Nurse Amanda: New 911 computer "close to perfect" (Jack Bog's Blog)

Don't listen to the critics -- the Portland city commissioner who's presiding over the new $15 million (and counting) emergency dispatch computer says they don't know what they're talking about:

Then again, she admits:

As with any new complex computer system, problems may surface, resulting in down time. The old CAD had over 60 incidents of problems documented from January 1, 2011 to the conversion on April 17, and crashed once. With the Versaterm system, only one intermittent problem occurred, resulting in three outages before the problem was isolated and corrected. Staff at the 9-1-1 center are trained to operate when the computer is down, under the old and new system, and no impact to services resulted from the downtime....
The new system is not the same as the one our police officers and fire fighters are accustomed to. During this initial training/orientation period, it may require police officers to pull over to read the computer screen in their car, instead of reading while driving. Police officers have radios, and 9-1-1 dispatchers give information over the radio as well as on the computer screen. The front-line users are giving BOEC requests on adjustments to the new system such as font size, and we will respond to their requests as soon and as well as we can. BOEC takes pride in providing great service to both callers and responders.

Nobody said they didn't. The issue is whether the new computer system works as well as the old one would have with a much cheaper upgrade. If not, somebody screwed up.

I realize some people find it hard to believe government can do anything right. To try to turn this success into a failure is simply wrong, and political posturing at its worst.

The critics are not the only ones who are posturing here.

Comments (8)

"Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?"

Posted by David E Gilmore | May 11, 2011 8:24 AM

Once upon a time all the information given to Police Officers in the field was communicated to them by voice and didn't require they attempt reading a mobile display monitor while driving.

The only solution I can see is to have two Officers per vehicle where one reads the messages aloud much like Obama delivers his speeches.

Posted by Abe | May 11, 2011 9:02 AM

"where one reads the messages aloud much like Obama delivers his speeches."
Apparently you prefer he deliver them sotto voce?

Posted by genop | May 11, 2011 9:52 AM

Obama sotto voce? Try castrati, For sure that fits his political performance.

Posted by Wateritdown | May 11, 2011 11:13 AM

"read the computer screen in their car, instead of reading while driving."

Very comforting thoughts Amanda.

SHe really shouldn't sugar-coat this CoP has over-paid and gotten screwed up computers on every upgrade. I'd look at this as our local version of OWIN.

Posted by Steve | May 11, 2011 5:30 PM

Oh no I'm caught.

When I criticize the scams & failures of the PDC, WES, TriMe, Metro and TODs I'm just doing the political posturing thing.

Yeah sure Amanda.

That's Amanda's default excuse for ignoring all the criticism. There's no need for her to respond or look into anything when it's just political posturing.

Of course that is just plain stupid and yet another example of the completely lost leadership we have all around the region.

Posted by Ben | May 11, 2011 10:29 PM

Just another PERFECT example of why these sorry schmucks continue to re-invent the wheel every time they buy a computer or communications system.
Has anyone ever heard of them actually talking to other cities with similar needs and finding out what actually WORKS? Seems like they always have some "new" vendor with unproven systems ready to buy at a moment's notice.

Posted by Dave A. | May 17, 2011 4:46 PM

Don't forget the S.A.P. system get all users on a common sytem.

Posted by pdxmick | May 17, 2011 9:56 PM

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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Nurse Amanda: New 911 computer "close to perfect"

Comments (8)

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