Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Public-safety communications has increased prospects, tougher choices

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 18:23:22 -0500

Public-safety communications has increased prospects, tougher choices

Donny Jackson

IWCE/MRT, Mar 29 2004

Growing awareness of public-safety needs has created greater
opportunities for communications leaders to upgrade the technology of
their systems, but the decisions are becoming increasingly complex,
according to panelists participating in the Public Safety and First
Responders Roundtable session at IWCE 2004 on Friday.

In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 tragedies, an unprecedented amount
of funding is earmarked for public safety, with a particular focus on
interoperability. It’s important that public-safety entities take
advantage
of the opportunity while it exists, according to Prashant Doshi,
Primedia Workplace Learning’s west region manager. “The floodgates
are open to Homeland Security [funding], but I don’t think they will
stay
that way forever,” Doshi said.

But much of the funding reported in the media will not go towards
public-safety communications, according to Harlin McEwen,
communications and technology committee chairman for the
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). As a result,
economic limitations still play an issue in communications
decisions—especially in the many rural communities that rely on
volunteer departments, said Paul Maplethorpe, fire chief for the
Greater Round Lake Fire Protection District in Illinois.

“How do you talk to them about spending $100,000 [for
communications upgrades], when their annual budget is $10,000 and
they have to hold pancake breakfasts and sell raffle tickets to buy an
engine?” Maplethorpe said.

One way public-safety entities can reduce costs is to move to an
IP-based platform, which also allows for greater interoperability,
according to Amalesh Sanku, EFJohnson’s vice president of
marketing. “If we don’t operate in standards, the costs go up,” Sanku
said. “Using IP reduces the cost of ownership, because we’re talking
about off-the-shelf equipment.”

McEwen said he believes IP solutions are the future, but he’s not sold
on the notion that voice-over-IP offerings provide the
“mission-critical”
reliability needed by public safety. And, while technological advances
have increased communications flexibility, interoperability can be a
double-edged sword if not properly managed—a reality often lost on
those not in public safety, he said.

“If everybody was on one channel and they could all talk, it would be
bedlam,” McEwen said.

Indeed, establishing practices for interoperability was critical for
public-safety entities working together during the 2002 Winter
Olympics in Salt Lake City, according to Steve Proctor, executive
director of the Utah Communications Agency Network. Unless these
practices are reinforced repeatedly, the benefits of technological
upgrades can be lost, he said.

“If you don’t train and retrain—and retrain—you just spent millions of
dollars for nothing,” Proctor said. “To me, you ought to receive as
much training on how to use your radio as you get on how to use
your weapon.”

But training can be problematic. Maplethorpe noted that it is difficult
to
ask members of volunteer departments to give even more of their time
to undergo extensive training for interoperability situations. And
McEwen said even training full-time officers—particularly in police
departments, which have less “down time” than fire
departments—can be challenging.

“You have to realize the union mentality we’re dealing with,” McEwen
said. “They want to be trained when they are on duty, or they want to
be paid overtime—that’s money.”

http://iwce-mrt.com/ar/radio_publicsafety_communications_increased/index.htm

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