# Call for hearing(s) on status and causes of delay in implementing emergency responder Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) System

- Record number: **R2025-0020996**
- Type: Resolution; category: Committee/Public Hearings
- Status: In Committee
- Sponsor: [Gilbert Villegas](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/ward/36) (36th Ward)
- Committee: [Committee on Public Safety](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/committee/public-safety)
- Submitted Date: Nov 13, 2025
- Introduction Date: Nov 14, 2025
- Official record: [Office of the City Clerk](https://chicityclerkelms.chicago.gov/Matter/?matterId=640708A2-B5C0-F011-BBD2-001DD80AA671)

## Impact report

> Written by AI from [the official document](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/files/clerk/matterattachmentspublic/13fdf3a5-e770-4f4a-873e-3cff44cd4176.pdf). AI can make mistakes; the official document always wins.

This resolution asks two City Council committees to hold a joint hearing on why Chicago's new 9-1-1 emergency dispatch computer system is years behind schedule.

**Who it affects**

- **People who call 9-1-1**: The hearing would look at delays in a new system meant to let callers send texts, photos, and videos and to automatically locate cell phone callers.
- **Police and Fire Department first responders**: The hearing would review a delayed system designed to identify the nearest responders and prioritize incidents by urgency.
- **Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC)**: Its representatives would be asked to appear and give a full update on the project's progress, challenges, spending, and expected finish date.
- **Office of Public Safety Administration**: Its representatives would also be asked to appear at the joint hearing to give an update on the project.
- **City taxpayers**: The hearing would review how money from a $79.9 million contract and past budget allocations has been spent on the delayed project.

**What changes**

- The Committee on Economic, Capital, and Technology and the Committee on Public Safety would hold a joint hearing on the dispatch system delay.
- City emergency management and public safety officials would be asked to publicly explain the project's status, problems, spending, and timeline.
- The resolution itself does not change how 9-1-1 calls are handled; the current system, in use since 1995, stays in place.

**Money**

- $79.9 million contract signed by the City through OEMC in 2020 with TriTech Software Systems, a CentralSquare company, to buy and set up a new dispatch system.
- City budgets for fiscal years 2021 through 2024 set aside funding for the dispatch system replacement; the 2026 budget documents show no clear funding for it.

**Where**: 36th Ward

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Source: https://www.chicagopolitics.org/matter/640708A2-B5C0-F011-BBD2-001DD80AA671 · Chicago Politics, an independent, nonpartisan tracker of the Chicago City Council. Guide for agents: https://www.chicagopolitics.org/llms.txt