Crawford County lept into the future by activating the newly acquired AlertTS-Informer VoIP 911 Call-Taking System. AlertTS has become the first public safety provider of Voice over Internet Protocal (VoIP) and Next-Gen 911 through MultiProtocal Label Switching (MPLS). Together with the Public Safety Agencies of Crawford County, AlertTS has made VoIP and Next-Gen 911 a reality.

Prior to implementation of this ground breaking solution, the County had maintained four separate and costly 911 controllers, the Sheriff’s Office, Gallion Police Department, Bucyrus Police Department and Crestline Police Department. After implementation, all four Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP) now work together by connecting into one 911 controller. The AlertTS - Informer controller is located at the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office.

The new main controller along with the VoIP Telephone PBX automatically routes the 911 caller to the appropriate PSAP based Emergency Service Number (ESN) with no personnel intervention. When a situation of high volume activity occurs at one dispatch center, 911 calls automatically rollover to one of the other dispatch centers. With this solution, AlertTS has made traditional TELCO, fiber optic and T-1 lines obsolete for the County. This County receives significant annual savings because it only has to maintain one controller.

Accomplished by installing a county-wide Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) system provided by Embarq, and a VoIP phone system provided by Tranztec Solutions, Inc., the County is now functioning on a true IP based solution with redundancy at every level. This system provides security with virtually no point of failure. For example, if there is a failure due to a complete blackout, Crawford County’s neighboring counties ultimately handle the 911 calls through the automatic rollover to the out of county PSAPs.

The MPLS System provides a wide area network throughout the PSAPs allowing for the transfer of text messaging and images once it is available from the telephone company. This solution now makes Crawford County Next-Gen ready.

All 911 PSAPs/Dispatch Centers now work from one CAD and RMS making data sharing of all incident and arrest data available to all agencies in the county. The integration of this solution will increase investigative abilities, and ensuring safety to all of the Public Safety responders and citizens of Crawford County.

"Working with Crawford County and the business solutions providers together has been very exciting," says Mark Gruber, President of Alert Tracking Systems, Inc. "AlertTS’ philosophy is to partner with the best in the country, providing one solution that is supported and maintained by one entity, that entity being AlertTS. Sheriff Shawber, Crawford County shared his vision with us, and we knew we were the company to bring his vision to reality. Working in a time of economic hardships, the Sheriff made it possible to consolidate four PSAPs into one, without closing a single PSAP in his county or a job being lost. This entire project has been very inspirational for all members of the AlertTS team. We salute all of the staff at every agency in Crawford County. They all worked with us to help make this project a complete success."

About Alert Tracking Systems

Alert Tracking Systems is a privately held company specializing in providing innovative and comprehensive public safety solutions for Law Enforcement, Fire and EMS agencies. For more information on Alert Tracking Systems, please visit www.alertts.com.