A staff member of the Plano Fire Department said the department is implementing USDD, an automated dispatch system that routes 911 calls directly to assigned crews, shaving seconds off response-preparation time and reducing overnight wake disruptions.

The change affects how bunk-room alerts are delivered: crews will hear tones only for the apparatus to which they are assigned, and the department will use a small red wake light rather than a full white light to rouse crews.

“We're in the process of implementing USDD as our automated dispatch system. Whenever a call comes in through 911, it dispatches everything. It's automated. So that shaves off, down to seconds. It helps us get out of the house quicker than, manual dispatch system,” the staff member said.

“With each bunk room, you can put whatever you're assigned to. If you're assigned to engine 1, then you can type in engine 1, and the only tones that will come through in the bunk room at night are those for that apparatus that you're riding on. So that allows the other apparatus, if you're not called out, it allows them to remain asleep during the night. So you're interrupt your sleep's interrupted less than, what we have right now. 1 of the the things that they've already said they really like about it is the red light,” the staff member said.

“It's a lot softer than the, than the white light just coming on, which was all the lights before. Now, you have a small red light that comes on and, it's just a softer, easier way to wake up. We want to be able to respond as quickly as possible and we want it to be very reliable. So, for us, this new system provides both of those. It shaves seconds off and allows us to get out of the house as quickly as we possibly can,” the staff member said.

The staff member also described reliability as a reason for the change: “But it also is the most reliable system on the market right now because we don't wanna miss any calls. We don't want anything to happen based on weather or anything else that cause us to have any delays.”

The department characterized the system as already being implemented but did not provide a timeline or cost estimate in the remarks recorded in the transcript. No formal vote or ordinance was recorded in the transcript.