New dispatch equipment helps local Fire Department response time

Response times for the South Kansas City metro community just got faster. Thanks to U.S. Department of Energy funding, the City of Kansas City, Missouri Fire Department (KCFD) and the Grandview, Missouri Fire Department (GFD) has a fully integrated automatic aid system to better serve the community. The funding allowed for an upgrade in technology for the GFD to install station alerting and automatic vehicle locators so that the closest appropriate resource will be dispatched to an emergency regardless of jurisdiction. This is a major benefit to both communities.

The relocation of the DOE's Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC) to south Kansas City led to an influx of more than 3,000 employees commuting and working in the Grandview area. The new equipment allows KCFD Communications to triage and dispatch resource based on geography and not jurisdictional boundaries.

For example, the response time to the KCNSC for medical emergencies was reduced by nearly fifty percent with the installation of the equipment. The equipment allows for integrated dispatch, monitors and provides the nearest available Kansas City or Grandview medical and fire response to the emergency. Response times into other parts of Grandview and Kansas City also improved thanks to this Agreement.