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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-01-25 Correspondence Geo C()ITUn /' -- --- / ~ I <<>vv Radio Options and Feasability of 9.1.1 Dispatch Merger December 2005 ~~:-<}--,~."-t<(:>>-(LJ-C:)I(> 1 ~3~{'H--g-:_.~)-(--(~fnn~i~~') ":~4oa:, ..:,~.-~g'(J fix (")oOolV\/ Sdint (i(",'111.<1111 SU'("(>-l $,,,j;11. <_h.HU'I. MN S(')~<t)1 g(:~{H'(Hflln,("j>g_<_"C) "(Hnl'. C(>>Jll V'VV'iV\l_g<(>'()(~(Hn.lt.fi-'{Hjl I ntrod uctionl Scope of Services Executive Summary Detailed Information on the Current Emergency Communications Environment Considerations in PSAP Consolidation Appendices I ~ Section 1 Introduction/Scope of Services GeoComm Corporation was retained by the City of Iowa City (hereafter referred to as the City, and acting also on behalf of Johnson County) in mid 2005 to conduct: 1. An Options Analysis regarding expansion, modifications, upgrade, or replacement altematives for the City's mature 800 MHz trunked radio system. 2. A Feasibility Study regarding the potential for the consolidation of the Enhanced 9-1-1 Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) operated by the Iowa City Police Department, the Johnson County Sheriff, and U of I Public Safety. From this point forward in this report we will refer to the collective 9-1-1 dispatch agencies as "The Agencies". This total project work was divided into three general phases, as follows: Phase 1: Information collection. In this phase. there were three sub-phases. Phase 1.1: GeoComm visited the area on July 13, 2005 to have a Project Kick-Off meeting with members of the Project Steering Committee. Data collection forms were also distributed at this session for later completion and return to GeoComm. Phase 1.2: On August 9, and September 20-21, 2005 GeoComm's Project Consultants Paul Linnee and Mike Celeski conducted in-depth visits to each of the three PSAPs under discussion here, plus a visit to the Coralville Police Department, and the City's radio system vendor (CEC) in Cedar Rapids. During each of these visits, GeoComm staff visited with and interviewed PSAP operators and management personnel, inspected, inventoried, photographed, and took videos of the communications equipment present and the general facilities, and spent significant time observing methods and procedures. As mentioned, during this visit and over subsequent visits, interviews, and phone conversations, GeoComm also consulted with Mr. DePape of CEC Communications regarding specifics of radio equipment and services in Iowa City as well as some general information on radio capabilities in the area at large. We also interviewed key officials with the State of Iowa (and others) regarding the plans for a LETAC (Law Enforcement Telecommunications Advisory Committee) "sponsored" planning effort for a statewide voice and data radio system which is being called "I-SIRS". G~m Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 1-1 December 2005 I Phase 1.3: GeoComm developed, distributed, compiled, and analyzed the results of returned data collection surveys for the City and County PSAP agencies. The intent of this survey (samples attached as Appendix 1 and 2 to this report) was to collect comprehensive information regarding: ~ Activity levels ~ Budget and funding issues ~ A wide range of personnel issues We also developed, distributed, analyzed, and presented an interim report flowing from a survey of Iowa City and Johnson County personnel involved in the delivery and/or receipt of dispatching services. This summary report is attached to this main report as Appendix 3. Phase 2: Detail of Options Development and Analvsis: During this phase, the survey results were tabulated and analyzed. Data collected from the PSAP visits and inventories were analyzed; research was conducted and the general range of options presented in this report were developed. These options and their analysis are included in Section 4 of this report. During this phase, we also researched applicable State of Iowa laws relating to 9-1-1 issues as well as any Iowa rules or regulations pertaining to the operation of 9-1-1 PSAPs and Iowa DPS and NCIC rules regarding system access and operations. Phase 3: Presentation of Feasibility Studv and Options Analvses: Contained within this report. G~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 1-2 December 2005 2 I ~ftln Section 2 Executive Summary GeoComm was tasked to look into two issues: ~ Issue one deals with the age, performance, capacity, and coverage of the Iowa City 800 MHz trunked radio system. ~ Issue two deals with the organization and processing of 9-1-1 calls and public safety dispatching in Johnson County at large. The two issues studied are related. To perform public safety dispatching, agencies must use two-way radio. A two-way radio system that serves the City and current participating agencies is designed and built much differently than a system that covers the entire County and provides capacity for all public safety agencies in the County. The issues diacllS88d In QlI. executive SUIl1!1lllIJ 8/1d .tl1e~l\ylnQ ~Ieport fepte8ents important elel1lenta.ln local~venllnent ~~.,.~ irHfepth~.Of~and failures encountared In tlteresponse tC)~~(~1,~K~~l!I'lIm..) have highlighted failures In the organil,atlOll' tech~,8Ilil~C)f ~~~l1ic8tions systems and processes. Wh",tltereare S()Il18~1 RIles andlor il'aSOlJn:ea ..thel;.~..t(),*,V in these deficiencies, It has ~ourexptll'ie~thatytei.l.C)V....QOpercentof tltes8fa1li1l!Jl1lt1ivebeentlte result Of flawed decision. ~atthe state. nt9Ional,CQllntY or city levels. This stUdy enables l()Wa City and Johnson COunty to take pause and carefuUy CQIIsld!trthese issues to make good choices. Organization of this Report: This executive summary, while an integral part of the overall report, is also being bound and distributed separately. Thorough reading of the entire report is highly recommended for those interested in developing a good foundation for carrying its recommendations forward. Summary of Conclusions and Recommendations As stated at the outset of this Executive Summary, there is a relationship between the examination of the Iowa City radio system and the 9-1-1 dispatching processes and organizational structure in Johnson County. The following conclusions and recommendations clearly reflect that fact. ~ Sub conclusion 1: The Iowa City radio system does not provide adequate in-building radio signal strength coverage to serve portable radios in some critical life safety environments within the City and Campus jurisdictions. . Sub recommendation 1: Convert the system to (or replace it with) a simulcast (simultaneous broadcast/reception from several towers) system. ( ;,.(,:~~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-1 December 2005 - ~ Sub conclusion 2: The Iowa City radio system does not provide adequate talk-through capacity at all times. . Sub recommendation 2: Have a seventh voice channel added to the current trunked system to serve the existing city and campus users, or replace it with a not less than seven channel trunked system. ~ Sub conclusion 3: The Iowa City radio system does not have access to conventional (non trunked) repeaters on the national 800 MHZ interoperability radio channels, meaning it cannot communicate with "foreign" 800 MHz radio users who might be summoned to Iowa City to assist in a large scale incident. . Sub recommendation 3: Install at least three of the potentially available five channels and associated repeaters. ~ Sub conclusion 4: The Iowa City mobile and portable radios are not programmed for operation on the above conventional (non trunked) 800 MHz interoperability radio channels, and, as such, could not use these channels as back-up channels to their trunked system should its trunking capability be lost, nor could they communicate directly with "visiting" radios coming to assist in Iowa City, nor could they communicate in a "foreign" area to which they might respond to assist. . Sub recommendation 4: The current radios (or any replacements) should be programmed for both direct and talk-around access to the five NPSPAC -- interoperability channels, in conjunction with the associated FCC licensing activity. ~ Sub conclusion 5: The Iowa City mobile and portable radios are not capable of accessing the 700 MHz channels that will soon be coming on line. As such, they can't access the many 700 MHz interoperability mutual aid channels that have been designated, nor will they be able to operate on any trunked system that may be implemented by the State of Iowa that uses 700 MHz channels, even if they were otherwise compatible. . Sub recommendation 5: The current Iowa City mobile and portable radios should be replaced with radios capable of being programmed to access the 700 MHz channels, almost all of which are required to be deployed as digital channels. ~ Sub conclusion 6: The control computer and associated infrastructure for the trunked radio system are obsolete and on-going maintenance will not be available going forward. . Sub recommendation 6: Either replace the existing 6809 controller with an MCT 3600 controller or replace the system. ~ Sub conclusion 7: The existing shared access to the City's trunked radio system by public safety and other city departments, as well as by some University users has been an efficiency and interoperability multiplier. . Sub recommendation 7: Continue with the local govemment owned trunked radio system model, but consider expanding its user base to be countywide. - G,I(,.-~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-2 December 2005 - ~ Sub conclusion 8: The current City trunked radio system is 100 percent proprietary, which means only Motorola radios can be purchased to be capable of accessing the trunked system. It also means that the radios that populate the current system can only talk into similar Motorola proprietary systems. These facts have an impact on competitive procurement opportunities as well as interoperability. . Sub recommendation 8: Replace the current City trunked radio system infrastructure with one that is industry "standards compliant" and then procure replacement subscriber radios that are similarly standards compliant. The relevant standard for compliance is the "P25" standard. MAJOR RECOMMENDATION "A": Based on the preceding conclusions and recommendations, GeoComm recommends that, at a minimum (assuming there is no PSAP merger and/or assuming there is no interest on the part of any County or County served agencies to be served by the 800 MHz trunked system), Iowa City govemment should replace the existing analog, single site, 800 MHz trunked radio system with a two site, digital, P25 compliant, simulcast 700/800 MHz capable trunked radio system infrastructure equipped with eight or nine channels on day one, seven being for voice and the balance for control signaling and eventual migration from the leased access RACOM system for mobile data. Acquisition of this trunked system infrastructure should be separate and distinct from the acquisition of subscriber radios for said system, with the rationale being that the City should encourage competitive bids from several vendors for the subscriber radios, even if there will likely be only one bidder for the infrastructure. Similarly, it is quite likely that even Motorola would offer a significant infrastructure discount in return for exclusivity on the subscriber radio purchases. In either case, significant money could be saved on the subscriber radios via this course of action. (See Table 1 at the end of the Executive Summary for cost detail on all radio issues.) WE HA VE ESTIMA TED THE TOTAL COST OF THIS ACTION TO BE $4.36 MILLION. ~ Sub conclusion 9: The current county sheriff, county fire, county highway department, county EMS radio and other smaller systems are all subject to the provisions of the FCC's narrow band ruling. As such, the entire system will need to have all base and field radios capable of operating in a narrow band mode within about ten years. It can't be estimated how many of the several hundred radios in use in these systems at this time are affected, as no comprehensive inventory has been conducted. Departments other than Johnson County departments own many of these radios and, as such, the County has no inventory of them. With the inherent non-interactive technology in such non-trunked radio systems, even radios not known to the County can operate on their system. All radios that are not narrow band capable will require replacement. . Sub recommendation 9: The County should commission or conduct a thorough inventory of all radio equipment operating through any of its infrastructure and - determine actual counts of radios that are and are not narrow-band capable. G~~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-3 December 2005 - ~ Sub conclusion 10: The current County radio systems cannot intercommunicate directly with those in use in Iowa City and the University campus. This is a definite interoperability concern that affects not only major incident management, but also day-to-day coordination between the several law enforcement agencies. Simply put, a sheriff's squad car or deputy driving or walking through Iowa City near the Courthouse today is routinely unaware of what is happening around him in the Iowa City Police Department. . Sub recommendation 10: All law enforcement and fire units operating in Iowa City and the rest of the urban parts of Johnson County should be on a radio system(s) via which they can communicate directly with each other as well as routinely monitor each other's activity on the radio. ~ Sub conclusion 11: It is a given that at least some of the radios in the system(s) of those working through the sheriff's PSAP will need to be replaced due to the FCC's narrow banding requirements, and said replacements will cost not less than several hundred dollars to the low $1,000 range per replaced radio. It has also been strongly recommended that the County be on a radio system that will permit direct interconnection and monitoring with the Iowa City radio system. It is also known if the County were to decide at a later time, it wanted to migrate its operations over on to the Iowa City 800 MHz trunked radio system for the above reasons, the County's addition to the City's system would place a capacity burden on the City's system, requiring added channels on the City's system. - Furthermore, should the County decide to join the City's system, at a later time, if the preceding recommendations are followed and the City has implemented a two-site simulcast system, addition of the County at that later time would require the addition of (probably) two additional transmitter/receiver tower sites to the overall system. Furthermore, the location of those two added sites to the City's already (by then) two-site system would be problematic, because the City's two sites would have been placed and located with the sole objective of covering the City's service area, and they would not have been ideally located to also service the greater county area. Put another way, if one were to design a four-site, simulcast countywide trunked radio system from "day one", one would put those four towers in far different locations than if one were to have to add to an already existing two-site City only system two additional tower sites "out in the county". Simply put, it would make far more sense (and save money) to know, plan for and implement all four sites in one system design from the outset. - G~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-4 December 2005 -- MAJOR RECOMMENDATION "8": Johnson County government should migrate all of their two-way radio operations over to an 800 MHz, digital, simulcast trunked radio system that would be designed as an outgrowth/replacement of the current Iowa City system, and would then go under a new ownership/cost model. This migration could be somewhat gradual, with (for example) all law enforcement units going in one budget year, all EMS units in one budget year, all fire units in another budget year, and all remaining county agency units in yet another budget year. (See Table 1 at the end of this Executive Summary for Cost breakdowns.) WE HA VE ESTIMA TED THE COST OF THE ADDED INFRASTRUCTURE TO SUPPORT SUCH A COUNTYWIDE SYSTEM TO BE $1,650,000. The cost of incrementally adding the projected 365 subscriber radios served by the County's PSAP is estimated to be an additional $912,500. This raises a question about who should pay for the costs of subscriber radios (estimated at $2,500 each) for agencies that are part of the County's dispatch operation but are not part of County government? This would be agencies like the Coralville Police Department, the North Liberty Police Department and all the fire departments. Historically, the County has not purchased the two-way radios these agencies use to access the radio system infrastructure the County owns and maintains on their behalf. It would be in the County's best interest to have these agencies migrate to the new system. A common way we have seen this handled is for the County (or whichever entity ends up owning the radio system and has the money) to "front end" the costs of the subscriber radios for these non-county agencies and then let the agencies "lease purchase" the radios from the County over a 7-10 year period, resulting in an affordable lease fee of between $250 and $500 per radio per year. ~ Sub conclusion 12: There is some inherent duplication and inefficiency in the tasks and services provided by the County, City, and Campus PSAPs. For example, 9-1-1 police calls answered at the ICPD are regularly transferred to the U of I PSAP. Also, with wireless 9-1-1 calls it can't be ensured a wireless 9-1-1 call will always (or even regularly) be answered at the PSAP that is appropriate for the location from which that 9-1-1 call is being placed. The industry's "Best Practices" always argue against the transfer of 9-1-1 calls, partly for fear of the call being dropped during the transfer, and partly due to the confusion and frustration it engenders in callers who have to ''tell their story" two or more times. As a general rule, it is the best practice to strive to have all the 9-1-1 caller's needs be able to be met in one place, by one group of 9-1-1 staff and without the need to transfer the call. Further, as a general rule, when the responses and activities of all emergency service providers in any given multi-jurisdictional area are managed and coordinated by one set of dispatchers in one place, using one CAD system, the result is a far more coordinated and efficient response environment. G=.