West Cook News

The Berwyn city council recently discussed a contract to purchase new emergency response and record keeping technology for the city's emergency responders.

During the April 11 Berwyn committee of the whole and city council meeting, officials heard a presentation from several representatives regarding the requested purchase of Mark43’s Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and police Records Management System technologies. This would be a three-year contract between the police department and the business totaling $1,255,000, which will be funded through the city’s American Rescue Act Plan monies. The council heard from Berwyn assistant fire chief Kris Coniglio, police department division commander Dave Green and executive officer Lou Mazza, among others.

The various representatives explained their areas of responsibility for all emergency responding and record keeping. They explained how the Mark43 system would improve responding to 911 calls from the public for police, fire and EMS services. The system would improve communication with dispatchers giving them information as they receive it from the callers, and then record, categorize and analyze the call data to help them prepare and respond in the future, as well as address any patterns that arise while maintaining that information in a secure and organized manner. The CAD system is one of the most important tools in a community as it directly impacts the success of 911 services.

The representatives also explained how they formed the committee, received bids and service options from a multitude of vendors and explored the options to select their top choice, Mark43. They surveyed other departments who worked with the vendor to see how the system works and determine their satisfaction with the services. Ultimately, they were pleased to have a new integrated communications system that would also prevent further crashes and loss of data like the ones experienced in recent years and were eager for the council to approve the contract.

Mark43 co-founder Matthew Polega was present at the meeting to speak with the council.

"Over the course of the procurement that was captured in the presentation today. We feel that we are going to be wonderful partners for the agencies that we're going to be serving that are represented in this room," Polega said at the meeting. "We, after deploying 200 agencies across the United States, feel that the way that we implement the software, support our customers and make sure that we deliver from a technological perspective will ultimately deliver value for the community and the citizens of Berlin. So, we're extremely honored, humbled and proud to be here today. We look forward to supporting everybody and to a long and enduring partnership with Berwyn."