Three New Jersey malls are participating in a private public partnership to enhance their security and continuity of operations. The Paramus Park Mall, the Westfield Garden State Plaza and the Bergen Towne Center Mall are now connected with a novel community-wide public safety interoperability system established by the cities of Ridgewood, Paramus and Palisades Park. Developed by Mutualink, Inc., the system provides real time interoperable emergency communications among public safety agencies but also enables broader participation with key community facilities with a plug and play solution that is simple to install.
Paramus is a community that is known for its large retail-trade and expansive shopping malls. ”Community-wide emergency communications among all of our critical assets and agencies is an important goal for our region. Malls have a significant impact on the US economy and their role as recreational destinations for millions of people place them high on the list for enhanced response capabilities. The right solution must enable rapid coordinated communications and response among first responders and on site management and security personnel. This means the most effective interoperability solutions will enable personnel in charge of securing and managing high priority community assets to talk directly and in real time with first responders,” said Capt. James Sheehan of the Paramus Police Department. “Our field officers can now directly communicate with the mall’s security services, and all three malls can also communicate with each other. Before Mutualink, the police radio system and mall radio systems were not compatible with each other.”
Captain Sheehan also praised the malls for their cooperation. “I am very happy with how the management and security representatives for our malls made this a high priority and moved quickly to improve the level of emergency response preparedness for patrons. It shows how private-public communities can effectively work together when there is an adaptable, easy-to-use and affordable communications framework. Unlike other more complex and expensive systems, adding the malls to the Mutualink system took only a few hours.”
Peter Karoczkai, CEO of Mutualink, said, “Public safety communication and preparedness is evolving into an environment where all critical organizations within communities will interact with one another using direct, real-time communication solutions rather than through conventional methods that are not designed to handle coordinated communications during emergencies. Enabling multiple first responder and public safety agencies to communicate with one another in an interoperable fashion is only a partial solution. Enabling interoperability to bring other key assets that may be the subjects of an emergency incident into the solution is even better. Mutualink does it all. The low cost of our simple, feature-rich and plug and play system makes interoperable communications accessible to all high value community assets such as schools, universities, malls, hospitals and critical infrastructure such as utility companies creating completely interoperable communities.”
About Mutualink, Inc.
Wallingford, CT-based Mutualink redefines interoperability by creating networks of interoperable communities that are instantly capable of sharing radio, voice, text, video, data files and telephone communications in a secure environment. The combination of affordability, invitation based control and the simplicity of use changes the way communities across the country communicate.
Mutualink was selected as one of 2007’s Hot Products by Public Safety Communications Magazine. For additional information, please visit our website at www.mutualink.net or call (203) 949-1800.