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-5 December 2005 - ~ Sub conclusion 13: There is inconsistency in the provision of "Emergency Medical Dispatch" (EMD) services in the County. If a 9-1-1 medical emergency call is answered in Iowa City, the dispatchers there are trained in the certified provision of EMD, which can include the provision of potentially life-saving "pre-arrival instructions" to callers to enable them to perform immediately effective measures (such as clearing the airway of a not breathing baby), as well as providing triage services for the response. However, for 9-1-1 callers answered at the County's PSAP, EMD is not offered. These differences are the result of concems for staff capacity at the PSAPs to handle this extra workload, since the provision of EMD is not an act which readily lends itself to putting the caller on hold to pick up another ringing line. ~ Sub conclusion 14: The relatively "tight" staffing at the three PSAPs in three separate facilities means there are less than optimal opportunities for a wide range of opportunities for staff development and effective human resources management. Some examples of things that are not able to be accomplished, or not accomplished to a desirable level are: . In-service training . Familiarization (ride-alongs) with police, fire, and EMS units . Off-site training at seminars . Professional involvement . Away from the work station breaks from repetitive physical tasks - . This is a known causal factor for Repetitive Stress Injuries . Away from the workstation meals . This may be a violation of state labor law when not ensured ~ Sub conclusion 15: The total number of full time equivalent staff necessary to provide the dispatching specific tasks identified in the report in one merged PSAP would be less than the number currently required in the three separate PSAPs. The current PSAP total FTE is 27.5 and our recommended staffing for a merged PSAP would be 21.52 FTE, not counting any clerical support. This reduction in FTE would mean spending about $295,000 less per year (see detail on page 117) in a merged PSAP than in the three separate PSAPs; and this merged PSAP's reduced staffing complement would provide for functions and services not currently provided. Some of these are: . Executive management . Technical (systems) management . Dedicated training management . Programmed break and training time . "On the floor" 24 x 7 shift supervision ,'- G.(,.-~ Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-6 December 2005 - However, this cost savings figure does not reflect the fact any of the three current PSAP operating entities which deems it necessary to replace the departed dispatchers with "front desk" staff on a 24 x 7 basis could spend in excess of $140,000 per year on said staff. ~ Sub conclusion 16: The three PSAPs today use CAD systems and E9-1-1 PSAP telephone equipment that is either not interconnected (CAD) or not closely integrated (E9-1-1 equipment). We have seen and worked with a number of counties where all the PSAPs (as many as nine) operate off the same networked CAD system, which means each PSAP can enter CAD response events in the other PSAP's jurisdiction (ideal for entering events reported via wireless E9-1-1) and each can see what the other has going on, where, etc. Similarly, we have seen counties where all the E9-1-1 "customer premise equipment" (CPE) is networked off one central server which distributes the 9-1-1 calls to the PSAPs as well as enabling any PSAP to pick up on or assist in handling the call load of any other PSAP on the system in a manner far more user-friendly than today's Qwest "alternate routing" matrices. Added to this is the (earlier discussed) potential of all the PSAPs and their responders being on the same radio system and one can begin to see what we call "virtual consolidation of PSAPs". In other words, with three PSAP operating entities in three separate places, some of the operational advantages (but few, if any of the economic advantages) of consolidation could be realized, without having to go through a - physical consolidation. MAJOR RECOMMENDATION "C": At a minimum, Johnson County govemment agencies should implement the ''virtual PSAP consolidation" we describe above. This would entail three major steps: 1. Having all public safety response agencies on the same radio system. 2. Having all public safety dispatching on the same CAD system. 3. Having all 9-1-1 call taking handled through an integrated, server based platform. Beyond this minimum, however, we would also urge the agencies strongly consider merging the three physical operations into one Countywide PSAP, with said PSAP, its staff and systems, all under the ownership and direction of a "joint powers" type goveming board. The costs of implementing either of these recommendations are detailed in the body of the report and they can vary significantly, based on whether two or three entities were to merge, based on what size, type and location is chosen for a new facility (if any - but we think one would be required). G,~.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-7 December 2005 I COST COMPARISONS OF RADIO SYSTEM OPTIONS Action Item Unit Cost Total Cost Commentary 1: Upgrade sinale site city- ~ Replace controller $100,000 $125,000 Adds capacity and deals with only analoa system and add a ~ Add 7. channel $25,000 obsolescence of controller issue, but 7. channel does nothing for improving current or future interoperability, improvement of signal coverage for in-buildings or system security or enhancement of competitive procurement options, and does nothing for coverage into the County. 2: Above action + expand it to ~ Add prime site controller $300,000 $1,050,00 Improves in-building coverage in the a two site simulcast svstem ~ Add 20' site (Incl RF) $750,000 citV. End up w~h a system with a new COMBINATION ~1,175,Ooq trunking controller, a 7th channel (at OF # 1 and # 2 ABOVE two s~es) and analog simulcast that would better cover Iowa City and the campus, but not do much to improve coverage out in the county, and provide no gains in interoperability, system security or competitive orocurement 3: Upgrade existing analog ~ Add three new sites, $750,000 $2,250,000 Analog 800 MHz integrated "all user" system to be 4 site, 10 incl. RF equipment and system with coverage throughout the channel analoa simulcast tower structures county. Still proprietary, and still with ~ Replace main site and $1,000,000 $1,000,000 limited analog interoperability add prime site control capabilities and no digital equipment interoperability capabilities. None of ~ 4 site microwave (new) $100,000 $400,000 the city's subscriber radios were ~ Dispatch console $300,000 $300,000 replaced in this process. Equipment upgrades ~ 365 analog subscribers $1,000 ea. $365,000 TOTAL: 1$4,315,000 4: Replace entire existing 9!Y ~ Prime site equipment $730,000 Provides state-of-the-art digital, Q!}jy system with new, P25, g ~ New main tower $250,000 simulcast, full interoperability capable aile l!!9!m! 7 channel ~ 20' site and equipment $500,000 [$4,355,00~ two site. CITY ONLY coveraae and simulcast system ~ Consoles and interlace $400,000 caDacitv system with all new ~ PM and labor for above $850,000 competitively procured subscriber ~ 650 subscribers at $1,625,000 radios. $2500 5: Add 2 sites to above ~ 2 more RF equipped $325,000 $650,000 In conjunction with action #4, provides design for a 4 aile. dIaltal, sites for a true, countywide, interoperability countywide, 10 channel ~ 2 more towers/shelters $225,000 $450,000 ready, integrated P25 compliant, digital system from outset ~ 3 more rptrs. at 2 city $25,000 $150,000 700 MHz (capable) 800 MHz trunked sites radio system eligible for competitive ~ 4 site microwave $100,000 $400,000 procurement going forward. system ~ 365 subscribers at >>>>> $912,500 $2500 ~$2,562,5lXj COMBO OF 4 and 5 above S6,917,51Xi (j<l<~~?.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-8 December 2005 - Supporting Detail for Recommendations and Conclusions Status of the Current Iowa City Radio System: Beginning with the Iowa City two-way radio system, we see it is a rather mature Motorola SmartneFM 800 MHz analog, single site, trunked radio system. (For a detailed description of what a trunked radio system is, in general, and the difference between analog and digital, the reader is referred to the Appendices 4 and 5. For more in depth detail on the current Iowa City system, the reader is referred to the detailed analysis section of the report.) The current radio system was implemented in 1991 in a well intentioned effort to organize all of the City's two-way radio users on to one integrated radio system which would provide the capability of all city owned radios to communicate with each other (when required), as well as maximizing the efficient usage of a finite number of licensed two-way radio channels and associated infrastructure. In many ways, this system represents an early version of the ultimate local govemment two-way radio system many urban areas are struggling to achieve even today. Furthermore, the City not only incorporated all city government radio users on this trunked radio system, but it also reached out to the University of Iowa and invited participation in the city's trunked radio system by University radio units, on a fee per subscribed radio basis. This made lots of sense since the radio signal coverage of the City's system was designed to provide radio coverage to the land area that also includes the University campus (which was necessary since the Iowa City Fire Department, Street Department, water and sewer operations were already providing service to the campus anyway). That way, since the radio coverage was already there, it would not cost the University any money for infrastructure to use that radio signal coverage. In the end, the radio units of the U of I Department of Public Safety (police and security operations) and the Campus Bus (CamBus) service opted to subscribe to the Iowa City radio system. The specific status of and issues with the City's current radio system are as follows: ~ It is an 800 Megahertz (MHz) trunked radio system. ~ It transmits using analog modulation. ~ It is a single transmitter tower site system, with a partially equipped back-up site. ~ It has six total radio channels, with five for voice and one for control signaling. ~ It uses a technology platform dating back to the early 1990's with issues related to the availability of factory supported service and parts for major system elements. ~ It lacks direct interoperability with radios of neighboring public safety jurisdictions. ~ It is a "shared use" system, serving all agencies of city government, plus several of the University of Iowa and the Johnson County EMS service. - ,"=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-9 December 2005 - We will deal with these issues one by one, but before we do it may be helpful to set the stage for a discussion of how two-way radio technologies have changed in the past 15-20 years. The four main changes in radio system design technology since the early 1990s are: ~ The public availability of unscrambled D.O.D. Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite timing signals for coordinating the output of multiple transmitters, thereby enabling practical and reliable simulcast technologies. ~ The development and perfection of digital modulation equipment and standards. ~ The vast improvement in the processing speed and memory of the computing technologies required to support digital and simulcast systems. ~ The movement towards "IP enabled" technologies which assigns to all essential components an "Internet Protocol" (IP) like address, which vastly enables remote addressability of each component device for maintenance, individual activation and so forth. 800 MHz trunked radio: This is the current state of the art as it relates to basic technologies for two-way radio. The only "on-the-horizon" changes to this relate to the radio frequency spectrum that would be used. The current system is licensed and operates at 800 MHz because that's the only place where one could get adequate radio channels back in the early - 1990s. Soon, one will be able to also get lots of radio channels for such systems at 700 MHz, and we strongly recommend any radios purchased going forward must be functional on both 700 and 800 MHz channels, so as to take advantage of this new spectrum availability. Analoa modulation (vs. diaitall: (See the appendix for a detailed discussion of analog vs. digital): In two-way radio, as in much of the technical world, the move is definitely towards digital, as opposed to analog. However, having radio vendors agree upon standards for how they are going to do digital in two-way radio has proven to be very contentious. But it is also very important, since two-way radios exist to talk to other two-way radios, so ensuring that one radio can talk to the other radio from vendor type to vendor type is critical. Towards this end, and because the vendors themselves were not working towards a set of common standards, a large group of broadly representative users and purchasers of two-way radios at the federal, state and local governmental level formed an effort called ''APCO Project 25" or "P25'. This effort has resulted in a digital two-way radio suite of standards called the "P25 standards". And numerous (nearly all) radio vendors now offer radios that are compliant with the P25 standards. If one builds a digital radio system infrastructure that is P25 compliant, one can now expect to enjoy competitive pricing and procurement from several makers of end user radio equipment, and all of those radios can talk to each other in a digital mode on said infrastructure. - G~, Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-10 December 2005 - IMPORTANT NOTE: One of the major hurdles in 700 and 800 MHz trunked radio system procurement for P25 compliant systems has been the fact only three vendors were making end user subscriber equipment, while only one was making infrastructure equipment. The one selling infrastructure equipment was Motorola. The three end-user radio manufacturers were Motorola, E.F. Johnson and Kenwood (portable radios only). Recently, however, (and we have confirmed this at highly trustworthy levels) Motorola's chief competitor in major systems (MIA-Com) has rolled out their P25 compliant and compatible end user (no infrastructure yet) radios that will work in a digital trunked mode on a Motorola P25 800 MHz trunked radio system. This development has been eagerly awaited for over ten years. Having said this about digital, are there any reasons why digital modulation is better than analog modulation? Yes, several: (See the appendix for more detail): ~ With digital, one gets vastly improved radio signal aualitv within the defined coverage area of a given system. . The coverage area does not necessarily increase, but the degree to which the receivable signal sounds good within that coverage area is much greater. ~ With digital one has an inherently more secure system, in that the only radios that can intercept or eavesdrop on what is being said are those higher end radios that are digital with the same digital decoding scheme. - . The "P25" digital encoding scheme is, however, now a "public domain" standard, meaning that commercial radio scanner manufacturers are now making scanners that can receive "P25" trunked transmissions. However, they are quite expensive (compared to old analog scanners) and rather complicated to program, so their adoption by casual scanner users has been relatively minimal. ~ By requiring P25 standards compliant radios in a competitive procurement process, one will likely get competition and lower prices for the digital subscriber radios. . With the caveat that virtually any digital radio, regardless of how competitively it may be priced in a bid, will likely cost more than the analog radio it is replacing. ~ With P25 compliant digital radios, one paves the way for direct participation in other agencies P25 digital radio systems on a local, regional, statewide, or multi-state basis. ~ With digital, one has the potential of being able to transmit over the radio channel a wide variety of data, concurrent with voice, the potential of which is just now being imagined. For example, in the public safety services, it will likely be possible to have walkie-talkies that can not only ID which radio it is (that can be done now in analog), but also transmit info such as locations, elevation, status, telemetry, and other relevant data over the "same pipe" concurrent with voice. . A good example of this is the "fireground" system Motorola is offering on their XTS 5000 P25 digital portable radios. This system will be the platform for future - developments that will enable ''fire fighter down" location technologies and alarming on fire scenes, along with many more yet to be developed features. G,~.