SpatialNews Press Release

Utah Purchases CompassCom AVL to Track Emergency Vehicles with GPS

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ENGLEWOOD, COLO., 30 May 2001 - A coalition of Utah public safety agencies has purchased GPS-based automatic vehicle location (AVL) technology developed by CompassCom Inc. of Englewood, Colo., to track the locations of hundreds of police, fire and other emergency vehicles throughout the state.

The Utah Highway Patrol (UHP) and the Valley Emergency Communications Center (VECC) in Murray, Utah, have jointly purchased the CompassTrac fleet tracking system and CompassFDE AVL server from CompassCom. These AVL components will see daily use in tracking emergency service vehicles for more than 20 police, fire and ambulance organizations along the Wasatch Front Range in Utah.

"The AVL system will offer added security for our police officers during their day-to-day activities," said Lt. Jim Matthies, UHP Section Commander for Technical Services. "We will be extending the use of our AVL server to any public safety agency in the state."

UHP and VECC, which manages dispatch for 19 emergency districts, are equipping their vehicles with GPS receivers and wireless modems to transmit their locations in real time back to central dispatch. Dispatchers see where the vehicles are located by viewing icons on a map display screen. These same devices also will be installed on shuttle buses carrying athletes to and from international athletic competitions in the Salt Lake City area during the coming year.

The CompassFDE server was selected because it is capable of tracking and differentiating multiple fleets of vehicles simultaneously. During daily operation, for example, the system will enable UHP dispatchers to know precisely where each patrol car is located, enabling the dispatcher to send help in the event an officer is disabled. At the same time, the server will be tracking ambulances and fire engines elsewhere in the state.

Depending on how the server is configured, dispatch centers will be able to track their own vehicles or have the option of viewing the positions of other emergency organizations’ vehicles. The number of vehicles that can be tracked is limited only by the availability of the wireless transmission network.

"The CompassTrac software and CompassFDE server will allow authorized public safety entities with PCs and Internet connections to track emergency service fleets across the state," said CompassCom President Brant Howard.

CompassCom was established in 1994 as a product and service provider for Global Positioning System (GPS), Geographic Information System (GIS), and Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) markets. CompassCom offers complete GPS and GIS solutions as a business partner with Trimble Navigation, ESRI Inc., AT&T Wireless, and Sierra Wireless.

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