ProQA Software for Emergency Dispatching

This grant program is authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5) (the 'Recovery Act') and by 42 U.S.C. 3751(a). The stated purposes of the Recovery Act are: to preserve and create jobs and promote economic recovery; to assist those most impacted by the recession; to provide investments needed to increase economic efficiency by spurring technological advances in science and health; to invest in transportation, environmental protection, and other infrastructure that will provide long-term economic benefits; and to stabilize state and local government budgets, in order to minimize and avoid reductions in essential services and counterproductive state and local tax increases. The Recovery Act places great emphasis on accountability and transparency in the use of taxpayer dollars.

Among other things, it creates a new Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and a new website ' Recovery.gov ' to provide information to the public, including access to detailed information on grants and contracts made with Recovery Act funds.

The Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program funded under the Recovery Act is the primary provider of federal criminal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions. Recovery JAG funds support all components of the criminal justice system, from multi-jurisdictional drug and gang task forces to crime prevention and domestic violence programs, courts, corrections, treatment, and justice information sharing initiatives. Recovery JAG funded projects may address crime through the provision of services directly to individuals and/or communities and by improving the effectiveness and efficiency of criminal justice systems, processes, and procedures.

The city of Bentonville will utilize their FY 2009 Recovery Act JAG funds to purchase emergency dispatch software from Priority Dispatch called Medical, Fire, and Police ProQA along with a quality improvement program called Advanced Quality Assurance. ProQA is a premier emergency dispatch software package for medical, fire, and law enforcement agencies. During the course of an emergency call, ProQA guides a dispatcher through the process of collecting vital information from the caller. ProQA obtains the victims status, chooses an appropriate dispatch level, and instructs the caller with industry approved protocols until the dispatched unit arrives at the scene. This project will allow dispatchers to provide an increased quality of public care, provide measurable standards for dispatch center quality control officers, and ensure that no matter what the situation is every caller will have the access to the same level of enhanced care.

NCA/NCF