AKRON, Ohio - The Akron Fire Department got the go-ahead from City Council to buy a military-grade alert system expected to reduce emergency response times by as much as 60 seconds.
The $600,000 system, manufactured by Westnet Inc. in California, will be paid for with money generated by an increase in the city income tax from 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent. Voters approved Issue 4 in 2017 to support the fire and police departments and fix Akron roadways.
The system will replace a slow, outdated system, said Deputy Chief Charles Twigg. When a call comes in, the new system will atomically issue alerts to all stations simultaneously,
bypassing manual operators and saving time.
The system will deploy computerized tones, which are not as loud as traditional alarms and are less harmful to the hearing of emergency personnel over the long-term, he said.
The internet-based system has radio back up, offering redundancy the current system doesn’t have, Twigg said.
The system will be rolled out in all 13 Akron fire stations, not just the two new stations under construction, he said. It will work in conjunction with the $3.4 million Consolidated Computer-Aided Dispatch System that Akron recently joined with Summit County and several other municipalities to deploy.
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