CAD and ITS working in concert: field tests are integrating advanced traffic management systems with computer-aided dispatch systems to provide real-time information that can improve public safety

Public Roads, Nov-Dec, 2003 by K. Craig Allred

The computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems used by law enforcement and other emergency response agencies provide dispatchers and response units with real-time information on road incidents. These public safety systems typically track data on assignments to response units, locations of crashes, equipment locations and statuses, utility locations, and special hazards, If CAD systems and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) could work together, public safety agencies would have instant access to real-time information on traffic and road conditions. Emergency responders would reach incident scenes more quickly and manage the responses more efficiently. By the same token, transportation agencies could use real-time information from CAD systems to manage the traffic related effects of emergencies more efficiently.

Most existing CAD systems are proprietary, however, and are not designed to exchange information with CAD systems offered by other vendors, let alone with ITS technologies. Variations in formats and proto cols for data exchange and messaging pose additional challenges, as do different system standards in the transportation and public safety communities.

To address these challenges, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) recently launched two projects to demonstrate that the technical and institutional barriers to integration of public safety and transportation systems can be overcome.

The USDOT ITS Public Safety Program funded the two new field operational tests--one in Salt Lake City, UT, and one in Seattle, WA--to establish the feasibility and benefits of integrating public safety CAD systems with the advanced traffic management systems (ATMS) already used by transportation agencies as part of their ITS deployments.

The timing could not be better, since many State and local public safety agencies are planning long-needed upgrades for their CAD systems in anticipation of funding for homeland security.

"We are delighted to have the opportunity to work on a project of such national significance," says Richard Manser, interim ITS director with the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT). "These technologies have the potential to improve public safety and security significantly through real-time sharing of incident related information between public safety and transportation agencies."

Utah's Advanced Traffic Management System

In Utah, the State transportation agency already had integrated its CommuterLink advanced traffic management system with the Utah Department of Public Safety's CAD system in a test mode. The State will use USDOT funding to expand this integration to include several other CAD systems in the Salt Lake Valley.

The major aim of the Utah project is to define and develop a common message set that can be easily integrated by CAD vendors without affecting their proprietary products or other sensitive information.

This level of integration will require an unprecedented degree of collaboration among several independent CAD vendors. The project also will mark the first time that integration and electronic transfer of data have linked such a wide variety of emergency management centers with a statewide traffic management center.

"UDOT and the Utah Department of Public Safety have been working across organizational boundaries for years and are setting a great example of partnering," says John Njord, UDOT's executive director. "This contract will allow us to take our past experience, build upon it, and share the results with the rest of the country."

Utah Integrates Four CAD Platforms

Utah will build on the solid, existing institutional relationships among public safety and transportation agencies in the Salt Lake City region to share a wide range of technologies for emergency response and traffic management. In addition to UDOT and the Utah Department of Public Safety, partners in the Utah project include the Valley Emergency Communications Center in Salt Lake County, the Salt Lake City Fire Department, the Salt Lake City Police Department, the Utah Transit Authority, four CAD vendors that provided the legacy systems used by the project partners, and TransCore-the UDOT contractor for systems management and integration.

Utah's CAD/ITS system includes four major components. The first is enhanced message/data set functionality. The originating agency will be able to select which agencies receive shared data messages. Agencies will be able to update or create incident records automatically using the shared data. Development of the message sets will be based on the most recent Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) 1512 standards. Other transportation and public safety agencies around the country may want to use these systems at some point. For this reason, the message sets will be designed with open architecture that will allow for easy interface with other proprietary systems.

The second major component is automated vehicle location integration. The integrated CAD/ITS system will provide several tools to help the partners improve their daily operation. Automated vehicle location enables transportation and public safety agencies to track the locations of their response units. Integrating and sharing automated vehicle location data will provide benefits to dispatch agencies, such as being able to convey the locations of snowplows to all field units concerned with roadway conditions.