Tale of Two Cities: How Coral Springs Expanded Its 911 System

Emergency response communication systems connect first responders to community needs. When someone is in trouble, the proverbial bat signal goes up, and PSAPs swing into motion. Of course, it’s not as easy as turning on a bat-shaped spotlight. In reality, it takes the highest level of expertise to keep these lifelines accessible and operable for every second of every day.

In 2019, the City of Coral Springs embarked on a large-scale 911 dispatch system upgrade. By leveraging a rare combination of technology and agency culture, they were able to expand 911 operations to include a neighboring city. And they did it with zero downtime. Keep reading to learn how.

Tale of Two Cities

Broward County, FL contains 31 municipalities. In 2013, they undertook an ambitious project to bring 911 call management and dispatch for its municipalities under one roof. Of its 31 municipalities, 29 opted in. Coral Springs was one of the two that chose to keep control of its own 911 systems.

There are different ways to handle 911 calls – each with its own pros and cons. The Coral Springs methodology ensures that call management and response occurs as fast as possible. Giving up their ECC potentially meant sacrificing service to their community, so they decided to maintain control.

A neighboring city, Coconut Creek, was one of the 29 municipalities that gave up their call center in 2013. Just six years later, in 2019, they asked Coral Springs to take over their emergency response communications.

The Coral Springs City Manager felt obligated to entertain the idea, knowing that their 911 call management and dispatch services provided the highest level of service. Shortly after, the two cities entered into a cost neutral agreement.

Coral Springs CIO, Stephen Dyer, was tasked with connecting the two city networks together, ensuring calls coming into Coral Springs were being routed to Coconut Creek in real-time. How did they successfully execute a complex, multi-year 911 expansion with limited time and resources? It was a combination of the right technology and a healthy culture.

“The most impressive part is there was zero downtime. When the switch occurred not a single 911 call went unanswered, and every call entered into our CAD system made it to the correct fire, EMS, or police officer terminal.”

Stephen Dyer, Chief Information Officer, City of Coral Springs, Florida

The Importance of Culture

To create a strong agency culture, you have to invest in your employees. You have to give them a purpose bigger than themselves, like serving their communities with excellence.

According to Dyer, employees with the City of Coral Springs know that their work impacts the community. It’s about doing what’s best for citizens. It’s never about shareholder profits, which provides a little extra motivation.

“If you create the right culture, have the right leadership model and get everybody on board it becomes an unstoppable force.”

Stephen Dyer, Chief Information Officer, City of Coral Springs, Florida

Dyer says that Coral Springs has a fantastic culture. It has enabled him to develop a team of employees who, in his estimation, work together better than any other similar-sized municipal IT department in the country.

The diverse group consists of highly certified analysts who work cohesively while producing at an exceptional level. This culture is fostered by the city’s philosophy of genuinely caring for their employees.

“It’s all about leadership,” Dyer said. “At the end of the day, I’m the luckiest CIO in the state of Florida, and it’s because I’ve got the best team and I work for an amazing organization.”

Dyer joined the city in 2013 as a Database Analyst. Over the years, he worked his way up the ranks until becoming the Director of Information Technology Systems in 2019. Having served as a Network Engineer, Infrastructure Manager, and Assistant Director along the way, he understands the importance of training and technology.

“We’re a big enough organization that we have all the bells and whistles. We have the latest and greatest cybersecurity tools. We’ve got next generation firewalls, network access control systems, fiber channel storage area networks, virtual servers, on premise voice over IP, as well as many others. We’re big enough to have all the cool tools, but we’re small enough that no one can specialize in anything. Everyone is expected to learn as much as they can about all of our technologies. If you want to learn, we will feed you with a fire hose!”

Stephen Dyer, Chief Information Officer, City of Coral Springs, Florida

Using the Right Technology

The City of Coral Springs successfully executed a multi-year 911 expansion with limited time and resources. The best part is they did it with zero downtime. How did they accomplish this?

The multi-year expansion project physically connected the Coral Springs and Coconut Creek networks, which required building an entirely new DMZ (demilitarized zone) network. Switches, routers, physical servers, virtual machines, and security controls were brand new, as was the new instance of CAD software.

Dyer’s team engineered and installed the new DMZ and created trust relationships from Coral Springs’ network to the new DMZ, and from the DMZ to Coconut Creek’s network while meeting CJIS security standards (criminal justice information systems).

“Apart from the CAD software itself, we did everything in-house,” Dyer said.

CentralSquare Technologies, the CAD software provider, was an important partner in the project. They assisted Dyer’s team in installing the new instance of CAD software as well as aiding both Coral Springs and Coconut Creek in migrating the law, fire, and EMS personnel to the new CAD instance.

“They [CentralSquare technical team] were absolutely awesome, and I’m super grateful that they were part of the project. They are the reason the project went smoothly.”

Stephen Dyer, Chief Information Officer, City of Coral Springs, Florida

Schedule a discovery call today to learn how ONESolution by CentralSquare can help your municipality better manage 911 calls and respond to emergencies faster. With ONESolution, you can share data, keep all departments connected, and manage reporting from the field – all in real time.

This blog post was based on a featured article in BOSS Magazine. View the full article here.