Berrien County has found some savings as it seeks to roll out a more advanced first responder dispatch system.
We’ve reported the county is encouraging local police and fire departments throughout the area to adopt Computer Aided Dispatch, or CAD. The system is in use by the sheriff’s department, and the county has offered local departments partial reimbursements for the cost of adopting it as well.
Speaking to commissioners this week, Information Systems Director Chris Swihart said the county’s CAD vendor, Tyler Technology, has offered a reduced price to the county if it commits to its CAD purchases by the end of the year.
“The law enforcement has dropped from $267,000 down to $202,000, where the fire has dropped down from $118,000 to $69,000, which nets a total savings of $114,000,” Swihart said.
Most of the savings will be realized by the local departments signing up for the system.
County Administrator Brian Dissette said the previous plan had been to wait until at least half of the local police and fire departments officially committed to CAD before paying the cost, but this is a chance to grab some savings, if with a little risk. Commissioner Jim Curran said it’s worth it.
“I’m pretty confident that if we commit that they will still hold up to their end of the obligation,” Curran said. “So I’m comfortable with doing this because I think it’s going to move the process forward and save us $114,000.”
So far, only the city of St. Joseph has formally signed a memorandum of understanding with the county to accept the reimbursement and adopt CAD, but Dissette said about 100% of police and fire agencies in the county have informally agreed to sign on.
Commissioners decided it would be worth everyone’s while to take Tyler’s offer, and a resolution to do so will be considered by the board next week.
