Should Public Safety Centers consider Event-Driven Recording? After all, shouldn’t PSAP call logging happen 100% of the time? Consider the following situations in which event-driven start (or stop) of recording could prove useful.
- Selective recording of the Chief’s line when the PSAP is a police or fire facility.
- Selective non-recording of Public Safety administrative lines used by detectives (for example, calls from confidential informants).
- Selective screen recording when information is received by the Public Safety Center via email, text or social media.
Many applications in Public Safety systems can start or stop call recording. But did you realize these same applications can also, or alternatively, be used to tag specific data to the corresponding call records? For example:
- A Public Safety dispatcher can tag caller ID or CAD incident number to a recording even when there is no CAD integration with the call recording system.
- Call-takers can log in to the on-demand recording application in their Public Safety system so that their name is associated with calls taken at their stations. This facilitates quality monitoring.
- Public Safety supervisors can define categories for calls and pre-configure these in the on-demand application so call-takers can quickly tag them to calls. Examples could be Accident, Illness, Prank, Non-Emg, etc.
In the Public Safety Recording solutions offered by Sound Communications, there are applications that support both manual or automatic recording and/or tagging.
Automated Recording/Tagging
This option allows a PSAP to automate actions or capture of information from the dispatcher and call-taker desktops in your Public Safety Center. Using an application that resides on a separate server, the Public Safety Center’s call recording administrator can define events that trigger a change in the recording status of your recording server, and/or store information collected during a call interaction. For example, a detective’s phone might stop recording based on an action he or she performs on a workstation; another trigger might automatically capture the call-taker’s name when he/she logs into Windows or CAD software.
Manual Recording/Tagging
In this option, a small application is installed on the user’s workstation(s). This application is configured by Sound Communications, or the PSAP’s recording system administrator, to allow the user to start/stop audio recording, start/stop screen recording, perform call tagging, or any combination of these. Thus, users who are configured for “tag only” cannot stop their recording on a whim. The application is lightweight and easy-to-use, but does have some connectivity requirements. In addition, it is incumbent on the call-taker to remember to use it and this does leave a margin of error. If your Public Safety Center is recording only 911 lines, or if you can see a need for one or more of the Event Driven Recording applications above, let us help you get more from your PSAP logging investment. At Sound Communications, we’ve partnered with leaders in Public Safety Recording to offer a choice of budget-friendly, Next Generation 911 solutions. Coupled with our 20 years of expertise in engineering Public Safety systems, we can help your agency be prepared for NG 9-1-1 and beyond. To learn more, please call us at 1-800-556-8556 or click here to schedule a FREE demo.