Neighboring towns within the same county often chip in for a common emergency management and response center for things like fires, floods and other emergencies. The logic is simple: It is more cost-effective to build one center and divvy-up costs based on population and demographic data than have each town build its own center and invest in personnel, training, vehicles and equipment.
One example is Bergen County, N.J., where seven towns — Alpine, Closter, Harrington Park, Haworth, Northvale, Norwood and Rockleigh — were served by a common Interboro Regional Police Communications Network that was built 40 years ago. The Interboro network fulfilled its basic premise of saving each town a significant amount of money while also providing an adequate level of emergency services. However, as the county’s population grew and as technology moved forward by leaps and bounds over a 40-year span, the Interboro gradually became obsolete. Upkeep, repairs and maintenance became increasingly expensive and difficult.
Although the town was ready to replace the Interboro network with something more modern, it had a few concerns. The biggest concern was to make sure the new system in no way jeopardized public safety. There were also concerns that a centralized command center that relied on technology may not be as effective as police personnel who had first-hand information of the neighborhood, its layout, demographics and personal familiarity with residents.
The Ideal Solution
A weakened economy, reduced funding from the state, a mandatory 2 percent cap on property taxes and severe budget shortfalls led Bergen County towns to look for more cost-effective and efficient solutions for their various programs.
When county officials started to look at choices for upgrading or replacing the Interboro Regional Police Communications Network, they soon realized that upgrading an obsolete network — which still relied on scanners, faxes, analog video and old-school ways of communication — did not make practical or economic sense. County officials also realized that the existing system severely limited their ability to anticipate emergencies and coordinate responses between county agencies and towns, and that emergency response times could also be significantly improved using newer technology. Upon exploring the options, they realized that the most sensible option was to set up a new network that easily integrated with the legacy systems while also seamlessly interfacing with the latest technologies.
They formulized their ideal solution, one that would integrate easily with their legacy infrastructure and databases and be:
- Forward compatible with modern day networking and smart mobile technologies.
- A system that would scale easily as the county’s population expanded.
- A system that would be easy to learn and use, leverage the power of newer high-definition and 3-D video display technology, and provide an easy to manage visual view of emergency situations.
- A network infrastructure that would support open standards so devices from multiple manufacturers and application developers could easily be integrated without expensive customization or proprietary software.
- A solution that would have lower operating expenses, but still be significantly more effective than the existing network.
With all of the above in mind and with foresight on the part of town planners, Bergen County raised $12.4 million and decided to build a highly scalable, state-of-the-art Public Safety Emergency Operations Center. The center, which began operations on Oct. 1, 2010, is laid out over 36,000 square feet. It features a 911 command and communications center designed so police, fire and medical staff can monitor and respond to emergencies for towns within Bergen County.
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