CentralSquare announced today that it has signed an agreement valued at $74.9 million with the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) for Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), Mobile and Analytics software. The company says the agreement is one of the largest deals in public safety software in the past decade.

Chicago’s current legacy emergency dispatch system was initially deployed in 1995. Since then, the sheer complexity of input that an emergency dispatcher receives has dramatically increased. Most calls now come in from cell phones and callers send text messages to 911 centers and providing photos and videos of the incident. This has created a need to deploy a new, state-of-the-art dispatch system. CentralSquare says its CAD system seamlessly handles all of these digital inputs, automatically locates the cell phone caller’s location, precisely detects the location of the nearest first responder, smartly prioritizes which incident is most urgent, and ensures the lowest response time for each critical emergency. A one-minute decrease in emergency response time in Chicago can enable first responders to save up to 2,500 lives per year, according to the company. 

Currently, Chicago has two separate systems for fire dispatch and police dispatch. Of the top 18 major cities in the U.S., only six have a coordinated system, and all six of them use CentralSquare’s software, the company says. Now, Chicago will also have a common system, providing both fire and police with access to the same information. This unified view will help Chicago police and fire share critical information, quickly enabling coordinated response that smartly handles all dimensions of the emergency, according to CentralSquare.

CentralSquare says its software will integrate seamlessly into the city’s existing systems, from security cameras to gunshot detection sensors, providing every first responder in Chicago with a 360-degree view of every incident, increasing situational awareness and improving officer safety.

"With CentralSquare’s proven, best-in-class software, Chicago will automatically receive comprehensive updates, and the new system will always remain state-of-the-art," the company says. "Further, CentralSquare’s work with more than 5,000 public safety agencies will continuously inform the ongoing evolution of the software, making Chicago’s dispatch system always up to date and evergreen."

“We are thrilled with the opportunity to serve Chicago and its 2.7 million citizens,” said CentralSquare President of Public Safety Steve Seoane. “As a trusted provider with three decades of experience serving major cities across North America, we are honored that Chicago recognized CentralSquare as the right company to work with in the long term. From our proven track record and wealth of experience to having the industry’s largest bench of talent to drive our software development, we’re confident that CentralSquare CAD will be the last dispatch system Chicago will ever buy.”

About CentralSquare

Formed by the merger of Superion, TriTech along with Zuercher, and the public sector and healthcare business of Aptean, CentralSquare is an industry leader in public safety and public administration software, serving more than 7,650 organizations from the largest metropolitan city to counties and towns of every size across North America. Its technology platform provides solutions for public safety, including 911, computer-aided dispatch, records management, mobile, citations, evidence management and corrections. CentralSquare.com

To learn more, see the Chicago OEMC announcement: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/oem/provdrs/emerg_mang/news/2020/january/chicago-oemc-announces-new-state-of-the-art-dispatch-system-and-.html.

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