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-11 December 2005 -- Sinole site svstem with a partial back-uo site: Using radio system design concepts appropriate for the day, the current radio system relies on one transmission/receive tower site (at a time) hearing all inbound radio traffic and transmitting out all outbound radio traffic. Under this sort of design, the best location for the one primary tower is usually that place where the signal will best cover the target coverage area for the system's users (within the parameters of where one can actually build a tower and/or where a tower one can access might already exist). In the Iowa City case, the one main site is somewhat northeast of downtown, and the other is somewhat northwest (see the current tower location map in the section of the main report with radio signal propagation prediction maps). Neither appears to be particularly centrally located, but may have elevation in their favor. An important issue is if and when one considers going to a multi-site system where two or more towers are transmitting simultaneouslv, the place where the current single site system's one tower is located may not (and probably would not) be the best place for one of two towers in a two site simulcast system. This means when considering a second site for such a system, one needs to imagine the first site should also probably be relocated to maximize the coverage density and take the greatest advantage of simulcast and its inherent in-building coverage enhancements. Simply put, one goes to a multi site system and employs simulcast so as to attempt to pound radio -- signal energy from more than one origination point into hard to penetrate buildings, depressions, etc. Therefore the design objective is to augment the coverage provided by one site with that of another site. Six channel svstems with five channels for voice and one for control sionalino: (See Appendix 4 for a more in depth explanation of the concept of shared channel usage in a trunked radio system). The current system is licensed for a seventh channel but it has yet to be purchased and installed. Currently there are reports of relatively frequent "channel busy" conditions on the system, most likely resulting from high activity levels during football Saturdays and from the rather "chatty" CamBus operation. Addition of the seventh channel to the current system is not technically prohibited and should be pursued if the decision is made to retain the current system's basic infrastructure. In fact, failure to "build out" to the seventh channel will jeopardize the city's FCC license on that seventh channel if it is not deployed fairly soon. An aoino technoloov olatform: In the detailed analysis section of this report, we discuss at length the near obsolescence of the current system's main control computer. Without this control computer, the system cannot perform in a trunked mode. As a part of a typical industry strategy with high tech components, Motorola will not support the current control computer much longer. A replacement controller (which is eligible for factory support and maintenance) is available, but it costs about $100,000. Importantly, if one replaces this controller with the newer (but still analog) controller, one will have paid for a more current version of a less than state-of-the-art system. - G~~ll Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-12 December 2005 - Another part of the technology platform is the "subscriber" radios. These are the several hundred vehicle mounted and hand held voice radios that use the system. The current radios are mostly analog capable only, with a few in the fire department being also digital capable. All subscriber radios eventually wear out or break and require replacement. When replaced, analog replacements cost several hundreds to the low thousand dollar range, while digital radios start out in the mid thousand dollar range and go up to $3,000 to $4,000 each, depending on the feature set and accessories, despite these prices, however, most system implementers today are choosing to implement digital, especially in public safety. Lack of direct "interoperabilitv" with radios/svstems of other public safetv iurisdictions: Interoperability in public safety radio systems is currently very high priority issue. The degree to which a system will or will not be "interoperable" can have a lot to do with the potential of getting federal or state funds for such a system. The current subscriber radios are capable of, but have not been programmed for accessing the five available 800 MHz "interoperability" radio channels in a non-trunked mode, and they should be. However, they are not capable of being programmed for access to the soon to be available 700 MHz interoperability channels, most of which are also going to be 100 percent digital. Additionally, the current subscriber radios are not capable of being programmed to access trunked radio talk groups on either existing digital trunked radio systems (such as that operated by Cedar Rapids), or on proposed or planned digital trunked radio systems such as the proposed Iowa State Interoperable Radio System (I-SIRS) or the existing shared systems in neighboring Illinois (statewide, called StarCom 21); Nebraska (the shared Omaha/Douglas County/Omaha Public Power and soon-to-be Washington County, Nebraska /Pottawattamie County, Iowa system); the Woodbury County/Sioux City/Union County South Dakota and Dakota County Nebraska system; or the now growing to statewide Minnesota "ARMER" system. The issue of interoperability is also inextricably related to the issue of compliance to the P25 industry standards for digital radio. These standards are still evolving, but it is our opinion any radios the City would purchase going forward should be digital and P25 capable, standards conforming radios, with explicit requirements the selling vendor must agree to implement any P25 related standards currently under development. o ' - ~n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-13 December 2005 - WHAT'S SO IMPORTANT ABOUT INTEROPERABILlTV? One could rightfully ask why it is so important to have the Iowa City (and/or any other local govemment agency) radios be able to talk on and through the radio system infrastructures of such far-flung places as Illinois, Minnesota and other distant (and some not so distant) places in Iowa, and vice-versa. Recent and unfortunate history has provided a salient answer to that question. Specifically, the response to Hurricane Katrina in the greater New Orleans and Mississippi gulf coast areas showed how it can be that police cars (and portable radio equipped officers) and fire trucks (with portable radio equipped fire fighters) and ambulances (with portable radio equipped paramedics) from far distant (by several thousand miles) cities, counties, and states may be needed to assist with the response to and management of a major disaster. It could be natural such as Katrina, or terrorist based such as Oklahoma City's bombing or other imaginable scenarios that could affect a major college town with scheduled massive gatherings. And those radios coming from afar need to be able to do more than talk a few blocks between themselves. They need to be able to be a part of the command and control network that is so necessary for effective resource deployment and information exchange to support correct decision-making. Furthermore, most of today's public safety and general government radios will not even be able to talk to radios from their same agency once they leave their home town, because they are away from the infrastructure they are uniquely programmed to talk throuoh. This is why a community needs an "interoperable" radio system that will permit emergency service "visitors" to talk into and through their local system, as well as be made up of local radios that have a decent chance of being able to talk if they need to be taken elsewhere. Shared usaoe of the svstem: Earlier we mentioned the participation of the U of I on the City's trunked radio system. Interestingly, this model where one entity (the City) paid for the infrastructure (radio towers, antennas, base radio stations, etc.) to serve itself as well as other entity pay-per-subscriber-radio users is very similar to a commercial model that also exists throughout Iowa. In this commercial model, a private company builds as many radio towers as necessary to provide the required level of radio signal coverage, and then installs base radio stations (each of which is one radio channel) at these towers (as required) to provide the level of capacity their customers need. In both of the non-profit, public, and for-profit, private models, the concept is one entity builds and pays for the always expensive fixed radio system infrastructure, and then attempts to either recover or defray some of their costs by charging access fees to end user radios (called 'subscribers' in this model) on a per radio basis. In the commercial model, the fee would be structured to (hopefully) cover all fixed costs, plus yield some profit for the owner/investor. Clearly, in this model, the motive to at least not lose money would encourage the private investor to not spend more money than is necessary to meet his customer's basic requirements. In such a system, this translates into decisions made regarding how many towers, and how many base radio stations at those towers. Each tower costs several hundred thousand dollars, and the addition of one base radio at a tower can cost several tens of thousands of dollars. - ~m Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-14 December 2005 .- Consequently, the challenge is for the system owner (in both models) to install only as many towers as will "just do the job", and only as many base radios as will "just handle" the predicted traffic, so as to keep their initial investment to a minimum, while maximizing their potential for revenue from subscriber radio user fees. This situation has been known to create certain tensions between the system manager/owner, and the subscriber radio users, especially public safety subscribers. For example, in the commercial model, if the user community is not satisfied with the signal coverage (Example: their walkie-talkie will not work inside their office), that user would like the system owner to either move one of the system's towers to be closer to the user's office (which might result in reduced coverage someplace else that user cares about), or add another tower near the user's office. Similarly, a user may have complaints about capacity access to the system and may want the owner to add one or more channels to some or all of the system's tower sites. In both cases, if the system owner agrees (either by choice or contractual requirement) the system owner will incur a cost. Whether or not said cost can be recovered in higher user fees is a function of the nature of the contract for each user, and how many fee paying users there are. As it relates to public safety access to such commercial subscriber systems, a challenge is often perceived and realized in the issue of access to channels during peak activity periods. - In some cases, public safety users have experienced unacceptable contention with private users of these shared trunked system channels, especially during periods when both the public safety agencies and their private system partners (like utility companies) are both very busy, as in the aftermath of a high wind storm. In some of these cases the public safety users have spent their own money to add base radio stations (meaning channels) under their own proprietary license to ensure them uncontested access to these channels. In other cases, the public entity subscriber has opted to leave the commercial model and build and operate their own trunked radio system. In Iowa, two such commercial models have been observed. One is a generally "statewide" system operated by Racom, to which such entities as the Blackhawk County Sheriff, Waterloo Police Department, Scott County Sheriff, Polk County Sheriff and (soon to end) Sioux City Police Department have been subscribers. This Racom system is of a somewhat older technology developed by General Electric and subsequently sold to a series of large corporate take-over companies. The current owner of the technology in use (called EDACS, for Enhanced Digital Access and Control System) is MIA-Com, a division of Tyco Electronics. Racom owns this technical platform (a MIA-Com dealer located in Marshalltown, Iowa). The other such provider is a Racom competitor by the name of Electronic Engineering (EE), with offices throughout the state, and they have a somewhat smaller Motorola Smartnet 800 MHz trunked radio system (pretty much like the Iowa City owned system) serving a number of counties in Iowa. One of the subscribers to the "EE" system is Story County, the City of Ames, and Iowa State University in Ames. G.~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-15 December 2005 - It is our view these commercial shared access systems were portending the future for state and local govemment when they came on the scene in the late 1980s. Simply put, the commercial operators had grasped the concept that many users, both emergency services and non-emergency and private services/users could share access to a common radio system infrastructure. It would take a number of years for state and local govemments to realize this opportunity in a large scale. Iowa City realized it very early in the developmental process, and now others are warming to the idea, with the significant modification that the systems being proposed and implemented elsewhere are all public sector owned and populated. We think Iowa City should stay with the model that has worked well for over a decade and continue to participate in a public shared access trunked radio system. If there is no consolidation of dispatch centers, or if there is no move to expand the radio system to serve all county agencies as well (regardless of whether there is dispatch center consolidation), it is logical the City would continue to own, maintain and be responsible for upgrades to or replacement of all or parts of the current system. However, if there is some merger of dispatch and/or the decision for reasons of interoperability, all county agencies should at least be on the same radio system, then the ownership of the current system, and the financial responsibilities that accompany needs to be addressed. Status of Public Safetv Dispatchina service and its oraanization in Johnson Countv In Johnson County (as in many counties in the U.S.) there are several places and agencies involved in the receipt of emergency phone calls and the radio dispatching of appropriate law enforcement, fire/rescue services and/or emergency medical services, as well as providing communications and informational support for field public safety personnel. Since the implementation of 9-1-1 services began in the late 1960's, there has been a gradual move towards examining the potential "consolidation" of these services in many counties. And, while it is nowhere near a universal trend, it has been GeoComm's recent experience that local government funding problems, as well as an increased awareness of the need for well-coordinated and inter-operable emergency services have increased the pace at which these consolidation options are being pursued, with some (but nowhere near all) moving towards implementation. In Johnson County, dispatch services are provided by: ~ The Johnson County Sheriff's Department for all communities and law enforcement, fire and EMS agencies except for those mentioned below. This service is provided out of their Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) facility located in the jail building at 511 South Capitol Street in Iowa City, located about 950 feet from the U of I police dispatch center and 2,500 feet from the Iowa City PSAP. There is a total staff complement of 10.5 full time equivalencies (FTE) and an annual budget of $534,702. - G~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-16 December 2005 - . There is a slight modification to this operation as it relates to the Coralville Police Department. CPO does staff a front desk during business hours that answers seven-digit calls (presumably non-emergency) and does radio dispatch these calls to the CPD officers. After hours, callers to the CPD seven-digit number are referred to the sheriff's PSAP for a response or told to call back the next day. ~ The Iowa City Police Department provides all communications and dispatch services for itself, the Iowa City Fire Department and the City of University Heights and its police department. It also radio dispatches the Johnson County EMS agency and Iowa City Fire Department to events within the City and on the U of I campus. It also provides 9-1-1 call answering and transfer for the U of I police and security service. These services are provided out of the Police Department facility in City Hall at 410 East Washington Street, located about 2,300 feet from the U of I police dispatch center, and 2,500 feet from the sheriff's PSAP. The total staff complement is 11.0 FTE and an annual budget of $790,256. ~ The University of Iowa Police/Security service handles its own radio dispatching, answers 9-1-1 calls transferred to it from the Iowa City Police Department, answers calls dialed directly to them on their intemal seven-digit number, and provides it own communications support using the Iowa City trunked radio system. There is a total staff of 6.0 FTE and an estimated annual budget of $270,000. It is important to note that portions of the U of I's policing jurisdiction fall within Iowa City and Coralville, along with other areas of the County. Under the current incompatible radio systems, this further complicates .- lack of interoperability. The grand total annual operating cost for these three PSAPs is $1,594,958. The issue of wireless 9-1-1 calls presents an important overall consideration in how and where 9-1-1 calls are answered in the County. It is important to understand unlike 9-1-1 calls from wired ohones, it is not easy to ensure a wireless 9-1-1 call will always ring into the PSAP that is most appropriate for the location from where the call is being placed, or the location of the incident being reported. - c~.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-17 December 2005 - .- I I , I The more PSAPs there are serving a fairly small geographic area (such as the Iowa city V limits, the Coralville city limits, the University Heights city limits, and the U of I campus) the greater the chances are a wireless 9-1-1 call will get routed to the "wrong" PSAP and a delay and potential loss of the call will occur. Map showing relative locations of the three Johnson County 9-1-1 PSAPs in IA City: fl . ..-- 'I I II I ~ II I. ,1_a'TPDPSItP.4JOIC m-~ ,..;<- I . --' ~'--I 1'>::', I I .. -. - ..-' , ~l!.. . I!' . ~ . -,"-. I I :~r- -~~~ ::=-.I(=:' --r I '~-' ,-!.d:: .__._ ,~,_I , U..IPS1tP.118SI6~_.n _ ',lil ~, ._ EI\alIIlJltftIl, .' ~IT J", ;;'~=~,I _ i I II - [-~L~rf- I L , ~ ~'"'~-'-r=L 10 ~_ II I [ .I 1 \" .....J=". I I J II f '~j---I i,' I -- ,I zs I: .' .-."- _Im_'"~' L~,,-..~ ,:,1 JI I II I - .t_-"" iL I While there is significant replication (and some duplication) in some services provided by these three PSAPs, there are also significant services provided by the PSAP staff as a function of being housed in their own agency's HQ facility. Most of these services relate to providing 24 hour a day access for ''walk-in'' traffic. · Importantly, it is believed by the Iowa City Police staff that if their dispatchers were to move elsewhere (out of the building) as a part of a dispatch center consolidation, replacement staff (one person) would need to be deployed 24 x 7 to handle this walk-in traffic in the absence of their dispatchers. Similarly, some "counter staff' may also be needed, but perhaps on a less than 24 x 7 basis at the sheriff's department and the U of I police. To the extent that money was to be spent filling these "counter staff" positions, these expenditures would reduce any savings we have projected for the consolidated PSAP. '-" ~.... Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-18 ., December 2005 - As established earlier, the U of I police and security services operate as subscribers on the Iowa City 800 MHz trunked radio system. However, the sheriff's department and the agencies it dispatches for do not. Rather, they all operate on a Very High Frequency (VHF) radio system in the 150 MHz range, which is extremely common for county and rural agencies throughout the U.S. The radio systems used by the sheriff and the agencies they dispatch are not trunked, they are analog, and the fact they are at 150 MHz and the Iowa City system is at 800 MHz, means radios on the two systems cannot electronically talk directlv to each other. There is a "patch" capability provided in the Iowa City radio console system, but will only "patch together" City radios and County radios if and when the Citv radio is within the coveraoe area of the Citv's radio svstem. If a city radio leaves the general area of Iowa City, it can't talk to any other radios as currently configured. The County's owned radio system, as well as the individual radios owned by a number of non-County agencies dispatched by the sheriff are subject to a recent FCC mandate which requires all VHF and UHF (450 MHz, of which the County has several as well) radio frequencies be "narrow-banded" by 2013 to 2018, at the latest. This could entail replacing a very large portion of the equipment owned by these agencies, an inventory of which is not available since they are not all owned by the County. This potential raises the real ouestion of whether this miQht be a oood time to consider mioratino the Countv's radio operations over to an expanded Iowa Citv 800 MHz trunked svstem. All three PSAPs use some form of Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), with the sheriff's office - migrating to an all-new CAD system before the end of 2005. The three CAD systems, while similar in concept, come from different vendors and are not directly compatible with each other. If there is to be a merger of the PSAPs, either the Iowa City or new sheriff's CAD system would be candidates to carry this work, or a new system specifically selected for its multi-jurisdictional capabilities could be obtained. The Iowa City Police Department, the University Heights Police Department, and the Coralville Police Department (dispatched by the sheriff) operate Mobile Data Computers (MDCs) in their patrol units, which have the ability to off-load considerable data query activity and some dispatch related radio traffic from the dispatchers. These MDCs currently operate on subscriber fee based service through the RaCom 800 MHz network serving the general Iowa City area. - ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 2-19 December 2005 3 - ~ Section 3 Detailed Information on the Current Emergency Communications Environment GeoComm was retained by the City (acting also on behalf of Johnson County) for the purposes of exploring options related to Iowa City's mature 800 MHz trunked radio system as well as to examine 9-1-1 call answering and emergency communications dispatching services operated by the Johnson County Sheriff's Department, the Iowa City Police Department, and the University of Iowa (U of I) Department of Public Safety (DPS) and to assess the feasibility and viability of consolidating some or all of these 9-1-1 call taking and dispatching services as provided today by these three-plus entities, into something fewer than three-plus entities. We say "three-plus" because during weekday business hours, the Coralville Police Department answers their own "seven-digit non-emergency phone line" and does their own dispatching, except for cases of 9-1-1 calls which are dispatched by the sheriff's PSAP, and all of the 9-1-1 calls dialed from the U of I campus are answered at the Iowa City Police Department PSAP, then some are transferred to the U of I Police for response, while others are dispatched to fire and EMS directly by the ICPD. At the outset it is important to establish several base-line matters: - 1. The audience of this report is intended to include a number of "lay" persons not necessarily familiar with all the esoteric "nuts and bolts" of public safety dispatching, 9-1-1, and related matters. The logic behind this approach is in all cases, at least one of the decision-making bodies in the process of determining whether or not anything should come from this study and its recommendations will be a body such as a City Council or a County Board. For this reason, the report tries to explain the sometimes-esoteric concepts in a manner that will facilitate understanding by non-daily practitioners. 2. Making decisions regarding sometimes esoteric and often complex technologies and technology driven governmental processes often involves the desire to develop an understanding of the historical context of a given process or governmental service. It also may involve the desire to understand some of the philosophical and technical underpinnings of a govemmental process or system. Unfortunately, spending the requisite time and space in a report such as this on such matters can cause for a very long report. For that reason, and in consideration of those not desiring such a detailed understanding, we have chosen to limit contextual and technical discussion in the body of the report and, rather, include fairly lengthy sections in the Appendices that cover these issues in greater detail. Where we have done this, we have referenced the appropriate Appendix section so the reader desiring more detail can readily reference it. 3. There are (at least) two different types of "9-1-1 agencies" referenced in this report. In the common parlance of the "9-1-1 Industry" we are talking about PRIMARY and SECONDARY PSAPs. - G,~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-1 December 2005 - A PRIMARY PSAP is the place where all 9-1-1 calls dialed from a given geopolitical area are initially answered. For example, within the City limits of Iowa City, the Primary PSAP is the Iowa City Police dispatch center. A SECONDARY PSAP is a place to which a Primary PSAP transfers 9-1-1 calls (with or without their attendant E9-1-1 caller location data) for subsequent or more specific nature of event handling/dispatching. It is important to understand to have or not have a Secondary PSAP for such purposes as fire-rescue dispatch or EMS dispatch is 100 percent an administrative- organizational optional decision. In many entities (some of which are far larger than any in Johnson County), they perform all 9-1-1 call answering and dispatching activity inside one PSAP under one administrative structure. In other communities they have chosen to operate Secondary PSAPs. In other words, it is not a requirement at some size or activity level to use or not use the Secondary PSAP model. More often, it has resulted from a combination (in varying degrees) of finances, small "p" politics, bargaining unit strength (or weakness) and "service culture" differences between the police, fire, and EMS services. General Observations 1. In our rather wide experience base in entities of a population and situation similar to those served by The Agencies, we must say we were significantly impressed with several of the forward looking shared infrastructure improvements that have already been instituted. We speak of both the shared and closely coordinated E9-1-1 telephone system and its administration, as well as the participation in the shared 800 MHz trunked radio system by the Iowa City local government entities (police, fire, public works, etc.) as well as some operations of the University (Public Safety and Campus Bus-CAMBUS particularly). (See Appendix 4 for a discussion of "trunked radio" and how it differs from "conventional" or non-trunked radio systems.) We commend the City on striving for a shared communications infrastructure, accessible by all municipal and campus public safety responders in the City. Many jurisdictions we are working with elsewhere are struggling mightily to get to this outcome, which Iowa City has already achieved. 2. The Iowa City radio trunked system is nearing the end of its useful life and has some current capacity limitations and coverage deficiencies. 3. The U of I/DPS dispatch center is not a full E9-1-1 initial PSAP, because it is not directlv connected to the Qwest Enhanced 9-1-1 network serving Johnson County and much of the rest of the State of Iowa. This has some implications relating to the capabilities of their PSAP that are covered in more detail later. 4. There are generally too few dispatchers on duty at the two Primary PSAPs (City Police Department and County Sheriff) to handle even a modest surge of 9-1-1 calls, not to mention the flood (in unpredictable spikes) of such calls that are inclined to arrive as wireless E9-1-1 services are implemented and expanded. In fact, inadequate staffing at the sheriff's PSAP renders it not possible for them to engage in the provision of - Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) services, so common elsewhere (and provided for the City by the ICPD). G,<;;t,/,,, Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-2 December 2005 - 5. The radio communications systems and ancillary equipment in place at the facilities are adequate and functional, but lack interoDerabilitv between them. In other words, an Iowa City police or fire radio cannot communicate effectively with a sheriff's or Coralville Police Department or Fire Department radio. Operational capacity of the City's trunked radio system pose problems at times of peak usage (such as football Saturdays), but are correctable by either adding channels to the system's infrastructure or imposing much stricter discipline on the system users (especially CamBus). Active supervision is often not present in the PSAPs. And, while the PSAP workspaces are occasionally cluttered and crowded, they are generally on par with what we have observed throughout the industry. 6. The consolidating of these PSAPs into one is at the low end of the scale of situations in which sianificant cost savings can be realized. The reasons for this are several and are discussed in the body of the report. Simply put, there is not quite enough "scale" in the county to achieve major economies of scale. Additionally, if the City, University, and/or the County were to choose to replace the dispatch personnel who would no longer be in their respective facilities with other personnel to handle "walk-in" and front-counter traffic that would be a new set of costs that would take away from potential savings resulting from a PSAP merger. However, as is almost always the case, significant improvements in the coordination of public safety responses (and, thus, their potential effectiveness) is readily achievable via PSAP consolidation. - - c~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-3 December 2005 - The following sections will provide narrative details with commentary on the public safety/local govemment emergency communications systems in place in the County today. Before we get into the detail on each system, however, this is an appropriate place to offer some general commentary on the "State of general public safety communications in Johnson County today", In general, it has been our observation the PSAPs (dispatch centers) are relatively orderly, well equipped, and served by good core equipment and services through the good work of the individual agencies, their radio shops service suppliers and the 9-1-1 Joint Services Board. Our specific observations are: ~ The fairly wide spread participation in the Iowa City 800 Megahertz (MHz) trunked radio system is a real plus and provides a great deal of communications interoperability and service to the user agencies at a relatively low cost. Many cities in the US would be envious of such a system, especially those with large college campuses. Importantly, however, the current radio system user agencies do not include agencies of County government or the City of Coralville, thereby resulting in a less than desirable level of communications interoperability between city/campus agencies and county/county- served agencies. ~ The fact neither the City's 800 MHz trunked radio system nor the County's conventional VHF (150 MHz) radio system serves all of the public safety agencies in the county is a - significant hurdle that is often present in counties, and in any PSAP consolidation study. Simply put, when one must also consider the equipment compatibility, costs, coverage, capacity, and FCC licensing issues associated with having to put in a full capacity county- wide radio system where none exists today, this can often be a major show-stopper. Importantly, technically it would be feasible to merge the dispatch centers and have one or more dispatcher positions where the dispatchers could access the two otherwise incompatible radio systems, and handle both the sheriff's radio system and the City's trunked radio system concurrently from the same console, but we do not recommend this aooroach. We believe all the law enforcement agencies that are dispatched from a consolidated PSAP should be on the same radio system. Not necessarily the same radio channel (or trunked system talk group), but the same system. It is only through this configuration that one can take advantage of the opportunity to increase and/or decrease the number of dispatcher consoles staffed at anyone time on the law enforcement side in response to widely varying police activity levels by time or day and day of week. In other words, if in a consolidated dispatch center one was to have one ICPD dispatch position on the ICPD trunked system, two JCSO dispatch positions, both on the JCSO police and fire radio systems, and one ICPD dispatch position operating on the ICFD trunked talkgroup, that would be the same number of dispatch positions as are staffed today at the two un-consolidated PSAPs, thereby meaning no staff savings or workload sharing. - G~~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-4 December 2005 - ~ The Enhanced 9-1-1 telephone network and equipment installed by the 9-1-1 Joint Services Board for the agencies is, while somewhat older than, similar to that found throughout the USA. Based on what is known today for the planned implementation of both Phase 1 and Phase 2 wireless E9-1-1, it should not be necessary to replace any of the Motorola CentraLink E9-1-1 PSAP equipment to be able to answer and process voice from these calls with appropriate Phase 1 and 2 text and data being available with the wireless E9-1-1 call. However, new such systems are far more feature rich and space economical and are highly recommended. We have also been advised a competent GIS mapping system is about to be installed on which the location of (at least) wireless 9-1-1 calls will be able to be plotted as they are answered, and probably wired 9-1-1 calls, as well. ~ There is not a good radio back-up network or capability in place between the 9-1-1 PSAPs today that would enable each to access relevant radio channels and/or trunked system talk groups from each other's agencies so one 9-1-1 PSAP could serve as an altemate PSAP or back-up to another agency. This is relevant due to the inherent "altemate call routing" capabilities of the Enhanced 9-1-1 network and the ability to cause for 9-1-1 calls that would normally go, for example, to the JCSO PSAP, to be routed to the ICPD PSAP (for example), when required. ~ All the dispatch centers in the County are distinctly law enforcement operations. This means they are operated by, housed within, managed, staffed, funded, and supervised by - the respective Sheriff/Police Departments in which they operate. In some cases we have studied, this has created an environment where the fire and EMS agencies in the County/City may feel "they are dispatched Qy the police" without any formal avenue for input, procedural or staffing decisions, or personnel reviews. However, due to the implementation of a formal "Fire Department Dispatch Liaison" in Iowa City, these are apparently not an issue in Iowa City. In the report, we offer our recommendations as to improving on this situation via the institution of "Primary Fire Dispatchers" in a merged PSAP facility. Having set forth our very generalized observations of the "state of the art" in the PSAPs in the County, we will now explore each of the operating PSAP entities. Radio Svstems in aeneral: Any analysis and inventory of the existing radio systems must, by necessity, be somewhat technical in nature. Some readers may require a "two-way radio primer" to form a foundation for understanding the current environment and suggested modifications to it. To that end, in AppendiX 5, we have provided such a primer and the readers are referred there, if needed. Review of Iowa City's 800 MHz Trunked Radio System Most public safety, state and local govemment agencies in the USA own and operate their own radio system equipment. This is done for many reasons, but most importantly: - a) Direct control of the use, operation and maintenance of the equipment G,~.