Kent County undersheriff outlines dispatch, school radio and real-time intelligence upgrades; cites low use-of-force rate

Undersheriff Brian Meir told the Kent County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday that the sheriff’s office is expanding technology and training aimed at prevention, rapid response and transparency.

Meir said the sheriff’s office dispatch center now handles calls for many local agencies and that the department’s school radio project — funded with American Rescue Plan Act dollars — is being linked to an emergency video feed and other systems. “We are the only law enforcement agency that we know across the entire nation that is connected in our, school radio project with an emergency notification system for all schools across Kent County,” Meir said.

The upgrade, Meir said, joins other investments intended to improve responses to critical incidents and reduce risk. “What it is is basically a single pane of glass,” he said of the real-time information software, naming FUSIS (an Axon product). “Whether or not it's our body cameras, our in car camera systems, our flock LPR systems, camera security systems from the schools, we can use this 1 case of software to bring real time intelligence into our operation center and then provide directed response for that.”

Why this matters: Meir positioned the investments as both prevention and force-multipliers. The school radio project is intended to provide communications to buildings that do not have a school resource officer present. The real-time system is meant to let responders pull together…