NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — During Tuesday night’s Norfolk City Council meeting, council members unanimously approved the Hampton Roads Computer Aided Interoperability Project. The project is a new data agreement between the 911 call centers in Norfolk, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Virginia Beach and Portsmouth.

The agreement is said to quicken response times and boost efficiency.

“It’s a matter of just sharing the data and being able to have access,” said Len Remias, acting deputy city manager for public safety.

The cities of the Southside will now be able to regionally access each other’s dispatch data in real time — something Remias says will take some of the burden off already stretched call takers in the midst of staffing shortages.

“Working together regionally is always a benefit to us here in Hampton Roads,” Remias said.

Norfolk’s Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response Jim Redick said the city has 26 vacancies at its 911 call center and is 62% staffed.

“We’re the third highest call volume in Virginia,” Redick told 10 On Your Side. “I think a lot of folks assume it’s just an answering of the phone, but it’s so much more than that.”

The new data merger is also part of the city’s efforts to fight crime and plan ahead in emergencies that require nearby agencies to respond.

“There is a governing body behind this in terms of how we take a look at it operationally and institutionalize those types of best practices across the different localities and emergency operations centers,” Remias said.

There is already a mutual aid agreement with the Southside cities. Tuesday’s ordinance provides instant access to call information.