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Success Story
Charles County Fire & EMS cuts 45 seconds from response time with Zebra Technologies
Charles County Volunteer Fire & EMS operates a county-wide emergency response system, responding to tens of thousands of calls each year across diverse areas, from dense urban corridors to sprawling rural farmland.
Zebra Success Story: Charles County Volunteer Fire & EMS
Overview: Public Sector Challenge
To address the challenges of such a large-scale operation, Charles County needed to equip its volunteer fire and EMS force with reliable, space-saving, and field-ready technology to replace bulky laptops, streamline dispatch and reporting, and maintain high standards of emergency response across 15 fire departments and 16 EMS organizations.
Benefits / Outcomes
- Dispatched updates arrive 45 seconds faster than through radio communication
- $20M+ in annual taxpayer savings by sustaining volunteer-based operations
- Enabled real-time patient care reporting in the field, eliminating paperwork backlog
- Reduced downtime and deployment costs with in-house tablet dock swaps
- Predictable support and device coverage through Zebra OneCare
- Unified, GPS-driven CAD and ICX incident command integration across all rigs
Customer
Charles County Volunteer Fire & EMS
La Plata, Maryland/USA
Partner
Industry
Public Sector
Solutions
About Charles County Volunteer Fire & EMS
Charles County, Maryland, operates on a remarkable model: more than a thousand volunteers answer nearly 29,000 fire and emergency medical service (EMS) calls each year. They staff 15 fire departments, 16 EMS organizations, and even a specialized Dive-Rescue Team—covering everything from dense urban corridors to rural stretches of farmland. The result is a professional-grade emergency service that saves lives while preserving a tradition where, when someone dials 911, it’s their own community that responds.
When seconds can save lives, managing an operation of this scale demands precision, speed, and dependable equipment. Volunteers run into burning buildings or deliver life-saving care on the roadside while also managing station budgets, equipment procurement, and ensuring compliance reporting. To meet these demands, the county’s leadership relies on Zebra ET85 rugged tablets, which deliver the reliability, durability, and field-ready support required to keep their system running smoothly.
Charles County Volunteer Fire & EMS has always been ahead of the curve in emergency services. As one of the first in the nation to implement a unified 911 system, today innovation means forward planning and putting technology at the center of operations. “We’re constantly trying to invest in the future to do the most with the fire tax our community pays and give a top-notch response,” says Chief Mark Kaufmann Jr.
The Challenge
For seven to eight years, crews were equipped with consumer-grade laptops that couldn’t withstand daily operations. “They were big, bulky, and took up a lot of room in our vehicles. We actually didn’t even put them in ambulances because they were too big,” recalls Chief Kaufmann. Slow processing created delays, and as the Chief explains, “people weren’t even using them.” This forced responders back to radio communication, which would tie up the system. When replacement time came in 2020, the county saw a chance to push innovation further and adopt technology that would raise its performance.
Crews knew exactly what they needed: a tablet that could survive exposure to heat, water, and rough handling in the field without slowing them down. For the county’s demanding environment, the Zebra tablet was the only solution that fit. “Nobody else had a rugged tablet that was going to withstand the stuff we were going to put it through,” the Chief recalls.
To ensure the technology worked in real conditions, the county teamed up with Winn Solutions, a Zebra partner, which coordinated a seamless deployment with minimal disruption.
When a call comes in, we often see it on the tablet up to 45 seconds before it comes through on the radio. In an emergency or medical crisis, 45 seconds can feel like 30 minutes.
The Solution
Winn Solutions brought in the right specialists for imaging, mounting, and connectivity: Battalion 3, BlueStar, Dana Safety Supply, Panorama Antennas, Fleet Reps, and Zebra, which resulted in a best-in-class, enterprise-wide solution. What emerged was more than a simple technology rollout. It became a true collaboration built around the needs of the county’s volunteers and the residents they serve.
The value of the partner network went beyond the tablets themselves. Together with Winn Solutions, BlueStar made sure every device was pre-imaged, mounted, and tested before delivery. That preparation meant devices arrived fully ready for use, minimizing disruption and letting crews hit the ground running.
After initial success, the county doubled down. In 2024, they refreshed the rugged tablet fleet with Zebra ET85 tablets, keeping the same mounting footprint, so most installs were simple dock swaps in-house, reducing downtime and cost.
A key benefit of the ET85 tablets is their ease of use in the field. These aren’t office computers repurposed for trucks—they’re built around how firefighters and medics actually operate.
For EMS teams, the advantage goes beyond convenience—it's about efficiency. Patient care reports are completed on the spot at the scene, instead of back at the station. That means no duplicate effort or extra time spent on paperwork. “As a provider evaluates a patient, they can check their medical history and medications, and even get a signed refusal directly on the tablet. There’s no paperwork to file,” the Chief says. The result is faster documentation, quicker turnaround for crews, and more time dedicated to patient care.
Beyond time savings, the tablets bring greater accuracy. Crews record their own arrival and staging times directly into Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD), avoiding delays or errors from radio updates. That accuracy helps meet National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) benchmarks, which set strict standards for how quickly a certain number of staffed units must arrive at a scene. “That gives us a true and accurate number to report, not only for our internal performance, but also for the citizens who see those response times on our public dashboard,” explains the Chief.
The Zebra Difference: Outcome and Benefits
Earning the community’s trust comes from both sides: transparent reporting that shows performance, and faster response times when it matters most. “When a call comes in, we often see it on the tablet up to 45 seconds before it comes through on the radio,” says the Chief. “In an emergency or medical crisis, 45 seconds can feel like 30 minutes.” That short window of time matters for the person trapped in their car, the house on fire, or the patient waiting for medications. “Our goal is always getting our team out the door as fast as possible.”
The crew also notes the benefits of the improved GPS mapping and workflows. For incident commanders, the biggest gain is staying connected while on the move: “If they need to step out of the vehicle, it’s easier to carry a tablet and still keep up with everything than manage a full laptop,” the Chief explains. The tablets dock and undock from the vehicle in seconds, so firefighters and EMS techs can take them on foot without losing time. And with rugged design plus superior 5G and Wi-Fi connectivity, crews remain connected even in the county’s most rural areas, ensuring critical updates reach them wherever they are.
Comprehensive coverage gave the county confidence in its new devices. “We couldn’t ask for better customer support,” the Chief says. Zebra OneCare™ provides a predictable path for coverage and refresh planning. “I dropped one out of a fire truck, and three days later, a new one was there. You’re not going to find—at least we haven’t—any other companies we deal with that stand behind their word and their service like that.” Also, crews have peace of mind knowing their tablets will last an entire shift thanks to Proactive Battery Replacement, which continuously monitors battery health. When batteries can no longer hold a full charge or power a shift, this Zebra OneCare™ enhancement automatically ships replacements, keeping devices always ready.
When technology truly works, it becomes invisible—freeing people to focus on what matters most. For Charles County’s volunteer system, the choice was always about people, and the ET85 tablets proved that the right device can transform operations without disrupting the heart of the mission.
Looking ahead, Chief Kaufmann says the county is preparing to maximize tablet use with a new incident management platform designed for large-scale emergencies from D4H. “We’ll be able to use the tablets’ high resolution cameras to take and upload images from the scene of an incident where our emergency manager can review them in real time—especially crucial for natural disasters, hurricanes, or flooding,” he explains.
That reliability keeps volunteers focused on the mission—neighbors saving neighbors—with tools they can count on when every second matters.
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