News Room April 16, 2002 Public Hearing on Unified Communications Center Charles H. Ramsey Chief of Police Metropolitan Police Department On April 16, 2002, Chief Charles H. Ramsey delivered the following testimony to the DC Council Committe on the Judiciary, Kathy Patterson, Chair. Madame Chair, members of the Committee, staff and guests – I appreciate the opportunity to testify before the Committee today on this critical public safety project. Deputy Mayor Kellems has laid out the rationale, goals and benefits of the Unified Communications Center. I will focus my remarks on how the UCC will further enhance police communications within our city. I firmly believe that the UCC is the logical – and necessary – next step in our ongoing efforts to improve police emergency and non-emergency communications. We have already made substantial progress in this area, and the UCC will provide the technological, operation and administrative platform for allowing us to continue moving forward. Last summer, as you know, police communications moved out of our old and horribly antiquated facility on the sixth floor of the Municipal Center and moved into the Public Safety Communications Center on McMillan Drive, Northwest. This move represented a significant step forward in a number of areas: We replaced an old and outdated telephone switching system – one that was no longer supported by vendor and that was prone to dropping calls – with a new, state-of-the-art telephone system for  9-1-1 and 3-1-1.This system includes a new automated call distributor that has improved reliability and efficiency. We successfully transferred a new Computer-Aided Dispatch system that had been installed at our old facility, but became fully functional in the PSCC, with Police and Fire/EMS working from a common CAD system. We are now in the processing of developing new management reports from both the ACD and CAD systems that will enable supervisors to more closely and regularly monitor staffing and workload. We moved our personnel out of a facility that was too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, and ill-equipped and cramped throughout the year. We replaced this truly abominable work environment with a modern communications facility, containing ergonomically designed furniture, state-of-the-art light and sound engineering, and other workplace amenities that are improving efficiency and empoyee morale. And, for the first with the PSCC, we co-located police and Fire/EMS communications personnel on a single floor, using common technology and providing the ability for face-to-face communications when needed. While certainly an important step forward, the opening of the PSCC did not solve all of the communications challenges confronting the MPD. Adequate staffing remains a serious challenge. And there are a number of business process improvements that we know must be implemented if we are to provide our customers with the type of “gold standard” service they need and deserve. I believe the UCC will enable to move much closer to that goal. Page 1 of 3         1   2   3