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911 Calls Linux

Posted by Roblimo on from the open-source-police-dispatch dept.

This morning, we found an excellent piece in our in-box about how a 911 call center in Utah has switched all of its workstations over to Linux. If anyone needs 24/7 reliability, it's the people at the other end of 911, and apparently they're now getting it, thanks to Linux-using, Slashdot-reading Officer Sherman Stebbins of the St. George, Utah Police Department, who tells us how he did it below.

911 Calls Linux - For Reliable Service

In January 1998 I began testing linux for our 911 Center here in St. George Utah. We are the 911 Center for the South west corner of Utah. In November of 1998 Testing was complete with great success. I implemented Linux as the workstation for our 911 Center using RedHat 5.2 and AfterStep as the windows manager. These workstations get worked on 24 hrs a day seven days a week and run several apps on screen.

Some of the apps that we run our Eterm to connect to the main HP Server, X3270 for our State computer connection, WordPerfect for different reports the dispatchers create, and some custom apps I have written in C.

Our WordPerfect was given to us Mike Cowpland CEO of Corel. The WordPerfect 8 has worked perfectly. Thanks Mike.

Our uptime has been over 200 DAYS. This doesn't even come close to the reboot once a day with the Microsoft OS. I could give several horror stories of when the dispatcher is in the middle of a hot call, then had to reboot.

Linux has done so well, that I have unplugged the reset buttons and disabled the power switch. This was done to prevent finger glitch when they have to restart the NT box our radios work from (I just wish Motorola would switch over), that sits next to the linux box. Linux is the main console that the 911 Dispatcher works from, and has held up better than any I have ever seen. Linux has been doing great in the server end, but I have heard it's not very good at the client end. NOT TRUE. My installation time for the first pc was 45 minutes for full install with apps. By the time I got to the last set it was 30 minutes for full install. As a client it has worked great.

The only shutdowns have been from one power supply failure, and a kernel update for each. The workstations are still running great.

Officer Sherman Stebbins
St. George Police Department
e-mail policesa@infowest.com

4 of 308 comments (clear)

  1. why??? by UM_Maverick · · Score: 5

    NOTE: this is NOT flamebait. It's an honest-to-goodness question

    First let me say that I think it's great that Linux is getting this good exposure. My question is this: Why does everyone say it's a great article when somebody writes about NT's downtime, and how Linux is better than NT. However, if someone writes something positive about NT (or BSD, or anything that's NOT Linux), it's instantly labelled as "FUD" or "flamebait".
    I think Linux is great and all, but it's not perfect (yet), we need to be fair in advocating it.

    --
    Juiced? Or Not?
    1. Re:why??? by Signal+11 · · Score: 5
      People are fed up with having mission-critical things blow up and BSOD all the time. Many people on /. have similar experiences. Granted, it's biased, but that doesn't negate the fact that the current crop of Microsoft offerings are woefully inadequate to the descriptions their sales department would have you believing.

      Maybe if Microsoft was more honest with itself (and it's customers), and made a good-faith effort to improve the quality of it's products we wouldn't come down so hard on them.

      Microsoft would have quite a few more friends here if they just came clean and said "we made a mistake, and here's what we're going to do to fix it", rather than spreading FUD around.

      As the old saying goes, what goes around comes around.




      --

  2. Re:hmmm. by sherms · · Score: 5

    Yes its real, Ive been an officer for over 12 yrs.
    our Address is 200 E. 265 N. St. George Utah, if you want to see the 911 center and myself in person (if you don't believe). I take care of the 911 center network and Fatal accidents.

    Sherm

  3. Story verification by Roblimo · · Score: 5

    I called the St. George Police Department through its published non-emergency phone number, verified Officer Stebbins' identity, and chatted with him personally (by phone) before posting the story. Note the emphasis on using a *published* phone number for initial contact. It is as easy to spoof a phone number as an e-mail address; all you have to do is claim you're giving out a "private line."

    Without proper verification, this story would not have run. Period.

    Robin "roblimo" Miller
    roblimo@slashdot.org