KEY IDEAS:
- 911-CAD software integration connects NG911 platforms, CAD systems, and partner agencies to enable real-time data sharing. An integration platform breaks down data silos so dispatchers and first responders operate from a shared, up-to-date view of each incident.
- Integrating NG911 with CAD systems improves response speed, accuracy, and situational awareness. Multimedia inputs, precise location data, and contextual intelligence reach responders faster when systems are interoperable.
- Unifying 911 and CAD data strengthens regional coordination and long-term planning. Agencies can support mutual aid across jurisdictions while using integrated data to optimize staffing, resources, and budgets.
- Modern data integration platforms improve efficiency, safety, and wellness without replacing existing CAD systems. Centralized workflows, analytics, and AI tools reduce operator workload, support responder safety, and preserve prior technology investments.
Computer-aided dispatch (CAD) software stores valuable data that informs first response strategies and regional coordination efforts. With next-generation 911 (NG911) tech, emergency communication centers (ECCs) will have access to even more critical real-time data. However, ECCs often lack efficient ways to share that data, trapping critical intelligence in disconnected solutions.
Data integration connects 911 software solutions to streamline workflows and support interagency coordination with real-time data sharing. Read on to discover the benefits of 911 CAD software integration and learn how modern tech solutions bridge data silos.
💡 WHAT IS 911-CAD SOFTWARE INTEGRATION? These tech solutions integrate data from 911 platforms, CAD systems, and partner agencies’ records management systems to streamline operations and information sharing for first responders.
The rise of next-gen 911 software
Public safety answering points (PSAPs) are steadily implementing NG911, which replaces the analog 911 system with an Internet Protocol (IP)-based digital infrastructure. This infrastructure allows public safety answering point (PSAP) personnel to receive multimedia messages, including photos and videos, from individuals. NG911 also gathers and integrates call-related data in real time to enhance accuracy and safety.
READ MORE → Understanding Next-Gen 911: Benefits, Technology, and How It’s Implemented
NG911 promises to transform emergency operations by enabling interoperability, allowing PSAPs to better integrate with and support first response partners. Data integration between disconnected systems — such as NG911 software, CAD systems, partner agencies’ systems, real-time inputs, GIS databases, and other external sources — makes 911 personnel more efficient. With NG911, PSAPs can better manage call overload, redirect calls, respond to acute and widespread emergencies, and deploy resources to precise locations.
đź’ˇ WHAT IS NEXT-GENERATION 911? NG911 modernizes the traditional analog 911 emergency service by enabling community members to send digital information (such as photos and videos) to emergency communications centers.
The benefits of integrating next-gen 911 software with CAD systems
An unencumbered flow of 911 data enhances split-second decision-making and long-term strategic planning. Consider the most prominent benefits below.
🔎 BENEFITS OF NG911-CAD INTEGRATION AT A GLANCE:
- Faster 911 response times
- Stronger interagency collaboration and regional mutual aid efforts
- Improved staffing and resource planning
- More comprehensive post-call insights and outcome assessments
- Streamlined budget analysis
- Reduced operational costs
- Better workload distribution to prevent burnout
Improves 911 response with real-time data
NG911 allows PSAPs to receive data-rich messages that provide more precise location and incident information. Additionally, NG911 gathers and integrates relevant data from GIS databases, building monitoring systems, vehicle sensors, health records, and CCTV footage. NG911 and CAD system interoperability enables personnel to direct accurate responses and share diverse data formats with first responders in real time.
Strengthens regional coordination
Personnel capture essential data in their CAD system, including the nature of the incident, precise location data, involved individuals, and their initial resource deployment assignment. But because different CAD systems store data differently, that information often gets siloed within agencies, impeding ECCs’ ability to coordinate with nearby jurisdictions. While operators can transfer a caller, they don’t have an easy way to share incident data with another CAD system.
Interoperability enables real-time data sharing between ECCs, first response agencies, and participating organizations. Instead of transferring a caller, the operator could enter the incident for the appropriate jurisdiction without losing relevant real-time insights. Streamlined coordination leads to reduced response times, fewer frustrated callers, improved mutual aid responses, and enhanced situational awareness.
Informs broader strategies
Data silos make it challenging to track trends within organizations and across jurisdictions. Data integration creates a common language, pulling from otherwise siloed sources such as 311 and 911 call platforms to provide a unified view of public safety trends. With an accurate understanding of a community’s first response needs, stakeholders can make data-driven decisions to optimize staffing and resources. Leaders can identify capability gaps within their organizations, develop proactive strategies, and invest in a coordinated response structure.
Provides post-call insights and outcome assessments
Precise data collection and analysis provides a clearer view of call volume, trends, and internal metrics. 911 leaders can identify training gaps, isolate bottlenecks, optimize workload distribution, and implement staffing adjustments. While individual first response partner agencies track their own metrics, data integration allows leaders to meaningfully assess outcomes across the lifecycle of a call. A holistic assessment may reveal optimal strategies and shared areas for improvement across public safety disciplines.
