Sheriff’s Office, 40 partners ‘go live’ with 911 technology consolidation, improvements

WAUKEGAN – The Lake County Sheriff’s Office announced a successful implementation of a major 911 technological overhaul.

In 2019, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office in conjunction with the Lake County Emergency Telephone Systems Board and the assistance of Crowe LLP started the process to upgrade critical technology infrastructure to improve public safety throughout Lake County.

The improvement involved multiple key computer-related components used by 911 telecommunicators, first responders, records clerks and employees at public safety entities throughout the county.

Lake County ETSB led the Computer Aided Dispatch portion of the project. CAD provides first responders with important information from 911 telecommunicators as they respond to emergency calls. It provides a mapping component, allowing telecommunicators to send the closest first responders to an emergency. It also allows first responders to research previous call history, view routing options and perform a number of other important functions.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office led the Records Management System, Civil Process Management System, Jail Management System, E-Citation and E-Crash. These components allow public safety agencies to securely store data from emergency calls and securely store official police reports and fire reports. The technology also streamlines the process of recording information from traffic crashes.

In 2021, Tyler Technologies was awarded two contracts, one from Lake County ETSB and one from Lake County with the sheriff’s office being the facilitator. Lake County ETSB and the Lake County Sheriff’s Office invited all Lake County police and fire agencies to join the project, share costs and share electronic services. The consolidated electronics system serves more than 40 Lake County law enforcement and fire agencies, combining more than 15 different systems into one and resulting in greater efficiency.

On April 16, CAD, RMS, E-Citation and E-Crash successfully were launched for the more than 40 participating agencies. The Civil Process and Judicial Sales successfully were implemented in September 2023. JMS is planned to launch in October.

After thorough evaluation and analysis, the sheriff’s office last year withdrew from plans to physically consolidate its 911 emergency communications center because of what would have resulted in a significant operational loss for the sheriff’s office, negatively impacting those living, working or visiting Lake County. The sheriff’s office continued with the technology consolidation, which is a tremendous public safety improvement to the community and will cost taxpayers less because of cost sharing and electronic infrastructure improvements. Sheriff’s 911 telecommunicators will have state-of-the-art technology and will be able to rapidly share crucial information with the 40-plus partners involved.

The Lake County Board and the Lake County ETSB Board provided the initial seed money to allow these major projects to move forward.

“I cannot even begin to describe the hard work that was put into this project by our IT team led by Bernard Malkov over the last several years,” Sheriff John Idleburg said in a news release. “Bernard, along with Steven Winnecke of Lake County ETSB and their teams, collaborated with dozens of municipalities that joined this technology consolidation project to be able to share crucial emergency information from 911 callers in real time. Because so many police and fire agencies are on the same computer system, responders will get information in a much timelier way, which will result in greater efficiency and lives saved.”

“I’m excited to have this new technology to help improve efficiencies and operations not just for our office but for other Lake County agencies,” said Malkow, the sheriff’s IT director. “Close collaboration between the Lake County ETSB, Crowe and our municipal partners was the key to success.”