WPD Provider Switch Sees Equipment Maintenance Savings
WETHERSFIELD - A data software provider switch will result in more than $20,000 in equipment maintenance fee savings for the Wethersfield Police Department.

       The Department will make the transition, courtesy of a $53,077 OPM grant, from software provided by the company Tri-Tech Visionair to the Capitol Regions Council of Governments (CRCOG) shared data storing and sharing systems by this coming fall.

       The Town Council approved the Department’s joining in the agreement--between a coalition of municipalities that includes Hartford, New Britain, Bridgeport, Newington, Cromwell, Enfield, Plainville, South Windsor and East Hartford--at its June 16 meeting.

       The grant money was administered to cover all of Wethersfield’s costs for its first year under the agreement.

       Under the current agreement with Tri-Tech, the Department was paying $35,000 in annual maintenance fees, which will total $13,420 with CRCOG, according to Wethersfield Police Chief James Cetran.

       â€"That’s considerable savings for the next 20 years,” Cetran told the Council during the meeting. â€"That’s just better for us all around, and we’ll be able to communicate with other [police] departments.”

       Data conversion hardware costs are projected to be around $30,000, Cetran wrote in a memo included in the meeting agenda.

       The grant provides participating police departments with Heartbeat CAD, a computer assisted dispatch program, the records management system CT: CHIEF, and an automated scheduling software for all emergency responders.

       East Hartford-based KT International is the vendor providing the equipment and software.

       The Wethersfield Police Department has seen increases in its maintenance fees under its deal with Tri-Tech because the company was doing away with equipment and raising the costs based on the price of the new models, Cetran said.

       â€"They’re going to charge us a lot more for the new product they put out, which will bring up our maintenance fees,” he said.

       Hartford, New Britain, and Bridgeport, were the first cities to get on board with the agreement when CRCOG awarded the software contract to KT International in 2007.
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