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-5 December 2005 "- b) Known, finite capital costs associated with the purchase, use and maintenance of the equipment c) Simplifies the purchase of equipment that will meet public safety "standards", as well as interoperability needs However, item "b" above can be a two-sided issue, because the costs associated with the purchase and installation of a public safety communications network can be substantial. In adi::lition, the life expectancy of this communications equipment is typically ten to 15 years, and often requires wholesale replacement within this time frame, to include the mobile and portable radio equipment as well. Some agencies in Iowa have gained access to the relatively higher-tech 800 MHz trunked radio systems in an interesting and relatively rare (at least for the USA) fashion. Over the past ten to 15 years, at least two private radio service providing companies (RACOM and Electronic Engineering) constructed their own 800 MHz trunked systems to provide radio communications coverage throughout parts of Iowa to a variety of radio customers, including commercial, industrial, farming, and public safety agencies. Back in the early 1990's, some public safety agencies were at a point where major upgrades and/or replacement of their radio system equipment was needed and a major expense was associated with that action. At that time they entered into discussions with E-E and/or RACOM about the use of the 800 MHz systems for public safety operations, to determine if their public safety needs could be met. - They decided that the E-E or RACOM systems could provide the needed level of communications coverage throughout their geographical service areas, as well as the required "channel capacity", in conjunction with appropriate monthly pricing, and the implementation was pursued. This action allowed these agencies to effectively upgrade or "replace" their existing primary VHF systems without the significant capital expense associated with building their own infrastructure network. In the end, such "subscribing agencies" pay to purchase the mobile and portable radios and their radio dispatcher control consoles, and then pays a negotiated fee per radio, per month for subscription access to the system. We have seen these fees from as low as less than ten dollars per radio per month for a relatively old, non-sophisticated, analog trunked radio system with a fairly small coverage area to as high as $54 per radio per month for access to a state-of-the-art digital, statewide trunked radio system. In all cases, the "subscriber systems" to which we have been referring have been 800 MHz trunked radio systems. This is not to say that 800 MHz trunked radio systems are any better than trunked radio systems that could operate in VHF at 150 MHz or UHF at 460 MHz. In reality, they are not quite as good due to the less effective long-range signal propagation at 800 MHz than at 460 or 150 MHz. - "=,, Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-6 December 2005 - However, virtually all public safety trunked systems today are at 800 MHz, merely because that is the only place on the radio spectrum where the FCC has set aside adequate and properly spaced radio channels for the construction and licensing of trunked radio systems. Soon such systems will also be coming on line at 700 MHz, and once the FCC completes its mandatory "narrow banding" process for all radio systems licensed below 512 MHz (by about 2014), some frequency resources at 150 and 460 MHz should become available and one could expect to see some VHF and UHF trunked systems as well. Currently, the State of South Dakota is one of the very few users of VHF trunking, and the only reason they could do it was there had been very few VHF channels assigned there, as most of their users were using very out-dated low band (39-45 MHz) systems dating back to the 1950's. From the RACOM web site we are reproducing their "customer sampling" list on the following page. - - G=n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3:7 December 2005 - RACOM System Customer Sampling (Source: www.racom.com) Business and Industrv Utilitv . John Deere Utilicorp Siemens Mid Dakota Rural Water Village West Resort Mid American Energy AAA Travel of Nebraska Central Iowa Rural Water IBP,lnc. Interstate Telecom Pella Corporation Consumers Ener9Y Plizer GTE Pepsi Cola Bottling Co Northern Natural Gas Farmers Co-op Qwest Communications Peterson Contractors (PCI) Gethman Construction Peoples Natural Gas Public Service o Lincoln, Nebraska o Health Alert Network - All Iowa Hospitals o United States Coast Guard o Public Health - all Iowa counties o Dept. of Natural Resources o Polk County, Iowa o Marshall County, Iowa o Sioux City, Iowa o Federal Aviation Administration o US Army Corp of Engineers [] Worthington, Minnesota o lIIini Hospital D US Army Reserves u Blackhawk CountylWaterloo o Davenport, Iowa D Bettendorf, Iowa D Norfolk, NE - II Nobles Co. Hwy Dept, MN D Iowa City, Iowa D Dubuque, Iowa o Illinois Dept of Transportation D Fort Dodge Correctional Fac. D Lucas County, Iowa c Moline, Illinois o Polk County Public Works o East Moline, Illinois D Grundy County, Iowa o Scott County, Iowa [J Coralville, Iowa D US Dept. of Transportation [J Cheyenne County, NE c Buchanan County, Iowa o Div of Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms (A TF) oLEIN - Law Enforcement Intelligent Network Note: The Iowa City and Coralville customers above refer to the participation on the RACOM system by the IC~D and CVPD for their mobile data computer network, not the RACOM voice system. Another important issue with such shared commercial/governmental trunked radio systerT!s has been the question of "exclusive access" or, at least, "priority access" to the radio channels which provide the system capacity. This issue arises from the concept of bo.h commercial users (such as utility crews after a storm) and public safety users (such as fite and police responders) both needing increased access to channel resources at about tHe same time (such as a tornado immediate aftermath) on a system that has finite chann~1 resources. If all users are accessing the same pool of radio channels on the same priority - basis at the same time, it is logical then contention might occur and some of the user's might be denied a channel grant for their important communication. i G.~n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3~8 December 2005 - Of course, if a radio system were owned by and dedicated to serving a given public safe~ community, the only contention that could arise would be from within that public safe community itself, which is theoretically controllable via administrate controls, dispatchElr intervention ("all units on all channels, clear the air") and/or electronic priorities assignable vi~ subscriber radio and/or talkgroups. In some places, the public safety users of such sharep public safety/commercial trunked systems have insisted the system operator set up anl:l dedicate a certain number of channels and base radios to their exclusive public safety usag~. When this is done, the locality often licenses their own channels and buys repeaters for therjl and has them installed in the commercial provider's network. Of course, this goes a long wa~ towards solving the contention with commercial users problem, but it also tends to increase costs and begins to negate the purported cost saving advantages of accessing a system shared with commercial users. Logically, if a public safety user insists they be grantep exclusive access to all the channels they use to talk on, and agrees to pay for exclusivity, they get pretty close to having their own trunked radio system, and all its costs, without the ultimate control over that system. It is for reasons such as the above; some subscribers to these systems have decided tp move away from this choice and implement their own proprietary trunked radio systems, suc~ as Sioux City is now doing by implementing their own new P25 compliant, digital trunkep radio system for themselves, Woodbury County and two neighboring countie$. Pottawattamie County and Council Bluffs are also going to be migrating their operations ov~r to the shared Douglas County/Washington County Nebraska and Nebraska Public Power - P25 trunked system serving the multi-county metro Omaha area. Another area of interest (and possible concem) regarding such commercial subscriber bas~ systems is their ability or willingness going forward to maintain Iicensability for and/or licenses for channels used in their systems. For example, we have learned that RACOM has sold a number of their several dozen 800 MHz radio licenses to Nextel, and Nextel has re-Iicens~d them in Nextel's name, but has apparently then leased access back to RACOM for tho~e channels. That means the users of the RACOM system who are accessing those specific channels are doing it under some contractual (and non-public) financial arrangement between RACOM and Nextel, the duration of which is not known. Also, we do know the soon-to-be-available 700 MHz spectrum is set aside for exclusive public safety use, and will not be available for licensing by commercial entities. Simply put, for such shared access/public-private trunked systems to be viable alternatives, they must have reliably available and licensable radio channels to deploy. Absent said channels, the public safety subscriber agencies would have to qualify for and bring their own channels for their exclusive use, and may for exclusive access to those channels ov,r exclusive repeaters, which all gets pretty close to the public entity owning its own system. It is GeoComm's opinion trunked system technology can and should be leveraged to its greatest practical extent by involving as many like-minded public entities as possible in tHe shared access, use and management of wide and wider area trunked radio systems. - G,%/n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3~9 December 2005 - It seems as if these earlier "commercial models" of this concept recognized this potenti~1 advantage ahead of local and state governments recognizing it, but there are now numerous models around the U.S.A. of state and local govemments pooling their resources and planning and implementing such shared systems on a more responsive public model. In the early 1990s, Iowa City (in a decision that was similar to most places in the USA that were implementing the then-new 800 MHz trunked systems) decided to not participate in such a commercially owned, subscription-based system. Rather the City decided to purchase, install, maintain, and operate its own 800 MHz trunked radio system. That system is now approaching functional obsolescence, and is already technically obsolete due to several technological advances such as Internet Protocol emulation ("IP enabled"), digital modulation and GPS based simulcast capabilities. When reviewing public safety communications and systems, an important component is the type and quantity of radio channels available for the communications operations. These radio channels are often defined in a "physical" sense, whereby there is a separate repeatElr or base station for each radio/dispatch channel in use. When a radio user selects a "channel" on their radio, they are choosing to access a particular radio frequency and associated base or repeater station. However, in a trunked system the radio channels are usually referred to as ''Talk Groups", as they are no longer a set individual radio frequency or physical piece of equipment but rather a - computer-generated code that directs the radios being used onto a specific communications path (radio frequency pair). This path is provided through the trunked system, which is a group of repeaters connected to the master computer or "Central Controller". It is these systems that are owned and managed by Iowa City for use by the Iowa City agencies and other public safety users in University Heights and at the University of Iowa Public Safety Department. From this point forward, we will refer to what many users think of as "CHANNELS" on a trunked radio system by their more proper term: TALK GROUPS. Iowa Citv's Trunked Svstem: Detailed Description and Issues: The Iowa City trunked system is a Motorola Smartne~ six-channel radio system that wais implemented in May 1991, according to the records available to the CEC service shop. In its current configuration, the system has six installed 800 MHz channels, which provides talk- through capacity for five concurrent voice communications, with the sixth channel always used for system control data exchanges. However, the City is licensed for seven RF channels, but they have not yet purchased or installed this seventh channel. - G.~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-10 December 2005 - Iowa City has two separate tower sites for their trunked system. One is the primary or main site, and the other is a secondary or backup site, as follows: a) Main Tower Site: 6 RF Channels ~ Location: Near the intersection of Prairie Du Chien and Dodge Roads, in Iowa City ~ Tower/Antenna Height: 46 meters/150 feet (per FCC license) ~ Ground Elevation: 244 meters/800 feet (per topographic database) b) Backup Tower Site: 4 RF channels ~ Location: Near the intersection of 1st Avenue and 1-80, in Coralville ~ Tower/Antenna Height: 50 meters/164 feet ~ Ground Elevation: 229 meters/751 feet Based on the coverage analysis data provided later in this report, it appears the main tower site does a reasonably good job of providing mobile and portable coverage throughout most of the Iowa City area. Although on-site observation of portable radio talk-in to the system from within buildings proved to be less than clear, with an often very high noise level compared to voice signal. The backup site is maintained in a "warm standby" mode of operation, whereby the - equipment is powered up and ready for use, but is maintained in the "repeater off" mode so as to avoid interference with the main system. The backup site can be enabled for operation via remote control from the main PSAP in the event of main site failure. As noted above, the main site is equipped with a quantity of six 800 MHz RF base repeaters/channels, while the backup site is only equipped with four 800 MHz RF base repeaters/channels. This means the backup system does not have the same traffic capacity as the main site, and an increased number of "system busies" can be expected when using the backup site. Importantly, this four channel back-up system would only provide three concurrent talk-paths, with the fourth being required for system management data (the "control channel"). The dispatch center (PSAP) at the Iowa City Police Department is connected to the both the main and backup tower sites via a "T1" circuit leased from the local telephone company. The interface hardware that exists at the PSAP and the tower sites is owned by the customer, and is an older vintage of equipment. CEC advises the original vendor for this equipment (Applied Spectrum) is no longer in business, and future support of this hardware is potentially a problem. We were also advised of recent problems with this T1 circuit, which took the system down (actually, the system was fine, but the ability of the dispatchers to access and/or control it was down) for a period of time. Such problems with Telco leased lines are not uncommon and are among the stronger reasons why system owners look into dedicated microwave or such media as owned fiber connectivity as replacement media. - G.~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-11 December 2005 - System Issues: This is a verv mature trunked radio system. Many systems of this vintage are now being replaced around the U.S.A. As such, there are several items that merit attention regarding the existing Motorola trunked system. A. Age of system and technical support from Motorola: As noted, the existing system was purchased and installed in 1991. While the technical support available from the customer's service provider, CEC (Communications Engineering Co.), and Motorola "Corporate" Hi-Tech division, continues to be good, Motorola has made it clear the overall support for these systems - which includes hardware (both main system assemblies as well as repair parts) and software (a critical element in these systems) - will end sometime in the near future. The following is the text of the response we received from Motorola Engineering Group relating to the specific Iowa City system: "I just reviewed the timeline for the support of analog systems. I am attaching it even though there is one major change. We will continue to ship uDorades to analog systems until the end of 2006. I confirmed this with John Muench and System Planning (Rick Odean). What the customer may want to consider for upgrades are replacing the existing controllers with MTC3600 controllers and the repeaters with Quantars. As far as how long will we maintain an analog system, I think that as long as we can get parts we will continue to maintain them. This is however tough to predict so it does leave the customer a little vulnerable. - Basically MSF repeaters and 6809 controllers are on an "as we can get parts" status. The attachment should give some idea of what we can do with Quantars and MTC controllers. I think the customer needs to think about upgrading their subscribers. I think WE (Motorola) would be better off it they went to a simulcast system that covered more of the county" Another message from the Motorola Maintenance group has stated "factory" support of this version of analog system falls under one of the two following categories: ~ If the system is a 3.1 version, support ended in December 2004. ~ If the system is a 4.1 version, support will end in December 2007. In either case, it could be argued this system is reaching the end of its "Life Cycle" with Motorola's technology planning. Motorola routinely issues a ''Technology Roadmap" for high-tech systems, and with this system's age now approaching 15 years, the city may want to seriously consider upgrading the system to a newer technology platform. And, while many are troubled by the concept of replacing a multi-million dollar radio system after "just" 15 years of use, they only need look at their in-house computing system and determine how many of them are still running the same computer hardware _. and software they had 15 years ago. Or, their in-house phone system. <>=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-12 December 2005 - Or, their suite of PC's. How many are still using IBM PS2 computers, or Apple liE's? Furthermore, where would one get competent service or repair parts for an IBM PC/AT today? The public safety industry has been (slowly, but surely) moving away from analog trunked systems and moving towards the new APCO 25 digital standard for public safety communications. For a detailed discussion of the attributes of digital two way radio and the Project 25 (P25) standards for digital radio, the reader is referred to Appendix 5. Assuming the City desired to continue operating the 800 MHz trunked system in its current configuration (which is not our recommendation), there are several issues that should be considered: 1. The city's service provider, CEC, advised us they have proposed the addition of a seventh repeater station for the system. This action would accomplish two things: ~ Expand the capacity of the system, and reduce the number of "busy" signals now being experienced by system users during periods of heavy traffic; ~ Meet the FCC construction requirements for the existing customer/system FCC license. As stated, the current FCC license (WNXG714) provides frequencies for the operation of seven repeater stations (at both main and backup sites). If the license holder does not construct (install) an operational repeater for each frequency allocated, those frequencies must eventually be forfeited back to the - FCC for reallocation to other potential frequency users. CEC states they have quoted a price to the customer of $32,000 for the addition of a seventh station to the main trunked system site (not at the back up site, which would stay at four channels). 