “the company has not met our expectations.”
Under its five-year maintenance contract with the Board of Commissioners, which expires in July 2020, the company is paid $311,000 per year.
A company spokesperson didn’t return a call Friday seeking comment.
Some officials suspect inaccurate GIS data could be the problem, but Schultz doesn’t think so.
Local GIS departments “were given a manual and not shown what to do,” he said. “It’s easy to blame them and say our data is terrible, but that may not necessarily be the case. It just might be how the software is using the data.”
Officials hope studies will determine if GIS data is to blame.
The County Council, the government’s fiscal branch, will consider approving $10,000 on Aug. 14 for a yearlong contract with GeoComm, which would investigate problems with how GIS data is used by the CAD system.
And the Board of Commissioners will consider approving a $70,000 contract on Tuesday with the Antero Group, which would do a comprehensive assessment of the county’s GIS program.
‘Not a training issue’
When the system was launched, Schultz said, there was initially a big problem with dispatchers sending police and firefighters to the wrong addresses.
Those mix-ups happened in cases where addresses in different municipalities have the same street name. Sometimes, for example, dispatchers would mistakenly send responders to the wrong city by selecting an address with the same street name and number.
Mix-ups largely stopped, Schultz said, after he started requiring dispatchers last fall to ask 911 callers to identify municipalities.
But other problems, such as the issue with validating addresses, have persisted.
Originally, Schultz said, Tyler Technologies concluded that problems were the result of dispatchers not being trained properly.
But after visiting last month to get feedback from dispatchers, company officials concluded “it’s not a training issue and that folks know how to use the software,” he said.
Should system be replaced?
Schultz described the recent decision by the Board of Commissioners to seek proposals for other systems as a “backup plan.”
Under the ideal scenario, he said, Tyler Technologies will help fix all of the problems with the system so that it can still be used. Setting up another system, after all, would take at least a year.
But he said that considering alternatives is a way to hold the company’s “feet to the fire.”
“We want them to know we’re serious about looking in other directions so that we get the best possible service,” he said.
Commissioners voted 2-1 to seek proposals from vendors, with Dave Thomas voting no.
Thomas, who is concerned about the cost of launching a different system, thinks Tyler Technologies should be held accountable.
“If this firm is not fulfilling their obligations,” he said, “we may have to sue them.”
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