Dispatchers receive new technology

CHEROKEE COUNTY-Several county dispatchers are catching the wave of the future with a new computerized location system.

Cherokee County is just one of the many dispatchers in the East Texas Council of Governments Region. Thanks to a grant, each county's dispatch got a new computer system that allows them to pinpoint exact locations within 300 feet of an emergency call.

Some of the features include satellite imagery, a map of all local fire departments' districts and distance measurements to the caller from a landmark or other point on the map.

Dispatchers say this new equipment will make the world of difference.

The system is also equipped to track calls from cell phones and is able to update rapidly enough to follow a phone's signal as it travels down the road.