2. The city's main site system currently has a total of six 800 MHz RF stations. Of these six, four of them are the original Motorola MSF500o@ type of station, installed in 1991. Two of the existing stations are newer Motorola Quanta,@ stations. The MSF stations are a product for which Motorola has announced the termination of factory technical support as of January 1,2007. The city may wish to consider replacement of these six MSF 5000 repeater stations. A price will need to be obtained from CEC for this upgrade if desired. 3. As noted in the text from Motorola, support for the exoansion of existing 6809 trunked Central Controllers will end in January 2007, and we have been advised that general maintenance support for these units will end in June of 2009. The customer should consider the replacement of this with a newer MTC3600 unit. A price for this upgrade will need to be obtained from Motorola, along with a determination of any hardware compatibility issues, though we would estimate a cost of approximately $100,000. - G.<;;:;j" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-13 December 2005 4. Voice Privacy/Scrambling: The city currently has two of the existing RF channels on the trunked system equipped with Motorola "DVP-XL" voice encryption. This feature would allow a system with a properly equipped and programmed radio to conduct secure communications between either the dispatch center or another similarly- equipped radio user. A potential problem with this feature is that it again is a product or feature that is no longer supported by Motorola. Also, if the existing MSF stations are replaced with Quantars as noted in item 2, the DVP-XL will no longer function. However, the CEC staff is of the understanding the DVP-XL feature may no longer be used by the customer, so this issue may no longer be a problem. 5. Interface between PSAP and trunked Site: As noted, CEC has advised the existing T1 network hardware used for connectivity between the PSAP and the main trunked site, while still operational, should be considered obsolete, as the vendor for this equipment is out of business, and service support is generally not available. CEC advises a proposal for the replacement of this equipment has been provided to the customer, with a cost of $21 ,000, subject to final configuration requirements. Summary: Even if the city desires to continue operating the existing system with no significant configuration changes, it is highly recommended the above listed equipment upgrades are given serious consideration. We have not been able to determine the - estimated costs associated with these potential upgrades due to the many options and unknown product support timelines presented by Motorola. We would be glad to work with Iowa City and Motorola to determine system upgrade and capacity improvement options if so desired. B. System Expansion: The information provided in the preceding section addresses the issue of maintaining the existing system in its current operational configuration, as well as the upgrade of current hardware and software platform(s) to continue the use of the system for within the Iowa Citv aeoaraohic service area. and not imorovina coveraae at all. As a part of the concurrent study of the potential of merging the ICPD and JCSO PSAPs, one of the other important considerations for the City's existing 800 MHz trunked radio system is whether or not it provides adequate coverage and capacity for the entire Johnson County service area and its attendant subscriber radio count. This would allow the sheriff's department and other public safety (and public service) agencies to participate in a shared, multi-use system. As such, we will address the issue as follows: 1. Does the existing single site, analog Smartnet system provide adequate capacity and adequately cover all of Johnson County? - G=.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-14 December 2005 - 2. If "no", how could this be accomplished? ~ What system elements are required? ~ How many RF channels? ~ How many tower sites? ~ How much will it cost? Also, if a countywide system is desired or required, should it be analog, or should a move to the new APCO 25 digital technology be considered? How much would a system of this type cost? A discussion of these questions is provided below. 1. Does the existing, sinale site analog Smartnet system provide adequate coverage for all of Johnson County? The short answer to this question is "NO". Providing adequate signal penetration to serve mobile and portable radios countywide clearly would require more than the current single site. However, a significant and expensive expansion of this existing system could achieve these objectives. The current system is a single-tower site system, and this existing site serves only the Iowa City area. Several additional tower sites would be required to provide radio signal coverage throughout the remainder of the County. - 2. Could the existing, single site analog Smartnet system be expanded to cover all of Johnson County? Yes, at least in theory. At several added tower sites, an identical quantity of 800 MHz analog RF channels (repeater stations) would be needed. In other words, if the expanded system were to have a total of 10 RF channels available for user traffic, then these same 10 RF channels would be needed at every tower site. Though the existing system currently uses older technology and equipment, the current 6809 Trunking controller, with numerous expensive enhancements in hardware and software, could be expanded into a multi-site system. However, in reviewing the near-term phase out schedule presented by Motorola in the preceding section of this report, we feel it would be unwise to attempt to expand this older technology 6809 platform. If the city chose to expand the existing system (not our recommended course of action), we would strongly recommend replacement of the existing 6809 Trunking Controller with the current product offering from Motorola, which is the aforementioned MTC3600. The cost of this item alone is estimated to be $100,000. - G=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-15 December 2005 - 3. What system elements would be required, and how should a system expansion be structured? If a trunked system is expanded into a multi-site system, it generally must be configured as a Simulcast (SIMULtaneous broadCAST) system. This type of system automatically provides simultaneous transmit and receive capabilities from all tower sites in the system, and provides the greatest level of coverage available. It is also a more expensive system to develop, due to the need to duplicate all RF hardware at all sites as previously noted. This is a kev point: If there ended up being four tower sites, and ten channels (because four tower sites is what would be needed for county- wide coverage, and ten channels is what would be needed to provide capacity in places like near Kinnick Stadium on a Saturday in October) there would be ten channels at all four sites, all the time, needed or not. In other words, there would be just as much capacity at a tower site out in the farm fields in the North East corner of the County as their would be in downtown Iowa City. This is not bad; it is merely stated to make the point as to why such systems are so expensive - and why they can provide such uniformly good coverage and capacity, jurisdiction wide. This type of system would require either the construction of new tower sites, or the leasing of existing sites if available and logical. - The final component of a new system is the need to link or connect all tower sites together via leased telephone company circuits, fiber optic network, or a radio microwave system. Svstem Capacity (Number of radio channels): The FCC has dictated to the public safety radio community the required minimum number of end-user radios must accompany the licensing of any 800 MHz radio system. This number is generally considered to be 100 end-user (mobile and portable) radios for each individual 800 MHz RF frequency implemented in the system. As an example, the FCC license currently held by Iowa City for their existing trunked radio system has a total of seven 800 MHz RF frequencies/channels. This implicitly requires Iowa City have a minimum of 700 mobile and/or portable radios in their possession, capable of being used on the radio system. This FCC channel-loading requirement has also shown to be a good "rule of thumb" when working to determine the number of RF frequencies/channels that should be incorporated into a trunked radio system. Information provided to us by both Iowa City and Johnson County officials indicate a shared city-county radio system would need to accommodate a total of approximately 1,000 radios upon initial implementation. This would dictate a new system with at least 10 RF frequencies/channels incorporated into the system. - G~..Qn Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-16 December 2005 ----- - I ~ It has also been estimated the total number of radios used within such a combined system V could easily grow beyond this initial estimate, potentially as high as 2,000, depending on how many other local govemmental agencies choose to participate in such a system, such as County Highway Department, other county agencies, local school districts, small town utilities, etc. We have been involved in several of these "larger public service community" types of trunked systems and they are generally applauded as the very best way to achieve the economies of scale over the long term, as well as the very best way to ensure the maximum in communications interoperability amongst all public safety and service users. For example, in the recent Gulf Coast hurricanes, the ability for emergency managers to communicate with and direct large fleets of school buses would have been a I great advantage, not to mention the ability to use and communicate with and from I specialized high clearance public works type vehicles. However, our initial cost projections will be based on a ten-channel system, presuming only the current City users and County and Campus related public safety users. Tower Sites: The size of a county, its terrain and population center locations are the factors that generally dictate the tower site requirements for a public safety radio system. A cursory review of these factors was conducted for Johnson County, and it is apparent a single tower site is not capable of providing coverage within the 614 square miles that make up Johnson County. An expanded review of these factors was conducted, and we believe a minimum of four tower sites would be needed for reliable 800 MHz radio system coverage. I ~ Refer to the attached terrain and coverage maps for an example of how a new multi-site I system might be positioned within Johnson County. For the purposes of determining basic potential coverage capabilities, we have created three hypothetical tower sites, I located on hilltops in the northeast, northwest, and southwest areas of the County. To our knowledge, there are NO tower sites that exist at these locations. We have also incorporated the City's existing tower site in Iowa City into this plan. - In preparing our assessment, we have assumed tower heights of 450 feet (including the City's existing site...though we understand the existing tower structure is not of that height) . Rather tall towers are routinely required for 800 wide-area coverage radio systems. In the following radio signal propagation prediction (coverage) plots the colors I are key. Simple put, if the color is GREEN, the program is predicting a solid signal and I good coverage. If it is YELLOW the computer predicts a somewhat less solid signal. If it is RED, an even weaker signal is predicted, while mIIii3 is an area where essentially no I usable radio signal can be expected. I But first, let's look at a terrain map of the County, as the topography and terrain are some of the most critical elements in determining radio coverage. \....; G=. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-17 ., December 2005 ~ -I - - - I , . f _~r..m \....; I ~ 2D 15 10 5 0 5 10 15 2D ~ lhmI_ _----1__ ~~-~- =- I 5<1122 !lI1.11 Iil9fl IIIllll 111m 1!I/21 8I!l11 - !II.1i1 I V I I Current main and back-up tower sites for IA City 800 MHz system: I I I I , V ~. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-18 .. December 2005 .. - ~._- - I I I Now let's look at the coverage of the current sinale site Iowa City system for hand-held I L- portable radios talkina in to the system from on the street. Short of looking at "in-building coverage" from a portable, this represents a "worst-case scenario". The heavy blue line is the City limits of Iowa City. NOTE: The radio signal propagation predictions on the next five pages all represent behaviors of analoa modulated radio signals, in that they are sowing the gradations of coverage across a spectrum of signal strength from very high to very low, but still somewhat usable. If they were predicting diqitallv modulated radio signals there would only be two colors. One color would represent where the signal likely worked I (meaning that it contained enough bits of digital data to be acceptable and be reproduced), and the other color (or lack thereof) would represent where it likely would not work, period. The outer boundaries of both the digital one color, and the analog several colors would be about the same, and would be at about the bright red color in these maps. b\ll. C~ 800 hIIz liIriced ~ PtdJIe Tile h C\'g. ctr 10 1 8 J 6 I 4 \J 2 0 2 4 6 I 8 10 1m 15 10 5 0 5 10 15 ~LMk U L I~. . ~] .262.15 .120.15 .ttO.15 .100.15 -84.15 -64.15 -34.15 dE I I V G=. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-19 " December 2005 \ ~ -- - I i Now a look at the coverage of the current, single site city system as it relates to portable ~ on-street, talk-in coverage throuahout the rest of Johnson Countv. Remember, the more green the better and there isn't much green on this plot. That means portables would not do very well talking into this single site system from throughout the County. bVII C~ 800 IoIu: Wed ~ Pd. Ill< h CVg. Co VMe 25 I I I 20 I I 15 I I I 10 I 5 0 I 5 I 10 15 V 20 I 25 I I 1m <<J 30 20 10 0 10 20 30 <<J , ~I.M]:; U l~lj .262.15 -120.15 .ttO.15 .tOO.15 -94.15 -84.15 .14.15 -64.15 -34.15 dBm . I I I I I "-J Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-20 . ~. . December 2005 I \ - - ------ I I I I Now we'll focus on a potential new four site system with towers at three new \...j (underdetermined) locations and the current City tower location but with a higher tower there. The first plot is for portables talking into this system countywide. Note the verv pronounced increase on well-covered areas with the four sites as opposed to the single site shown on the preceding page. 800 MHz, four site, talk in coverage from portable radios: 16 . 14 . 12 I 10 8 6 4 2 0 2 4 I 6 8 V 10 I 12 14 16 I Ii 25 20 15 10 5 0 5 10 15 20 25 S~Jz\otk - U I ~. ~j .:E1.15 .W.15 .111.15 .1D.15 .91.15 $.15 mi ~U5 JI.15.. ~ I G~.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-21 ., December 2005 I I .. I I - - I I I I Next, we'll examine coverage to/from higher power and better antenna-equipped mobile \.J radios (the radios that are permanently mounted in police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances) for a countywide system. The first plot is for this type of radio, countywide, from the City's current single site system. Note while coverage is significantly better than it was for portable radios from the same single site, it is nowhere "green enough" to provide workable coverage from a single site. , hWl c~ 800 },h 1hDed ~ Tal< C\t Olg. 1mbII\a. Co Wide I 25 20 15 10 5 0 5 10 I 15 I V I 2tl I 25 I 1m .w II 20 10 0 10 20 II <<l Sipl1Mls [--_._-~------------ I .. I _ .- I . I . ,- .- U ' I. I . - I. .262.15 -120.15 .110.15 .100.15 .94.15 -84.15 .74.15 .64,15 .34.15 -28.15 d8n I I , '--.J G=n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-22 " December 2005 , ~ ~._._. I I I Our final propagation prediction plot is for these mobile radios, countywide but with a four-site I \.J system as before. Note the almost solid green coverage throughout the County. 800 MHz four site, mobile coverage 16 14 I 12 10 I 8 I 6 -- [ 4 , 2 0 2 4 6 8 10 . 12 I \...../ 14 16 mi ~ 20 15 10 5 0 5 10 15 20 ~ ! Sipll:vtls a--,u... .Ji2.15 .tJl.15 .110.15 .m.15 .!U -81.15 11.15 61.15 JI.15 ~15." i I '-' ~ Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-23 . December 2005 I \ - What system elements would be required, and how should an expansion of the current svstem be structured? Tower Sites: In the previous section, we used a computer-based coverage-modeling program to determine what level of coverage might be available from these potential sites. As can be seen in these coverage models, a fairly good level of coverage for mobile radios can be obtained with four tower sites, though some weak areas may exist in the southeast area of the County. Talk-in coverage for portable radios is also quite good, though in-building losses have not been incorporated at this time. A far more advanced review of this cursory plan would be required for any serious project implementation plan, but this initial work supports our very basic planning conclusions. Costs of an expanded current svstem: The implementation of a trunked radio system is an expensive endeavor, especially when multiple tower sites are involved. However, when planning to implement a system that provides wide-area coverage and supports 1,000 or more radio users, this greater expense is easier to understand. A theoretical choice (but one we are not recommending) for an expanded system for Iowa City/Johnson County would be to replace the core ana loa system that exists today with a four site 800 MHz analoa, simulcast trunked system. By retaining analoa operation rather than moving to digital (P25), most - if not all - of the existing Iowa City mobile and portable radios could be retained and used with the new system, thereby eliminating the expense of - replacing these units. Shown below are estimated/budgetary costs for an expanded analoa system as extracted form the table at the end of the Executive Summary: 5: Upgrade existing ~ Add three new sites, incl. RF equipment $750,000 $2,250,000 analog system to be 4 and tower structures site, 10 channel analoa simulcast ~ Replace main site and add prime site $1,000,000 $1,000,000 control equipment ~ 4 site microwave (new) $100,000 $400,000 ~ Dispatch console Equipment upgrades $300,000 $300,000 ~ 365 analog subscribers $1,000 ea. $365,000 TOTAL: 1$4,315,000 - ~.