Test Call Sends Police Racing

Dallas (Tex.) police are upset about a Priority 1 incident that popped up in the comm center’s CAD computer, and which was dispatched to officers as a shooting with injuries. However, officers were quickly cancelled after dispatchers determined the call had been entered as a test. According to Worris Levine, director of communication and information technology services for the city, a technician was using a computer terminal, and was toggling back-and-forth between the live CAD system and a test system. As the technician was entering incidents into the test system, he received a telephone call from a dispatcher with a problem. The tech then toggled to the live system and solved the problem. He then received a second telephone call, and forgot to toggle back to the test system. When he finished the call, he returned to the terminal and entered the shooting incident as a test, not realizing he had entered the incident into the live system. He then realized his mistake, Levine said, and telephoned the comm center to cancel the call. Techs will now only log into one CAD system from one terminal, Levine said.