Michigan tabs Codespear for alerting, interoperability

Michigan State Police’s emergency management division has chosen Codespear’s software as the platform for its statewide emergency-alert communications to emergency managers and first responders, Codespear announced today.

Codespear’s solution features two-way communication and alerting functionality to virtually any communications device, including public-safety radios, cell phones, pagers, PDAs, computers and landline phones. First-phase rollout of the product will include support for state police activities in association with Super Bowl XL this week in Detroit.

Codespear vice president Glen Seaman said the initial phase of the rollout includes five SmartMsg units, four of which will be mobile and one that will remain in the state police headquarters in Lansing. The alerting functions are operational now, and the interoperability portion—supporting voice, text and video applications—of the system will be in place by May 14.

“Not only will Codespear’s solution provide immediate alert notification to key state agency, county and municipal personnel upon entering incident details into our incident command system, SmartMsg will also provide for the establishment of secure communication links and information sharing between the state and the homeland security and emergency management personnel of Michigan counties and municipalities,” Michigan State Police Emergency Management Division Section Manager, Daniel Sibo said in a prepared statement.

Previously, Codespear announced a contract with Wayne County, Mich., which is using the software package to alert residents, as well as first responders. Wayne County also uses Codespear to provide interoperable communications—something several other public-safety entities in the state are embracing, Seaman said.

“We’re trying to become a de facto standard for alerting and interoperability [in Michigan],” he said. “We’ve got a lot of initiatives, and in less than a year, we’ll pretty much have locked down the state … Meanwhile, we’re working to spread our message to other states.”