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City of Charlotte Awards Federal Engineering Contract for Multi-Agency Emergency Communication Center Consolidation and Co-Location Study
FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, April 20, 2020 — The City of Charlotte, North Carolina has awarded Federal Engineering, Inc. (FE) a contract to conduct and prepare a multi-agency Emergency Communication/Operations Consolidation and Co-Location Study.
Mr. Donald Nagle, FE Director, gave an overview: “Currently there are three dispatch centers that are operated by three separate departments. The Charlotte Mecklenburg Communication Center is the primary Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) providing call taking services for all three entities and dispatch for Charlotte Police and other local police departments. Both the Charlotte Fire Department and the Mecklenburg EMS are secondary PSAP’s that exclusively dispatch their own units. The purpose of this study is to provide information on a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) System Consolidation and Communication Center Consolidation or Co-Location.”
Mr. Nagle went on: “Federal Engineering will identify current business and operations needs to fully evaluate the ability to move to a single CAD system. This information will be used as the foundation to build the requirements to be included in a Request for Proposal or Request for Information to be submitted to CAD vendors that normally support large to mid-tier urban cities like San Antonio, TX, Fairfax County, VA, Washington DC, and Boston, MA.”
Ms. Kellie High-Foster, the Project Manager for Charlotte described the project further: “Federal Engineering will be tasked with the development of a thorough assessment to gather information on the requirements and workflow of the CMPD, CFD and Mecklenburg EMS for a consolidated or tightly integrated CAD System. FE will conduct a requirements analysis determining current and future needs. The firm will examine and compare similar cities and their use of an integrated CAD for Fire, Police and EMS and report on Best Practices. A cost analysis of various alternatives will also be provided with recommendations on how to move forward. We are relying heavily on FE’s decades of experience completing multiple projects for similar jurisdictions.”
Federal Engineering is a leading, nationwide firm providing analysis, design, procurement, and implementation support for NG911, PSAPs, ECCs, and EOCs. These services complement FE’s wide range of consulting services in public safety and public service communications involving traditional VHF, UHF, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, and 4.9GHz mobile radio systems as well as LTE. FE’s cybersecurity practice helps our clients defend against today’s complex and ever-changing threat landscape. FE also serves as trusted advisors to assist clients understand emerging services such as FirstNet and the impacts on their current and future plans. Since 1983, FE has completed thousands of communications projects for 46 state governments, as well as numerous local and federal government clients.
In addition to its public sector work, Federal Engineering provides design and implementation support services for voice, data, and video networks used in the transportation, utilities, aerospace, finance, education, publishing, and computer services industries. FE’s certified independence ensures that clients receive objective, unbiased consulting services that are not influenced by any particular technology, product, vendor, or approach.