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-24 December 2005 - Options for Implementation of a "P25" Digital System Another direction the City and County should review when considering the implementation of a wide-area trunked radio system is whether to retain the analog mode of operation, or transition to the new "P25" digital mode of operation. As discussed elsewhere in detail, digital systems offer several operational enhancements over analog systems: ~ Expanded usable service area ~ Consistent audio quality throughout the service area ~ Imbedded signaling for Unit identification, emergency alarm notification, etc. ~ Expanded control and monitoring capabilities ~ Future added channel capacity through narrowband or TDMA operations P25 digital trunked systems are the new standard upon which most new wide-area; high capacity public safety radio systems are now being based, and are being implemented throughout the USA. Several of these systems have been or are being installed in the Midwest area, including the following: ~ Sioux City/Woodbury County, Iowa ~ Omaha/Douglas/Washington County, Nebraska and Pottawattamie County, Iowa ~ Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro, Minnesota - ~ St. Cloud metro, Minnesota ~ Rochester/Olmstead County, Minnesota ~ St. Clair County, Illinois ~ Illinois statewide for State Police and some locals ~ Michigan statewide for State Police and some locals These digital systems, however, are typically more expensive than a similar analog system due to the increased technical requirements of the system equipment. The other imoortant factor with the imolementation of a diaital system is the need for the reolacement of a/l existina mobile and oortable radios (except, perhaps, for a few recent acquisitions in the ICFD and, possible, the ICPD which may be digital capable), as any existing analog radios will not allow the digital mode of operation. And digital-capable radios are also typically more expensive than analog-only radios. - ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-25 December 2005 - Is a subscriber radio "migration path" possible? Yes, to the extent the existing analog infrastructure were kept in place, using today's analog channels, while a new digital infrastructure system was implemented usina all new 800 MHz channels that would Iikelv come from the NPSPAC pool (which means some restrictions regarding signal output that do not affect your current "pool" channels) the old subscriber radios could continue to operate on the old reduced capability infrastructure, until replaced by digital P25 replacement radios. These old radios could not access the new channels on the new svstem. However, the new digital radios on the new system could access the old analog channels (and their coverage and capacity limitations) on the old system, as the systems do offer "backwards compatibility" . A NOTE ON "P25"; The term P25 refers to APCO Project 25, which refers to a wide based industry anrJ radio buying community standards setting process that set out to come up with an industry standard which would define the essential elements of digital two way radio for public safety, local, state, and federal govemments. Once this standard was set, the vendor community could build radio gear to those standards, and the buyers of radios could specify .P25 compliance" and still get the competitive procuremefllt advantages of cost and selection. An important element was any radio bum by any vendor that was P25 compliant should be able to talk on, through and to any infrastructure or other digital radio in a digital mode in the same frequency band. We have personally seen this in practice with P25 compliant radios manufactured by Motorola, E.F. Johnson and Kenwood all talking quite nicely in a digital, trunked mode on a Motorola Astro 25 digital trunked radio system. NOTE: Some recent price competition has encouraged some vendors to begin to offer somewhat less full- - featured digital 800 MHz trunked radios - which, although less capable than the top line digital radios of today, are still about as feature capable as the Motorola trunked radios currently used by the City. Motorola, for example, has introduced their XTS/XTL 1500 series radios at prices in the $1,500 range. For our costs estimates we are assuming a mix of radios similar to Motorola's 1500 and 2500 series radios. The estimated total cost for a digital new trunked system would be greater than that of an analog system. We estimate the overall cost of the trunked system infrastructure (tower sites, repeater equipment, microwave system, etc.) for a two site citv onlv P25 digital system to be $4,355,000, as shown below: Replace entire eXistingiiii.. ~ Prime site equipment $730,000 system with new, P25, ~ New main tower $250,000 simulcast system ~ 2nd site and equipment $500,000 j$4,355,OO~ ~ Consoles and interface $400,000 ~ PM and labor for above $850,000 ~ 650 subscribers at $1,625,000 $2500 NOTE: By way of comparison, we have just overseen the implementation of a ten site, five channel digital, trunked Motorola system in an Illinois County with about 500 subscriber radios, but no new tower site building at a total cost of just under $7,000,000. G,<;,g,,, Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-26 December 2005 - "P25" and other issues as thev relate to "communications interoperability" in Iowa. The term "communications interoperability" has taken on far enhanced importance since 9/11 and, more recently, since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Simply put, it is probably a good idea if all of the radios that might be used by personnel public safety, military, local, state, and federal government agencies in response to some major incident could be able to talk to each other. The current situation could not be further from that obiective. Simply put, there are about a half dozen ways in which all these disparate radio users could achieve the objective of being able to talk to each other: ~ All use analog radios on the same band (such as VHF) and share some common radio channels. . Some examples of this are Statewide Fire Mutual Aid channels like 154.280 MHz, the National Law Enforcement Emergency Channel (155.475 MHz) and Point to Point at 155.370 MHz, or the five designated analoa. non-trunked 800 MHz Interoperability Channels called the "NPSPAC Interoperability Channels". ~ Implement and use "console patches" between otherwise frequency incompatible radio channels or non-shared radio channels. . Use a console patch to patch Fire Mutual aid, for example, to one of the NPSPAC 800 - MHz Interoperability channels. . Use a console patch to patch LEA to Fire Mutual Aid, for example, to permit a fire truck to talk to a police car. ~ Implement and use "hard wired" cross band repeaters that take what is said on one channel in one band (VHF, for example) and route it over to a repeater on another band (UHF - 460 MHz, for example) so a VHF radio can talk into the cross band repeater and come out on UHF and vice-versa. Obviously, the repeater must operate on channel(s) that the field radios would have in them as well. ~ Obtain, be trained on and regularly practice with the new, solid-state mobile radio gateways. . These devices allow a trained operator in something like a mobile command post or communications van to take "Portable Radio A" from one type of radio system (sayan 800 MHz digital trunked radio system from Motorola) and connect it to a "black box" in their van, and then connect "Radio B" from another type of radio system (Military, digital low band at 46 MHz, for example) to the same black box, and the black box interconnects the two radios so what is said on Radio A gets out into Radio B's network, and vice-versa. This is how the Raytheon/JPS ACU-1 000 system works. - ~m Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-27 December 2005 -- ~ Implement wide area dissimilar radio network gateways. This model presumes the audio output from any number of disparate radio systems is digitized and submitted over dedicated or internet protocol (IP) pathways to a master network switch where the output from "System 123" can be connected to "System 456" miles away such that a radio working into "System 123" in California could talk to a radio working into "System 456" in New York City. This is how the MAlCOM "Network First" system works. ~ Implement a wide area, multi-agency trunked radio system whereby all radios are controlled by the same trunking system controller(s) and are, or can be configured with common talk-groups such that if Radio A in the North part of the state needs to talk to Radio Z in the South part of the state, both A and Z would select a talk group called "cross state chat" and then talk to each other. Radio A's traffic would be received at a tower site close to Radio A and then sent to the central trunking controller, and then be sent out to the tower site nearest to Radio Z, then transmitted out to Radio Z, who would than answer in return, using the flip side of this process. This is similar to how the Minnesota Metro trunked system is designed and operated. It is in this mode the issue of "P25 compliance" can become particularly relevant. . Specifically, if one region were to implement its own digital trunked radio system, while another region was implementing its own digital trunked radio system, it is conceivable radios subscribed to one of the systems could actually be programmed to work into and through the other agency's trunked radio system. However, if one of the systems was P25, the other would need to be as well. That way, since "all the digitization is being done the same way" on both P25 systems, all subscribers could be recognizable on both systems and, if they shared the same talkgroups, they could talk directly through the trunked system in a digital, trunked mode. . However, if one of the trunked systems was P25 and the other was not (but was still digital) then radios from one system could not talk into the other system in a digital, trunked mode. . Interestingly, however, such a mechanism does not necessarily require the participant radios all be of the same frequency band. For example, a set of digital trunked radios operating in the VHF band (the entire State of South Dakota has a P25 VHF trunked system, for example) could be controlled by the same trunking system controller is controlling the entire Omaha area 800 MHz trunked system, and if both the VHF trunked radios and the 800 trunked radios had a common talk group, they could both reach the same controller, and via that controller talk to each other somewhat directly. . But, if they were both in the same frequency band (such as 800 MHz), and their system owners had gone to the minor trouble and expense of programming their subscriber radios with the five NPSPAC interoperability channels, and if one of more repeaters (at about $8,000 each) had been installed on at least one of these NPSPAC channels, these two otherwise incompatible digital trunked radios could talk quite nicely to each other in an analog, conventional (non-trunked) mode. G~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-28 December 2005 ~ "P25 Compatible" VS. "P25 Compliant" systems and equipment: A radio or a radio system that is "P25 Compliant" is one that complies with all of the balloted. published and accepted standards of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and Electronics Industry Association (EIA) standards associated with Project 25. In other words, any P25 compliant radio needs to be able to work in a seamless fashion in and through a digital radio system that is P25 compliant, performing those minimum functions called for in the standard. Over the past decade, there are those radio vendors who have touted their "P25 compatible" systems and radios. Essentially, what they seem to be saying is this: "We understand what objectives the P25 process is trying to accomplish, and we have accomplished those objectives in what we determine to be a more efficient or effective manner. Therefore, even though our radios and systems are not comDliant with the letter of the P25 standards, they are comDatible with the outcomes P25 is striving to achieve." . We have dealt with this obfuscation in other projects. Simply put, we like to make it analogous to light bulbs and the part of the bulb that is screwed into the socket. Is the current thread arrangement on a light socket the best possible "light bulb insertion and holding method" that engineering could ever come up with? Probably not. Is it possible some vendor out there has come up with a better way to insert and hold light bulbs? Perhaps. But if you bought that vendor's "new and better" light bulbs with other than a traditional screw-in base on them would his bulbs fit in any of your light sockets? No. Or could you go to the discount store and find light bulbs from five different vendors in many sizes and colors that would fit this new vendor's "new and improved" light - socket? Probably not. So the issue is NOT whether or not the P25 standards are the best possible set of standards the industry could ever have come up with. The issue is whether or not they are widely accepted standards, and to that question the answer in the U.S.A. is definitely YES. The entries below come from the dictionary: Conclusion: "P25" does not ensure interoDerabilitv. but it can be a part of the equation. More importantly, it is our recommendation to adopt the "lowest common denominator" approach, which operates on the simDle. is better approach. Under that concept we would highly recommend that whatever radio system ends up serving a single or multiple PSAPs in Johnson County, that several of the 800 MHz NPSPAC repeaters be licensed, installed, activated and monitored in the County, and all PSAPs have RF control station access to them, and all 800 MHz subscriber radios be programmed w~h all five of these channels in both a repeat and direct radio to radio mode (talk around), and all PSAP radio consoles have the ability to patch these 800 MHz interoperability channels to counterpart VHF fire, police, and EMS common channels. We recommend this, if for no other reason; than it provides access to a decent conventional, non-trunked, back-up radio system in the event of trunked system failure. - G=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-29 December 2005 - Another Wrinkle: "NEXTEL Re-Banding" This is an extraordinarily complex issue. Simply put, due to some decisions made 20-plus years ago by the FCC and Nextel, some of the frequencies on which Nextel has been operating their systems, in conjunction with the technical way in which the Nextel system works, have resulted in a phenomenon under which Nextel systems can cause harmful interference to public safety systems licensed in the 806 MHz (low side of the channel) and 851 MHz (high side of the channel) spectrum. Resulting from a very long and contentious rule making process, the FCC has dictated (and Nextel has agreed) almost all Nextel operations will be migrated from those channels where they are causing interference to elsewhere on the spectral band, and those public safety licensees in the NPSPAC band (821 MHz low side and 866 MHz high side) will be moved 15 MHz downward to the by-then vacated 806/851 spectrum. Some other existing public safety licensees with licenses close to where Nextel will be moving, or some "guard channels" will also have the opportunity to change channel assignment if they choose. Iowa City is not licensed on the affected NPSPAC band licenses, so that element of this issue does not affect them. However, one of the seven channels licensed to Iowa City is one of those "optional", you-can-move-if-you-want-to channels, and the City has been advised by the "800 MHz Transition Administrator (TA)" of this opportunity. This channel re-banding process involves expense ranging from very minimal (reprogramming radio channels in the base stations and subscriber units) to complete equipment replacement. In either case, all leaitimate expenses associated with said re-bandina are paid for bv Nextel (after - neaotiatina an aareement to that effect), on a reimbursement basis. However, we have assessed this "opportunity" being offered to the City by the TA, and our research indicates there would be no appreciable gain to the city, some hassle, and minimal to no opportunity to leverage any "Nextel dollars" to pay for new subscriber radios or any significant components of a system build-out or upgrade. Therefore, we recommend the City say "NO" to this opportunity presented by the TA. - which will require an affirmative "NO" response and the submission of a prescribed form to the office of the TA. -- G=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-30 December 2005 - Plans for an Iowa Statewide Interoperable Radio Svstem (I-SIRS) Our discussions with officials from the Iowa Department of Public Safety and Transportation, as well as officials representing the Iowa APCO chapter and others involved in the public safety radio community have led to the conclusion that there appears to be a fairly solid effort underway to begin to lock in planning for such a statewide radio system. By all appearances (nothing is set in concrete yet) it sounds like the plan would have the system be an 800 MHz (or more likely 700 MHz) P25 compliant, statewide digital trunked radio system. This "backbone system" would consist of a number of transmission towers located strategically throughout the state with an adequate number of repeaters (channels) at each site to support expected radio activity in that tower's coverage area, and microwave links between them. The number and placement of the tower sites would (presumably) be (at least at the initial planning stages) based on the coverage needs and capacity requirements of agencies of state govemment such as the DOT and DPS. For example, in the far Southeast corner of the state, if the state engineers determined they would need six high towers sites in the Lee, Des Moines, and Henry County area, each with five channels present for the coveraoe and capacitv needs of state aoencies on Iv. the initial system design would provide for those sites and channels. However, if any of the cities or counties in that area chose to migrate their operations to this radio system, those local entities would be faced with two important questions: 1. Is the signal strength coveraae to be