West Haven outlines expanded public-safety plan: cameras, AEDs, Narcan kits and anti-icing pilot

Rick Fontana, director of emergency management for the city of West Haven, told the City Council on Feb. 10 that his office has compiled a 170-page emergency operations plan and is pursuing grants and local projects aimed at reducing public-safety risk.

Fontana said the city has focused first on school safety and technology integration after a series of incidents earlier this year. He said the administration secured funding to put school security camera feeds into the city’s 9-1-1 center and is pursuing a roughly $2 million camera and emergency-operations upgrade through congressional-directed spending. “This is a 170-page document,” Fontana said of the emergency plan. He added the state has allowed the city to seek grant money for prior years that had not been collected.

Why it matters: The plan and accompanying investments are intended to improve incident response, help investigators identify suspects or vehicles, and allow dispatchers to direct first responders more quickly to active incidents.

Major elements Fontana described: - Cameras: Phase 1 installed 33 cameras along the beach; phase 2 will add about 22 law-enforcement-grade cameras in high-traffic areas; phase 3 will add roughly 26 cameras, including…