Marquette County Board Discusses 911 CAD system switch

MARQUETTE, Mich. (WLUC) - Discussions continued Tuesday over Marquette County’s proposal to switch its 911 computer-aided dispatch, or CAD, system.

The proposal would switch Marquette County to Motorola, while many other U.P. counties are on a system from Tyler Technologies. First responders and dispatchers are concerned that this switch would decrease the ability of other U.P. dispatchers to work with Marquette County.

At Tuesday’s Marquette County Board meeting, Marquette City Manager Karen Kovacs explained why the City Commission had passed a resolution urging the board to go with Tyler Technologies.

“It was intended to raise concerns about the impact of the CAD decision on interoperability, communication and our ability to work together with other counties and other agencies during an emergency,” Kovacs said.

Board Member Fred Benzie suggested the board collaborate more closely with the Central Dispatch Board on their decision to choose a CAD system.

“It needs input from local experts that work with the technology,” Benzie said. “I don’t have that expertise. And currently we’re not engaging our local experts enough I believe.”

Board Chair Joe Derocha called into question the validity of the concerns over the decrease in interoperability.

He also pointed out that going with Motorola would save the county $500,000; savings in line with broader efforts by the board that Derocha says have allowed the county to pay down $15 million in debt over the last three years.

“I also believe there should be the institutional knowledge and that’s important as well,” Derocha said. “But nobody can get paid if we spend all our money and we don’t have money to pay everybody. We have to have fiscal responsibility.”

No decisions on the CAD system were reached at Tuesday’s meeting. Derocha says that Motorola will give a demonstration of their system and answer questions from the board in October.

The video above will feature the TV6 livestream until staff can clip the corresponding story, if available, from broadcasts or other TV6 content. You can subscribe to our YouTube page or download TV6+ to stream the latest local news and weather.

Marquette County Board Discusses 911 CAD system switch

Comments