Overview
The management of highway traffic incidents that occur on Oregon state highways requires the response of multiple state and local government organizations. Emergency incidents can range from a vehicle crash to a landslide that has closed a highway. Interagency communication is needed to insure that the right responders are contacted and are responding. Prior to the Oregon Interoperability Service (OIS) project, the crossing of organizational boundaries for highway incident communications was done using systems that were not interconnected. This resulted in delays in responding to incidents and inefficiency in incident management.
Each agency recorded the incident data in their systems and communication between agency, 911 center and state police dispatch centers was primarily done via the phone. The new Oregon Interoperability Service (OIS) currently provides automated sharing of incident data between ODOT, Oregon State Police (OSP), Deschutes County 911 and Hood River County Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems with expansion to other 911 centers planned. Incident information is now transferred in a more efficient, accurate, and timely way resulting in improved interagency communication and collaboration.
Each agency receives updates, at their preference, that indicate: a. who is responding to the reported incident, b. when the responder has arrived on the scene, c. updated details of the incident and d. the progress of the management of the incident through its lifecycle. The system also allows an agency to request assistance from another agency through the OIS and for the other agency to respond with whether or not they have resources available to respond. The new system provides a more efficient, accurate, and effective manner in which to communicate critical incident information.
By exchanging data automatically in near real time, the system results in reduced need for agencies to call to relay incident reports to other agencies thereby improving the efficiency of dispatch personnel and the accuracy of incident status information resulting in faster clearance times for incidents.