Analyzes and reduce costs
911 leaders can layer internal data alongside their integrated systems, assisting with budget and overtime management, cost forecasting, and workload optimization. Additionally, CAD data is useful far beyond an initial 911 call. Those records are often critical for law enforcement operations, criminal trial proceedings, and public information requests. Data sharing saves time across the board, ultimately reducing costs for ECCs and public safety organizations.
Helps personnel do better work
Data integration and analysis reduces context switching and information overload. Instead of searching through multiple disconnected systems, 911 personnel benefit from a user-friendly, unified interface that streamlines their workflow. Data integration between NG911 and CAD systems also allow agencies to increase efficiency with AI-powered technology. AI enhances 911 operations by reducing time-consuming tasks that distract 911 personnel from true emergencies. Operators can use their full capacity to make faster, more accurate decisions, resulting in reduced response times and improved outcomes.
đź’ˇ HOW DOES AI SUPPORT 911 OPERATIONS?
- Provides automatic transcription and translation
- Answers non-emergency calls so 911 operators can handle true emergencies
- Reroutes misdirected calls to neighboring jurisdictions
- Redirects calls when a 911 center is busy or non-operational due to a crisis
- Optimizes workload distribution to reduce bottlenecks
Prioritizes safety and wellness of employees and responders
NG911 enhances first responder safety by increasing situational awareness, but 911 operators still need efficient ways to share data-rich information with first responders. For example, personnel might receive a video from a caller that depicts a fire, including its size, location density, and color of smoke — all information that should inform fire response. Or they might use real-time CCTV footage to warn officers of an armed suspect. Data integration makes it easier to find, catalog, and share these types of real-time insights in fast-paced scenarios.
Additionally, 911 software integration can enhance operator wellness. Leaders can monitor hours worked and track whether an employee has repeatedly responded to traumatic calls. AI-powered insights allow leaders to intervene early, support their employees’ mental health, and prevent burnout.
READ MORE → 911 Operator Wellness: Challenges, Solutions, and How Agencies Can Prevent Burnout
The challenges of 911-CAD software integration
To achieve positive outcomes, ECCs must bridge divides between jurisdictions, tech solutions, and data sources. Public safety tech has lagged in its ability to effectively collect and share data. That’s especially prevalent in 911 operations, which often rely on CAD systems with unique, organization-specific configurations. When each system gathers and stores data differently, 911 centers can’t share data without losing context and meaning.
READ MORE → Interagency Data Sharing: Overcoming Barriers To Drive Collaboration
ECCs also face regulatory and interagency challenges that prevent data sharing. 911 leaders must overcome jurisdictional divides to create common procedures and develop compliant standards. Communities may lack the oversight or funding required to implement data integration policies and solutions.
Vendors contribute to CAD interoperability roadblocks, too. CAD systems aren’t standardized across vendors, and not all vendors view interoperability as a priority. Additionally, some vendors lock their customers’ data into proprietary systems, preventing the customers from fully accessing or exporting their own data for use in third-party solutions.
đź’ˇ WHAT ARE COMMON OBSTACLES FOR 911 DATA SHARING?
- Inadequate funding
- Lack of agreed-upon standards
- Lack of common policies and procedures
- Concerns over regulatory compliance for protected data, such as HIPPA and CJIS
- Inconsistent data collection and storage methods among CAD systems
- Unique CAD system configurations and components
- Lack of urgency among vendors
- Data locked in proprietary solutions
Using today’s tech to solve 911-CAD software challenges
Modern software solutions aim to overcome these challenges by prioritizing interoperability, transparent data ownership policies, and open application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow customers to move their data in bulk. Data integration solutions provide a frictionless way to action information across disparate systems, including 911 platforms, public data, and real-time inputs.
911 personnel benefit from a centralized hub that harmonizes diverse data sources, adds historical context, and layers AI-powered analysis to drive more accurate decisions. Data integration platforms improve data consistency, create a common language between disparate systems, and support secure real-time data sharing. Agencies that invest in a data integration platform also avoid unnecessary costs: They receive the benefits of data sharing without overhauling their existing tech stacks.
DOWNLOAD THE GUIDE → Own Your Data: Interoperability and the Risks of Vendor Lock-In
Make your agency’s 911-CAD software work for you
As ECCs implement emerging 911 tech and NG911 software, they navigate an increasingly intense volume of data. Data integration is more crucial than ever. When disparate CAD systems, 911 software, and information systems from partner agencies can communicate seamlessly, personnel can share timely data that increases safety, improves efficacy, and saves lives.
Peregrine, a data integration and analytics solution, enhances 911 operations by unifying data from nearly any source, including CAD systems, call handling systems, records management systems, live data inputs, and external data sources. Peregrine automates analytics to surface essential information in user-friendly formats, ensuring 911 operators can deploy the right resources at the right time. Automations, alerts, and AI-powered internal analysis inform budget, staffing, workload distribution, and employee wellness. To see how Peregrine streamlines 911 operations, request a demo today.
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