Police Chief: Mapping System Risking 'Public Safety'

Calling outdated maps and the inability to correct mistakes a threat to public safety,  Chief Jerry Larson lobbied village trustees on Thursday morning for $55,000 over three years to improve the system.

"If we don't do something about these issues, someone, someday is going to die," Chief Jerry Larsen said of the village's current 911 system. The board has agreed to support of the proposal.

"When that phone rings, we can't trust the information that we're getting in," Larsen said, adding that the fixes, while expensive are somewhat simple.

The problem with the current system has caused more than a handful of headaches for dispatchers. For example, Spinner Lane, right outside the village where the is located, doesn't always come up in the current mapping system. One address pops up as being in Commack or as being Spinner Road in Southampton. Another appears as "Old Blind Highway," a name no one in village hall can even remember being used. Spinner Lane used to be one of the many "Cross Highway" streets throughout East Hampton and was changed several years ago to avoid further confusion. Compounding things, an address on Spinner Lane has shown up at the Cross Highway by in Amagansett.

The village discovered the Spinner Lane problem just by luck while training a new dispatcher who lives on that block, Larsen said.

The East Hampton Village Communications Department dispatches for East Hampton and Sag Harbor village police, as well as all fire and emergency medical services from Wainscott to Montauk, including Sag Harbor's district which extends into North Haven and Noyac.

Other issues have come up on 911 calls. Last month, when a woman reported a fire at her home at 5 Farragut Road, the mapping system had her house at 5 North Farragut Road. The two addresses are close together and the mix-up didn't cause much harm, but Larsen said in an interview they won't always be that lucky.

Police Lt. Tony Long told the board on Tuesday that dispatchers are using a sysem now that was developed in the early 1990s and they are limited in what they can do with it. "We've gotten our money's worth out of it," he said.

It's imperative, he said, to have more control over their mapping system. When a mistake is found with an address, they need the ability to correct it on their own without relying on the county to do so.

In fact, data provided by the police department shows that 44 percent of the corrections they've notified the county on have not been corrected. Some even go back as far as 2006. "There's no way for us to fix it," Long said.

"This is really a public safety measure," Larsen said.

In a letter to the board, Larsen said the computer language used when the original program was developed is no longer compatible with current computer systems used. A dispatcher "recently spoke with the designer of the system who expressed shock that the system was still in service after 20 years," Larsen said.

His department wants to purchase a new Geographic Information Systems mapping system from ESRI, a firm that is the largest designer of public safety mapping systems. It can be shared between local agencies and updated by in-house personnel. It is also compatible with the current Computed Aided Dispatch system and is adaptable for future technologies.

Getting the new software working optimally and to gather all the data will be a three-year process. The initial cost will be $9,568 and would come out of the police department's computer equipment budget. The price-tag includes training and will provide the village with a base-map.

In the second year, the village will have to budget $30,000 to buy a server that will allow the village to create viewers. In the third year, the village will reach its goal for a digital map at a cost of $15,000.

On a related note, Larsen is trying to work with the town assessor's office to do something about Three Mile Harbor Road. The address numbers start over when the road becomes Three Mile-Hog Creek Road, which has led to confusion and problems for years.