Dallas needs to update failing fire stations’ alert system, company says

By Editor On Nov 17, 2021

Dallas has known for at least a year that it needs to upgrade its legacy system that alerts firefighters to emergency calls to their stations, but has not yet done so, the system maker says.

Locution Systems Inc. representatives say the Dallas IT department has been reporting issues such as audio issues with the automated system since July 2020.

But the company has repeatedly told IT since last October that the hardware, software and computer operating systems of the alarm systems in nearly 60 fire stations across the city are too old to function reliably, said Jordan Darnall, customer operations manager the company.

Darnall said he’s traveling to Dallas next week to present Locution’s list of recommended upgrades to city officials for at least the third time. He and the company’s president, Glenn Neal, told the Dallas Morning News that the equipment on the system in the city fire stations has not been updated since 2008 and is not up to the company’s standards.

Bill Zielinski, Dallas chief information officer and head of IT for the city, did not respond to messages asking for comment on the alert system.

The fire department said in a statement that they have not been able to confirm whether someone was seriously injured or killed due to problems with the alarm system.

Jon Fortune, an assistant city manager who oversees public safety, told council members in a memo last Friday that the alert system is “too complex, difficult to monitor and difficult to fix when a problem occurs.”

The IT department’s efforts to “stabilize” the system have not worked, he said.

In response to the city memo, Darnall said, “While we are disappointed that many of our recommendations have not yet been implemented, we are pleased to finally be able to present and explain the technical recommendations directly to the Dallas City Fire Department and chiefs.”

The Dallas Fire Rescue Station 6 guard desk on October 15, 2021 uses the Locution Fire Station’s alarm system to be alerted of emergency calls. The city has been using the system for 20 years, but the increasing frequency of problems with the system over the past year has slowed fire-fighters’ response times. (Shelby Tauber / special article)(Shelby Tauber / special article)

“Mountaineering Fight”

The company said it didn’t know why the required upgrades weren’t being made, and suspects that this is partly due to staff turnover in the IT department. They don’t think the problem is with their product.

“It was an uphill battle to make our devices and software work the way they should,” said Darnall. “If you have a great car but don’t change the oil, you can’t really be surprised if it doesn’t run so well 12 years later. And that is the situation we are in right now. “

The city still suffers from other issues with its information and technology services department, namely a laid-off worker who deleted more than eight million police archive files while attempting to move them from cloud storage.

The fire station’s alarm system will send automated announcements of emergency calls through the station’s public address systems and turn on skylights to alert workers to an emergency. Firefighters can also use their computers and either handheld or vehicle radios to keep track of emergency calls.

The city has been paying to use the system since 2005. The city council approved a new five-year contract with the Colorado-based company for nearly $ 259,000 in September 2017. The contract is intended to cover software updates and technical support.

“10 years back”

Zielinski and fire chief Dominique Artis told members of the city council on Tuesday that the system needs to be replaced after the stations experienced frequent delays in receiving the warnings.

But Councilor Cara Mendelsohn said some stations were not receiving the warnings at all, and said she had heard from firefighters of at least two examples in her Far North Dallas district. In one case, firefighters driving to a fire in a residential complex had to call members of the nearest station after driving past noticing the truck was still in the garage.

The city began setting up an emergency dispatcher last week to call fire stations to alert staff of emergency calls.

“The current notification system is old and routine maintenance is not helping to resolve the warning problem,” the department said. “We expect to replace the old notification system with a robust system this year.”

Officials at the site said they told the city that all of the fire department’s computers needed to be upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7, which came out in 2009 and was no longer supported by Microsoft last year. Darnall said he knew at least two places where this happened.

The city contacted Locution in August to upgrade some fire department computers from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Last month the city asked again about hardware and software, leading to an upcoming meeting next week.

Locution told Dallas that it would cost $ 575,000 to upgrade software, hardware, and other technical services at all of the city’s fire stations. The estimate does not include installation, the company said.

“Dallas is really unique in that I think they are one of the few customers who haven’t updated to modern standards,” said Neal, whose company works with more than 120 cities and counties in North America. “Almost everyone has upgraded. You don’t have to upgrade to the latest and greatest, but you can’t be at least 10 years behind. “

The city has upgraded the Windows 7 fire department computers in the past six months, Zielinski said at the meeting on Tuesday. He added that the fire department plans to use federal budget funds to buy a new system.