Counter-Terrorism Training

What would happen in your jurisdiction if…

Ask any meteorologist, seismologist or terrorism expert, and they’ll say it’s not a question of if, but when. Some of the disasters that have either already happened or are expected to occur at some point in the near future are: a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hits Los Angeles, an F5 tornado crushes a small town in North Dakota, a category 5 hurricane flattens and floods the gulf coast, a terrorist attack cripples New York, a 200 year flood hits Nashville, and an oil spill of disastrous proportions in the Gulf of Mexico.

• Are you prepared?
• Have you trained and drilled for such an event most likely to occur in your area?
• Would your responders know what to do, where & when to report to if normal communications lines were down, out or over-loaded?
• Once they report, would your communication system immediately meld with others in the area? (Chances are your dispatchers would be playing manual relay with over-taxed land lines and cell lines if they were lucky while working a chaotic event.)
• Do you have technical personnel capable of patching radio systems together from multiple agencies and if so where are they, and will they even come in during such an emergency?
• Would you know who had to be evacuated, how many and where to get the evacuation resources from before it was too late?
• Would you like the capability of patching first responder communications with utilities, EMS, Air EVAC, bus drivers, tow companies, energy companies, food & water resources and others during an incident with full control of the patching?
• Would your incident commanders like to see real time resource mapping of the incident as it unfolds?
• Would your incident commanders like to have all required NIMS forms auto-populated as the incident played out and ready for after-action reporting?

The greatest challenge during times of crisis is the need to establish emergency communication rapidly and to effectively manage the entire incident. The key is to get the important information into the hands of the right people in a timely and seamless manner.

GEOCRIS InterOps4 is unmatched in the interoperable communications and emergency management industry by achieving automated rapid responder notification, complete local resource database, on-scene or remote operational capabilities, and true interoperability between any audio devices.

It seems each state has gone a separate path for addressing the problem of interoperability. Each having formed a multitude of committees, subcommittees, agencies, working groups and operational forums with the end result being an alphabet soup of acronyms to open the discussion of this complex problem. The tens of billions of dollars being spent to solve this problem actually is not solving the problem. Jurisdictions have committed to a wide variety of radio systems with endless capabilities, unfortunately most lacking compatibility with neighboring jurisdictions. So the question remains, how do we talk to one another in a timely, seamless manner?

Consider a platform that takes one radio from each cooperative jurisdiction or entity, integrate them into a rack and finally hard patch them together and control them instantly from any on-site or remote dispatch or command location. The controller being able to patch radios, cell phones, land lines, UHF, VHF, 800 MHZ, 900 MHZ, and all others with the drag of a mouse, then un-patch them when done just as quickly. As people need to communicate, the dispatcher can make it happen instantly. All this can be accomplished while sensitive radio keys are held securely within the agency’s dispatch center under mutual aid agreements.

Couple this with instant and complete local resources at command fingertips, real time event mapping, NIMS auto-populating forms, and after-action event playback and you will have a system that allows the command staff to work smarter during cataclysmic events. InterOps4 saves lives, time and money – period.

My ending thoughts:

- Keep the solution simple for the end user.

- Make the solution affordable.

- Keep the radios and equipment you have and are planning to buy.

- Anything with an audio signal can be patched together.

- Make interoperability so simple and useful jurisdictions will use it on a regular basis.

- Immediate and dynamic informational flow to the responders who need it!

Future posts will focus on specific events and welcome comments and experiences from first responders who worked the events. We are all in this together, your comments are encouraged and welcomed.

STAY SAFE!

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