Batboard

I have been asked to look into the possibility of us making use of the emergency button on our XPR6550 portables. We use a mobile and a power supply in our dispatch area. How much benefit would we get from programming the emergency button on a system like that?

I'm not sure what you mean by "how much benefit" you would get. What mobile do you have? It should be capable of sending an acknowledgement to the subscriber sending the emergency. The mobile will need to be a display radio so you can see which unit sent the emergency.

Most radios I program for municipal customers have the emergency button programmed. I also worked for a police department for 20 years and never once did anyone use it in an actual emergency. It was always accidental.

"How much benefit would we get from programming the emergency button on a system like that?" No clue, what's the problem you are trying to solve, and what kind of system topology are you on ?

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Analog or digital? If Digital, what type of system? Conventional, Cap+ etc.

n1gtl wrote:...Most radios I program for municipal customers have the emergency button programmed. I also worked for a police department for 20 years and never once did anyone use it in an actual emergency. It was always accidental.

That very well may be the most insightful comment yet.

It is a MOTO TRBO Capacity Plus system.

Someone just mentioned it to one of the bosses and they want me to look into it. My first reaction was that it would be a waste of money for us.

Not to mention the teeny tiny little orange button on those radios. Nobody is going to push that in an emergency. They're going to call out on their PTT.

Ugh, they are always set off by mistake but I suppose that's better than having a reason to depress the button. I am a firm believer that when SHTF the likelihood of someone depressing the emergency button they had some basic training on when the radio was first issued, versus depressing the PTT that they have developed muscle memory using everyday to talk to the dispatcher is slim.

That said, the benefit seems obvious. Your dispatch would be able to see an emergency alarm and unit ID on the control station display. It would help to know whether you are using analog or TRBO and what you are using as a control station mobile. Your control station being a mobile most likely will not be able to ACK the emergency status, but it will be able to decode and display it.

There should be a STRICT procedure in place for emergency button use, especially for police. I've seen cases where someone hits the button and the dispatch says "Unit XXX, you hit your emergency button. Are you set?" Not exactly a great SOP if someone has a gun pointed at the officer.

I could go on........

What type of users are on the system, Security, Grounds Crews??? Not sure how its a waste of money, its only programming the buttons to be active, no hardware is needed. We have in the past changed the button delay in CPS to a little bit longer and it reduced the amount of false activations. It all comes down to training, and the users knowing when that button is pressed its because they need help.