Toronto Police Service integrates location and navigation using mobile CAD

Looking to support its officers with automatic vehicle location integration and real-time, in-car mapping and navigation, the Toronto Police Service upgraded its legacy CAD system with a mobile dispatch solution from Hexagon for quicker response times and better incident management.

A police car speeds towards a crime in urban Toronto

The challenge

Serving more than 2.9 million residents in Toronto, Canada, the Toronto Police Service implemented a computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system from Hexagon's Safety, Infrastructure & Geospatial division in 1994. With the initial implementation, many existing applications developed by Toronto Police needed to be interfaced to Hexagon's CAD offering. The integrations included in-house systems allowing personnel to view street activities, alternate reporting unit applications for lower priority calls and third-party, in-car screens. Throughout the years, the agency began to add other public safety solutions to address evolving operational requirements, such as web-based dispatch.

Looking to support its officers with automatic vehicle location (AVL) integration and real-time, in-car mapping and navigation, the Toronto Police Service needed to upgrade its legacy CAD system with a state-of-the-art dispatch solution with better mobile capabilities.

The solution

The Toronto Police Service's Information Systems Division worked closely with Hexagon to ensure the seamless integration of mobile dispatch capabilities with its existing CAD system. Hexagon configured the mobile solution to fit the agency’s specific needs, using extensive input from field personnel.

Completed in five months, the agencywide rollout included installing mobile workstations in 500 vehicles and training 1,800 officers. Hexagon’s mobile dispatch solution allows supervisors to monitor and track the location of field personnel via integrated CAD map and AVL capabilities, which display the location of units and events. As soon as officers log into the mobile dispatch system, they are trackable. These new capabilities enhance officer safety and optimize the dispatching of officers to events. With the mobile dispatch solution, Toronto Police can restrict certain areas during emergency events, natural disasters, criminal investigations or city-sponsored activities.

The mobile CAD map also enables officers new to the Toronto area to find specific locations quickly and easily via visual routing maps and directions. Because Toronto is such a melting pot of nationalities, the mobile dispatch solution provides a user-friendly language skills search, allowing Toronto Police to quickly locate and contact officers with the translation skills needed for a particular situation. All of this can be done from the officer’s patrol car, streamlining the dispatch process and reducing response times.