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City of Hayward Chooses Federal Engineering for Communications Center Study
FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, April 18, 2022 – The City of Hayward, California has chosen Federal Engineering, Inc. (FE) to conduct a Needs Assessment of the Hayward Communications Center (HCC) for the Police Department and Fire Department.
In announcing the contract, Ms. Shanalee Gallagher, Project Manager for the City, provided an overview: “Hayward’s 9‐1‐1 Communications Center functions as a primary public safety answering point (PSAP) for the City of Hayward and the unincorporated Fairview area. It provides dispatching services for Police, Fire, Animal Services, and internal calls for service to the City’s Public Works and Utilities Department, which includes water distribution and sewer services, and the Maintenance Department, which includes Facilities Management, Fleet Management, Landscape Maintenance, and Streets Maintenance. The Hayward Police Department (HPD) manages the Hayward Communications Center (HCC) and handles approximately 300,000 emergency and non‐emergency calls per year.”
Ms. Gallagher continued: “In 2020, City staff worked with consultants to administer a resident survey and partnered with community members and organizations to hold conversations about public safety in Hayward. Over 1,700 community members provided their input on public safety and policing in Hayward by participating in this community engagement project. Following the community conversations, the City convened a Public Safety Policy Innovation Workshop, leveraging the community outreach data, additional research, and conversations with impacted community members. This outreach effort identified several goals including triaging calls to dispatch for both behavioral and mental health pilot programs and implementing emergency medical dispatch (EMD). Federal Engineering has been retained to help us reach these goals.”
Mr. Jeffrey Paré, Director of Business Development for Federal Engineering provided more details: “FE will build upon the previous work to move the project further along. Tasks to be completed by FE include:
- Identify dispatch needs to support pilot projects put forth in the Public Safety Policy Innovation Workshops including alternative responses to behavioral health‐related calls.
- Evaluate current dispatch volume, procedures, and human and technological capacity with the goal of identifying changes to processes, structural, staffing, technological, and/or training that will improve the quality of service to internal and external community members.
- Develop a long‐term plan for achieving accreditation, adapting to new trends/technologies in the dispatch field, and ongoing continuous improvement.
Recommendations will be documented as a prioritized five-year Strategic Plan to articulate HCC’s goals for program and service delivery, including actionable goals to achieve accreditation and for performance indicators. FE will deliver its recommendations in a City of Hayward Communications Center Assessment and Strategic Implementation Plan Report.”
Federal Engineering is a leading, nationwide firm providing analysis, design, procurement, and implementation support for NG9-1-1, 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 and CBRS. FE’s cybersecurity practice helps our clients defend against today’s complex and ever-changing threat landscape. FE personnel also serve as trusted advisors assisting clients to assess emerging services such as FirstNet and the impacts of new technologies on their current and future plans. Since 1983, FE has completed thousands of projects in all 50 states and throughout Canada enhancing public safety systems for numerous state, regional, county, 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, finance, education, and computer services industries. FE’s certified independence ensures that clients receive objective, unbiased consulting services that are not influenced by any technology, product, vendor, or approach.