Florida Fire Department Uses GPS Technology to Dispatch Vehicles
Radio Satellite Integrators, Inc. (RSI), a global provider of customized GPS-based vehicle tracking and mobile data systems, today announced that Hillsborough County Fire Rescue (HCFR) is entering into the final stages of system implementation.
The RSI Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) system combines GPS, wireless communications, and ESRI mapping software to provide real-time and historical vehicle fleet location data to Hillsborough dispatchers. HCFD has equipped all 125 vehicles in their fleet including: fire trucks, ambulances, chiefs’ cars, ladder trucks, and heavy rescue vehicles.
Hillsborough County is located midway along the west coast of Florida and contains the City of Tampa, whose Fire Rescue fleet also has an RSI AVL and mobile data system. As part of the final phase of system implementation, both the Hillsborough County Fire Rescue and City of Tampa Fire Rescue will be able to track each other’s vehicle fleets, which will provide for highly efficient dispatching in a mutual aid incident. As an additional part of the final phase, RSI will integrate the system with Hillsborough’s existing computer aided dispatch (CAD) system from VisionAIR, Inc. The RSI system also includes SPOT mobile data software that provides valuable incident and building preplan information on ruggedized in-vehicle laptops as generated and prompted by the CAD system.
“In these times of heightened security it is crucial that our public safety agencies not only have the best technology available, but these agencies must have the ability to work together,” said RSI President Jonathan Michels. “The integration of the Hillsborough and Tampa systems will provide the entire area with an unprecedented mutual aid dispatching capability.”
