An Integrated System for Dispatch and Navigation of Emergency Services Vehicles

S.R. Croyle

Abstract:	For a Public Safety agency to perform its job effectively, its units need to respond to the scene of the emergency situation as quickly and safely as possible. For this to occur, there needs to be an accurate determination of the position of the emergency, a transmission of this location to the responding units, a calculation of the quickest route from the responding units' current location to the emergency location, and a quick and safe traversal of that route. When the emergency call is received at the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), the dispatcher must determine the location of the emergency, the nature of the emergency, and the appropriate units to dispatch to the emergency. The dispatcher must relate the nature and location of the emergency to the crews which are being dispatched. There are some automated systems the PSAP can use for locating the emergency vehicles in its jurisdiction. There are also some emergency vehicles that are equipped with navigation systems. There is not any integration between the systems that the PSAP has and the systems in the emergency vehicles to take the location of the emergency in digital form, feed this location into the system in the emergency vehicle and have the system in the emergency vehicle determine the best route to this location without any human intervention. Without these tasks being integrated, there is a burden placed on the crews of the responding emergency vehicles to focus their attention on reaching the correct location of the emergency. When all of the pieces are integrated, the task load of the Public Safety personnel providing the response can be focused solely on providing the correct response to the emergency situation instead of how to get to the location.This paper discusses the technologies and systems that are currently being used. It describes the ways that some of these currently used systems can be modified to more easily become part of an integrated system. It also describes a means of coordinating all of these tasks into an integrated system.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS/GNSS 2003) September 9 - 12, 2003 Oregon Convention Center Portland, OR
Pages:	2381 - 2388
Cite this article:	Croyle, S.R., "An Integrated System for Dispatch and Navigation of Emergency Services Vehicles," Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS/GNSS 2003), Portland, OR, September 2003, pp. 2381-2388.
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