5 Questions Every Public Safety Agency Should Ask about Interoperability

Emergencies don’t happen in “silos.” Neither should emergency response. Natural disasters span regions and states. Major car accidents occur on highways or county lines. Your units may not be the closest to an incident, even if it is within your jurisdiction.

When a crisis strikes, multiple agencies across city and county lines need to share information fast. Delays caused by disconnected systems can waste seconds and cost lives, making seamless communication more important than ever.

Southwest Ohio is setting the standard. With CentralSquare’s Unify CAD-to-CAD solution, five major communications centers are now fully connected: the City of Cincinnati, Hamilton County Communications, Warren County Communications, West Chester Communications and Northeast Communications.

This real-time data sharing network enables agencies to collaborate instantly, dispatch the right resources and respond faster. Regardless of jurisdiction. It’s a game-changing partnership for public safety across the region.

The initiative didn’t happen overnight. It took years of planning, and more agencies may join in the future. But the result has already been worthwhile – better coordination, faster response times, and safer communities.

“This project has been years in the making and will be a game changer for our region. Each partner that is involved in implementing this CAD-to-CAD connection has spent countless hours to ensure that when turned on, this connection will be the best it can be for the citizens of Southwest Ohio.”

Joshua Moyer, Public Safety Systems Manager with Warren County Telecommunications

Every public safety agency should take note. By evaluating your interoperability strategy today, you can improve emergency response and community safety. Keep reading to discover the five questions your agency needs to be asking about interoperability.

1. Are we dispatching the right resources as fast as possible?

Public safety response is a race against time. Getting the right help to the right place is a necessity. That’s why agencies must constantly evaluate how efficiently they’re deploying resources.

Emergencies don’t care about jurisdictional lines. In the event of a multi-vehicle accident near a county border, how do you collaborate with other agencies to respond quickly?

Unfortunately, delays are common in multi-agency responses. Without true interoperability, agencies rely on manual phone calls or radio relays to pass along incident details. Not only does this slow response times, it increases the risk of miscommunication. A CAD-to-CAD system can eliminate these manual steps by automatically sharing dispatch data between agency systems.

Many public safety agencies today are understaffed and overextended. Real-time data sharing allows agencies to collaborate to send the closest available unit. For example, South Metro Fire Rescue in Colorado responded to a potential drowning at Chatfield Reservoir. The closest medic unit belonged to a neighboring agency. Thanks to CAD-to-CAD, the call was instantly transferred, and the right crew was dispatched without delay.

These examples show how integrated systems and data sharing improve emergency outcomes. By enabling smarter coordination, CAD-to-CAD technology helps you dispatch the right resources as fast as possible.

2. Can our first responders access the same information in real time?

When public safety agencies operate in silos, first responders arrive to emergencies with outdated or incomplete information. That disconnect can delay critical decisions and cause duplicate responses. In contrast, interoperability allows agencies to share mission-critical data across departments and jurisdictions in real time.

Situational awareness is everything during an emergency. When EMS, fire, and law enforcement operate from the same information, they can better coordinate and respond with greater precision. Interoperable systems break down the barriers that often prevent this kind of unified response. With a connected CAD-to-CAD network, data flows instantly between agencies, including caller location, incident updates, and resource availability.

Imagine a gas leak near a school in a multi-jurisdictional area. If all responding units have access to the same data, evacuation plans, and containment strategies are aligned before units even arrive. Or take the case of a multi-vehicle crash on a highway that crosses city lines. Without interoperability, agencies might send redundant units.

Better decisions happen when everyone sees the same picture. Interoperability gives first responders that shared view – improving coordination, reducing duplication and increasing safety for everyone involved. More than a tech upgrade, CAD-to-CAD is a critical step toward smarter emergency response.

3. How much time and effort are we losing to manual coordination?

When ECCs rely on manual coordination (like phone calls between dispatch centers), valuable time is lost. These delays often go unnoticed, chalked up to routine processes. But in reality, they’re the result of disconnected systems that weren’t built to work together.

Manual tasks slow things down while increasing the chance of human error. Calls can be miscommunicated. Details can be lost in translation. Units may be dispatched too late, or not at all. In the near-drowning incident mentioned earlier, CAD-to-CAD allowed South Metro Fire Rescue to instantly share data across jurisdictions, getting the nearest medical unit on scene without delay. Without that integration, help might have come minutes later.

CAD-to-CAD technology helps agencies automate critical workflows and reduce redundant calls. Instead of relaying the same call through multiple channels, data is transmitted instantly and directly to all involved parties. This ensures everyone receives the same accurate information, at the same time.

If your agency is still coordinating the old-fashioned way, you’re spending time and resources on work that modern systems can handle automatically. And in a field where time is everything, that’s a risk you can’t afford to take.

4. Are we collaborating effectively with neighboring agencies?

Effective collaboration between neighboring public safety agencies is essential. In today’s complex emergency landscape, regional partnerships form the backbone of modern response strategies. When agencies operate in silos, it leads to duplicated efforts, slower response times and gaps in service. Communities near jurisdictional boundaries are especially vulnerable when agencies can’t share information in real time.

Southwest Ohio provides a powerful example of what’s possible with true collaboration. Five dispatch centers, including the City of Cincinnati, recently launched CentralSquare’s Unify CAD-to-CAD solution. This regional network instantly connects agencies across jurisdictional lines, enabling them to share critical data and coordinate resources more effectively.

The result? Faster response times, better-informed first responders and improved outcomes for the public. Dispatchers no longer need to rely on phone calls or faxes to request mutual aid. The system automates that communication, ensuring the closest and most appropriate units are sent, no matter which agency they belong to.

“You’re going to see cross-county agencies working together…we can also see all units and their status in real time…we’ll be able to know who’s available, so if it’s a closer unit than ours, we might pull their unit for a life-safety issue.”

Joshua Moyer, Public Safety Systems Manager with Warren County Telecommunications

If agencies aren’t working together, they’re working inefficiently. Southwest Ohio’s model shows that with shared commitment and the right technology, regional collaboration can transform emergency response and save lives.

5. Is our technology future-proof?

Public safety technology needs to equip you for the future, not just today. As emergencies grow more complex and communities expect better service, agencies need systems that can evolve. If your agency is locked into outdated platforms, it risks falling behind and losing time to inefficient processes (which ultimately impacts your community).

Artificial intelligence and automation are already reshaping emergency response. AI can help prioritize high-risk calls, re-route non-emergency calls, and flag critical keywords in real-time. But these benefits rely on modern infrastructure, including cloud-based platforms and CAD-to-CAD systems built to grow and adapt.

Take CentralSquare Unify, for example. More than a tool for today’s interoperability, it’s designed with scalability in mind. As more agencies come online and as AI capabilities expand, Unify provides the foundation to support deeper insights, faster decisions and region-wide coordination.

Agencies that fail to modernize may face higher maintenance costs, limited integration options and shrinking support. They’ll also struggle to meet new data standards and regulations. The ability to scale and integrate with future tech isn’t a nice-to-have – it’s a necessity.

Future-proofing ensures your responders stay equipped and your community stays protected. The ECCs of Southwest Ohio discovered the benefits of future-proofing firsthand when they launched the Unify CAD-to-CAD system. You can too. Schedule a discovery call today to learn how Unify can help your agency achieve true interoperability.