As a result, in 1999, more than 30 law enforcement, fire and medical services agencies from all 18 Santa Clara County jurisdictions formed the Silicon Valley Regional Interoperability Project (SVRIP), to enhance coordination and communication between public safety agencies.
Nine years later, the SVRIP is at the forefront of the interoperability movement. And the project has garnered accolades and recognition from many agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which cited it as a "best practices" model for interoperability.
In January, SVRIP representatives were one of three regional delegations to give an interoperability presentation to new Democratic leaders on the Homeland Security House Committee. SVRIP representatives also gave a presentation at the Industry Leaders Forum in 2006 and the DHS SAFECOM Program's Emergency Response Council national meeting. SVRIP officials say their progress is praised as "a model of interoperability and interagency coordination for the United States."
"I think [interoperability] is one of the most important priorities," said Sheryl Contois, technical services coordinator of the Palo Alto, Calif., Police Department and vice chair of the SVRIP Executive Steering Committee. "We're glad to see that Congress, the Department of Homeland Security and the president see it as an equally important priority. It's probably one of the most significant changes in public safety that will occur and has occurred."
"We tried to look at what we can do with existing systems within the hierarchy of the previous systems," said Dale Foster, chief of the Gilroy, Calif., Fire Department. "We asked ourselves, 'How do you use existing technology and existing resource dollars without upsetting that kind of balance that goes on with each jurisdiction, and make it better?' And that's the driving philosophy of what we did."
All Tied Together
As part of its voice-data wireless system, the SVRIP established five projects that will allow seamless voice and data interoperability between emergency responder agencies in Santa Clara County.
The interoperability backbone for the region is the E-Comm Regional Microwave System and a private broadband wireless network, which is now being built. E-Comm is a 19-site regional microwave network that will be the "information highway" for future voice and data communication countywide, enabling emergency responders to securely share and exchange information. Because existing systems will use E-Comm, other public safety agencies will save money. The SVRIP is also working on a plan to link the E-Comm network to the federal network in Washington, D.C., with a cost of $50 million for each region.
In addition, San Jose State University is building a private broadband wireless network that will serve its campus police, local law enforcement and fire departments. The network will help coordinate the search for missing students; and support applications, such as CALPHOTO, the state's database for law enforcement records and identification information, and CalGang, a database of gang members and local criminal information.
Another emerging SVRIP project is the Bay Area Mutual Aid Communications System (BayMACS), which was established on Sept. 11, 2003. BayMACS is an emergency radio system that lets police, firefighters and paramedics throughout the Bay Area talk with one another without dispatchers. This radio system has one command and control channel, allowing Santa Clara County emergency responders to communicate, regardless of agency or jurisdictional boundaries.
One downside of BayMACS is that in the event of a large-scale emergency, this single channel would quickly be overwhelmed, said Stephen Lodge, Santa Clara, Calif., police chief and chair of the SVRIP Executive Steering Committee.
"In a perfect world, we would have four or five BayMACS channels so we can run operations and not run on a single channel," Lodge said. "Unfortunately there are no frequencies available in this area to be able to do that."
To solve the problem, the SVRIP recently completed a successful voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) pilot between Santa Clara police, fire and safety responders. Now, the SVRIP is seeking funding to implement the network-based VoIP/radio solution for a six-city area that will interconnect voice communications through Internet protocol. The VoIP radio project would operate as an extension of existing interoperability channels and use standard IP networking equipment as an extension to communication between first responders.
Linking and Intelligence
In a recent project, the SVRIP developed a data integration system that lets multiple CAD systems exchange information through a Regional Interoperability Information Broker (RIIB). The project, currently in the pilot phase, is expected to connect CAD systems in the region, and automatically identify and notify the closest resource to any given emergency in the area.
"This will essentially allow us to dispatch more quickly and efficiently," Contois said. "We don't want our fire resources to go to the scene of a medical emergency. Say, for example, there is a call in San Jose, but Milpitas is closer to the incident. Instead of the call center showing up in San Jose, it shows up automatically in Milpitas. Right now there is no capability to do that anywhere in the country for command and control."
Another program in the works is the Records Management System, a regionalized data solution designed to exchange and share critical intelligence information between multiple agencies. The project will link all the records management systems in Santa Clara County, allowing law enforcement personnel to access information via a RIIB from the computer in their squad car.
"If I stop somebody on the street right now," Lodge said,. "I can find out whether they've been arrested in the city, and whether we've ever talked to this person. But I don't know whether San Jose, Sunnyvale, Mountain View or anywhere else has them listed in their files."
The strength of the SVRIP has been the governance and cooperation of Santa Clara County jurisdictions and their willingness to work together.
For SVRIP officials, the benefits of the interoperability system will save lives.
"I truly believe that some of these advances will be directly cited for saving lives," Lodge said, noting that after-action reports following high-profile events, such as 9/11 or the Oklahoma City bombings, attributed additional deaths and property damage to a lack of communication among first responders.
"I think these technological advances will allow us to deal with these emergencies and not have that additional loss of life or property," he continued. "In fact, if they have the earthquake here after we get these actions up and running, the after-action report is going to say, 'People didn't die, and additional property damage didn't occur because these guys could talk to each other.'"
