The existing station alerting systems in the fire/rescue stations throughout the county are based upon antiquated technology and have become unreliable.  The existing outdated systems which work off transmitted radio frequency tones, frequently go out of service for repair and are becoming unreliable.  Additionally, the tone frequencies that must be broadcast to activate the systems in each station take up valuable time, especially for incidents where multiple stations are being dispatched, delaying the transmission of key information that crews need in order to respond to emergencies. The proposed new digital alerting system uses the more reliable fiber network that has recently been put in place to each station, to send rapid simultaneous notification to all units being dispatched to incidents.  A brief alert tone is activated, with lighting that comes on automatically to notify crews of the call and to light their way through the stations at night, followed by the information on the location and type of call is then announced over a speaker system.  That same information is displayed on display screens to assure accurate dissemination of the incident information.  The proposed digital alerting systems should have a positive impact on the reaction and response times of units, while also providing for a more clear and reliable source of dispatch information for responding crews.

A Request for Proposal (RFP) was issued by Chesterfield County in May 2016 for the purchase of Fire/Rescue Station Alerting System for the County.   Chesterfield County has a cooperative clause which allows other localities to purchase a fire station alerting system from the awarded vendor, US Digital, Inc.