provided by the basic state agency "backbone" going to be adequate for my local needs? This is a function of the number of tower sites in that area, and a reasonable planning assumption at this point is that any such system for state agencies would be built to provide adequate signal strength to serve portable radios, outside, on the street, in, perhaps, 95 percent of the land area of this three county area. So, is "on street portable coverage" going to be adequate, county-wide for the Lee County Sheriff, for example? If YES, then no local funds would be required to add any tower sites to this area to increase coverage. If NO, then some local (more likely combined local) funds would be needed to add one or more additional tower sites to increase the coverage density in the area. 2. Is the capacitv of this system going to be adequate for my local needs? In other words, will there be enough trunked radio channels to support the state's expected radio activity in this area plus mv local expected activity? If the local agencies were only going to be fielding something like 15 or 20 added radio units per time period to an already five channel system in that area, then the answer to this question should be YES. If, however, they were going to be fielding 100-150 added radio units, then it would be likely one added channel would be needed at each of the X tower sites serving the area. If any added channels were to be required, then the cost of those local channels would be the responsibility of the local entities, times as many tower sites as were determined in question number 1 above. - G~\l,,, Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-31 December 2005 - We've been advised the current technical, organizational, and operational thinking for this 1- SIRS system is following what they are calling "The Minnesota Model". We're knowledgeable about ''The Minnesota Model", having just completed one of the referenced "local build outs" in the Twin Cities metro area of the "basic state/regional backbone", as well as having just completed an "out-state" system build-up (in advance of the state backbone build-out) in such a fashion that when state funding is approved for the state "build-out" to this area (St. Cloud city), the state will buy the local St. Cloud infrastructure and incorporate it into the greater statewide system. A third project we are implementing in Itasca County, Minnesota (Grand Rapids) will follow the same process. A very important element of the "Minnesota Model" which we would argue is absolutelv essential is that the planning, oversight, and technical management (not dispatching but system management) of such a radio system must be done on a shared- ownershio/manaaement model. and not a "STATE RADIO SYSTEM ON WHICH LOCALS GET TO PLAY" model. In Minnesota this worked out because the original element of the eventual statewide system was a nine county Twin Cities regional trunked radio system initiated by and managed by a locally controlled "Metro Radio Board". This system has now been essentially folded into the now-underway statewide built-out of the system, and a Statewide Radio Board (which the state chairs but does not dominate) has supplanted the Metro Radio Board for other than day to day system usage issues. It is our view and experience the success of these systems has far less to do with the technology working than it has to do with the workings of the political, financial, and operational control relationships between the state, special districts, counties, and cities. Even the Minnesota Model does not have all these issues worked out yet, as they are currently working on a "business case study" that is attempting to derive the appropriate "system user fee" to assess on a per radio basis based on the status of the specific user. Review of Radio Communications of Individual Agencies A. Johnson County Sheriff's Department The sheriffs department provides primary 9-1-1 dispatching services for all public safety agencies within the County, other than the Cities of Iowa City and University Heights and the University campus. The sheriff's PSAP is equipped with a somewhat obsolete Motorola CentraCom II dispatch console, and has two dispatcher operating positions. These consoles are equipped with access to and control over 14 individual radio communications pathways or channels, none of which are talk aroups on the Iowa Citv 800 MHz trunked radio svstems. The 14 they can access and their functions are: 1. Johnson County Operations (OPS) at 151.370/156.180 MHz (Repeated) 2. Johnson County Old OPS (154.725 MHz) 3. EMS OPS (JCAS radio channel) 155.205 MHz 4. Statewide EMS coordination 155.430 MHz 5. County Fire OPS (Fire Main dispatch) 154.340 MHz 6. Iowa Fire Mutual Aid 154.280 MHz - 7. JCSO Info channel (155.250 MHz) 8. JCSO Portable radio info channel (155.850 MHz) G~~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-32 December 2005 I 9. "Point to Point" channel (to other dispatch centers, within range) 155.370 MHz 0 10. Law Mutual Aid (155.475 MHz, actually a nationwide law enforcement emergency channel also called NLEEC) 11. LEA (Statewide Law Enforcement Coordination) 154.890 MHz 12. CVPD OPS (Coralville PD Operations) 13. JCSO Jail radio (155.730 MHz) 14. Paging channel (158.820 MHz) Pictured below are the radio channels controlled from the JCSO dispatch consoles: 0 For illustrative purposes, and to support a later point, the following is one of several FCC licenses in the name of Johnson County. I I 0 ~.... Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-33 " December 2005 I I I I - Federal Communications Commission Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Radio Station Authorization (Reference Copy) This is not an official FCC license. It is a record of public information contained in the FCC's licensing database on the date that this reference copy was generated. In cases where FCC rules require the presentation, posting, or display of an FCC license, this document may not be used in place of an official FCC license. Licensee: JOHNSON, COUNTY OF FCC Registration Number (FRN): 0002564623 Call Sign: File Number: ATTN SHERIFF WQBA358 JOHNSON, COUNTY OF Radio Service: I 511 SOUTH CAPITOL PW - Public Safety Pool, I IOWA CITY,IA 52240 Conventional Regulatory Status: I PMRS I ,.M ........... m.....__..._____ Frequency Coordination Number: .u.o. ._ Grant Date 09/07/2004 Effective Date Expiration Date Print Date : , 09/07/2004 09/07/2014 1 0/26/2005 I - I STATION TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS Fixed Location Address or Mobile Area of Operation Loc. 1 Address: 2850 PRAIRIE DUCHIEN ROAD NE City: IOWA CITY County: JOHNSON State: IA Lat (NAD83): 41-43-29.6 N Long (NAD83): 091-31-27.7 W ASR No.: 1242096 Ground Elev: 242.0 Loc. 2 Area of Operation Operating within a 40.0 km radius around fixed location 1 Loc. 3 Area of Operation Land Mobile Control Station meeting the 6.1 Meter Rule in JOHNSON county, IA. Antennas Loc. Ant. Frequencies Sta. No. No. Emmission Output ERP Ant. Ant. Construct No. No. (MHz) Cis. Units Pagers Designator Power (watts) Ht.ITp AAT Deadline (watts) meters meters Date 1 1 151.370 FB2 1 0 11 K2F3E 100.000 200.000 91.4 10.9 09/07/2005 2 1 [a.'1C"jW~ MO 100 0 11 K2F3E 100.000 100.000 09/07/2005 2 1 156.180 MO 100 0 11 K2F3E 100.000 100.000 09/07/2005 3 1 kl-'1C..IW..l;1 FX1 1 0 11K2F3E 20.000 40.000 Control Points Pt. No.1 Address: 511 S CAPITOL STREET, IA CITY JOHNSON CO 515-356-6017 - G~n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-34 December 2005 - In the County's radio system there is no trunking employed. Rather their system uses either simplex or repeated VHF radio systems. (For an explanation of the difference between repeated and simplex, see Appendix 5). In either case, the sets also employs remote "listening posts" called "satellite receivers. These amount to radio receiver-onlv units mounted in places some distance away from the dispatch center listening to one or more of the radio channels in use. They enable a lower power car or portable radio to get their radio signal back to the dispatch center. The means via which these satellite receives carry what they hear back to the dispatcher is low power UHF (450 MHz) radio links that operate like a low cost, relatively straight line "point to point" system. This type of connectivity is good, in that it has no recurring monthly costs associated with it. However being regular two-way radio, it is somewhat subject to fairly common radio interference, and more importantlv. with these channels at 450 MHz, they are below 512 MHz, and that means the channels, their licenses, and all the equipment operating on them will be subject to the FCC's narrow- bandina mandate and will require re-Iicensing and equipment replacement over the next several years. The County's system also suffers from the potential of lots of low-end (meaning using cheap devices) scanner eavesdropping, meaning that lots of occasionally sensitive information regarding police, fire, and EMS calls being responded to is broadcast over the two-way radio and anyone with a $50 scanner can hear it. A final issue with the County's communications system is the lack of Mobile Data Computers - (MDCs). As employed in Iowa City and Coralville (which is dispatched by the sheriff's office) and properly used, these MDCs can be a very significant productivity multiplier in law enforcement usage, and a service enhancer in the fire service. Specifically, a large portion of the work done by dispatchers (and, therefore time spent doing the work) is the running of license plate checks, stolen vehicle checks, driver's license checks, and missing/wanted persons checks through state and national law enforcement data systems. Without MDCs, an officer needs to call the dispatcher on the radio, hope the dispatcher is not tied up on the phone, provide the data elements to be queried, wait while the dispatcher conducts the computer queries, then wait for the dispatcher to read the data (which can be extensive) back to the officer on the radio (all of which can be monitored on scanners), then write it down in the car and hope there are no errors. Under such a labor intensive process, it is a given in law enforcement that field personnel often do not run as many such checks as they would like, which means they don't uncover as many stolen vehicles as they could, arrest as many persons with outstanding arrest warrants as they could, find as many driver's with expired or revoked driver's licenses as they could, and so forth. Putting an MDC in a car means the officer can run as many of those checks as desired without taking up anyone else's time (like the dispatcher), and get the results in a quicker and more accurate fashion. In the fire service, having an MDC in a response vehicle can provide access to databases back at HQ regarding pre-fire plans, mutual aid plans, fire inspection data, Haz-Mat data and the like. - G=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-35 December 2005 - In all public safety services, one of the add-on benefits of an MDC is often the ability to also integrate what has come to be called "Automatic Vehicle Location" or AVL systems. Simply put, AVL means a relatively inexpensive GPS receiver is also installed in the vehicle so "the car always knows exactly where it is" based on constant GPS data readings. This knowledge in the vehicle can be used in two ways: 1. To feed this positional data to the laptop MDC on which some mapping software (similar to that now installed in higher-end luxury cars) resides, via which the vehicle driver can see where the vehicle is on that map and use the MDC map to navigate their response to the location to which they have been assigned. Properly configured, CAD systems can also send address information out to these MDCs and said addresses can also be fed to the laptop mapping and plot the location of the incident on the map as well. 2. To feed this positional data over the MDC data radio system so the vehicle's position can be plotted on the same GIS mapping PC in the dispatch center (and elsewhere) as the locations of entered CAD events, wired and wireless E9-1-1 calls will soon be plotted. With this capability, the dispatcher can actually visually see the location of the incident, see the location of all potential responders to the incident, make the assignment selection based on who appears to be closest, and then track the responder's progress in real time as they proceed to the scene. Having MDCs requires the laptop PC in the vehicle (which is what an MDC is) have access to a secure radio based data network. Often just using commercial networks such as Verizon's - Wireless Broadband may not satisfy the security requirements for sensitive data transmission enforced by the State and NCIC. This often means the agency either pays to install their own data radio network with one or more transmitter sites (depending on the size of the jurisdiction) operating on channels they especially license for data transmissions, or they share a data radio network with another agency covering the same land mass (such as a city sharing its County's data radio network or a fire department sharing the police department's data radio network in a city). In some cases, it means subscribing the MDCs to an available private but commercial radio network that has a coverage area appropriate for the agency. In the case of the Iowa City and Coralville Police Departments, this is how it is being handled, on a monthly subscription per data radio per MDC basis. - G!fifol" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-36 December 2005 - The City of Iowa City police, fire and public service agencies have been using the Motorola 800 MHz trunked radio system since the early 1990s. The Iowa City PO PSAP is located in downtown Iowa City, in the City Hall, and is equipped with a 4-position Motorola CentraCom Gold Elite PC-based dispatch console system. This console system is equipped with a number trunked system talk group designated specifically for City of Iowa City PO and FO operations, and several for coordination with other city agencies. There are also talk groups on the system which are not present on these ICPD consoles. (And that is fine and appropriate). A copy of the FCC license for this system is presented below. Federal Communications Commission Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Radio Station Authorization (Reference Copy) This is not an official FCC license. It is a record of public information contained in the FCC's licensing database on the date that this reference copy was generated. In cases where FCC rules require the presentation, posting, or display of an FCC license, this document may not be used in place of an official FCC license. Licensee: IOWA CITY, CITY OF FCC Registration Number (FRN): 0002564649 Call Sign: File Number: ATTN JUNE NASBY WNXG714 IOWA CITY, CITY OF Radio Service: 410 E WASHINGTON ST YP - Public Safety/Spec Emerg, lOW A CITY, IA 52240-1826 806-821/851-866 MHz, Trunked Regulatory Status: I PMRS I Frequency Coordination I Number: Grant Date I 02/11/2002 Effective Date I Expiration Date Print Date I 02/11/2002 I 02/24/2012 10/27/2005 I I STATION TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS Fixed Location Address or Mobile Area of Operation Loc. 1 Address: PRAIRIE DU CHIEN RD AND DODGE ST City: IOWA CITY County: JOHNSON State: IA Lat (NAD83): 41-40-34.1 N Long (NAD83): 091-31-14.6 W ASR No.: Ground Elev: 244.0 Loc. 2 Address: CORNER 1 ST AND 180 500 FEET E OF City: CORALVILLE County: JOHNSON State: IA Lat (NAD83): 41-41-12.1 N Long (NAD83): 091-33-45.6 W ASR No.: Ground Elev: 229.0 Location 2 Special Conditon: Secondary site subject to the condition that no interference is caused to co- channel users in an adjacent communications area. Loc. 3 Area of Operation Land Mobile Control Station meeting the 6.1 Meter Rule in the state of IA. Loc.4 Area of Operation Operating within a 40.0 km radius around fixed location 1 - Antennas G=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-37 December 2005 .- Loc. Ant. Frequencies Sta. No. No. Emmission Output ERP Ant. Ant. No. No. (MHz) Cis. Units Pagers Designator Power (watts) HtJTp AAT (watts) meters meters 1 1 855.7125 FB2C 1 0 20KOF1D 75.000 208.000 46.0 62.0 1 1 856.2625 FB2C 1 0 20KOF1D 75.000 208.000 46.0 62.0 1 1 856.9375 FB2C 1 0 20KOF1D 75.000 208.000 46.0 62.0 1 1 857.2625 FB2C 1 0 20KOF1D 75.000 208.000 46.0 62.0 1 1 858.2625 FB2C 1 0 20KOF1D 75.000 208.000 46.0 62.0 1 1 859.2625 FB2C 1 0 20KOF1D 75.000 208.000 46.0 62.0 1 1 860.2625 FB2C 1 0 20KOF1D 75.000 208.000 46.0 62.0 2 1 855.7125 FB2S 1 0 20KOF1D 75.000 172.000 50.0 52.0 2 1 856.2625 FB2S 1 0 20KOF1D 75.000 172.000 50.0 52.0 2 1 856.9375 FB2S 1 0 20KOF1D 75.000 172.000 50.0 52.0 2 1 857.2625 FB2S 1 0 20KOF1D 75.000 172.000 50.0 52.0 2 1 858.2625 FB2S 1 0 20KOF1D 75.000 172.000 50.0 52.0 2 1 859.2625 FB2S 1 0 20KOF1D 75.000 172.000 50.0 52.0 2 1 860.2625 FB2S 1 0 20KOF1D 75.000 172.000 50.0 52.0 3 1 810.7125 FX1 18 0 20KOF1D 35.000 111.000 3 1 811.2625 FX1 18 0 20KOF1D 35.000 111.000 3 1 811.9375 FX1 18 0 20KOF1D 35.000 111.000 - 3 1 812.2625 FX1 18 0 20KOF1D 35.000 111.000 3 1 813.2625 FX1 18 0 20KOF1D 35.000 111.000 3 1 814.2625 FX1 18 0 20KOF1D 35.000 111.000 3 1 815.2625 FX1 18 0 20KOF1D 35.000 111.000 4 1 810.7125 MO 700 0 20KOF1D 35.000 70.000 4 1 811.2625 MO 700 0 20KOF1D 35.000 70.000 4 1 811.9375 MO 700 0 20KOF1D 35.000 70.000 4 1 812.2625 MO 700 0 20KOF1D 35.000 70.000 4 1 813.2625 MO 700 0 20KOF1D 35.000 70.000 4 1 814.2625 MO 700 0 20KOF1D 35.000 70.000 4 1 815.2625 MO 700 0 20KOF1D 35.000 70.000 - '"=.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-38 December 2005 - Narrow Banding and its Impact on the Johnson County Radio System The County and its dispatched agencies face another very significant radio issue looming in the somewhat near term future. That issue is called "narrow banding". Simply put, the FCC has a major push on right now for making the use of the radio spectrum more efficient than it is today. New technology permits tuning radios to tighter frequency tolerances than in the past, thereby permitting more narrow radio channels. However, the FCC cannot force everyone on to more narrow radio channels overnight. Rather, they need to give everyone time to both acquire new equipment operates on the more narrow channels, as well as to re- allocate their licenses for narrower channels. If you go back a couple of pages and look at the County's licenses, on the WQBA 358 license you will see two sets of channels highlighted in color. The ones in yellow (151 .370 and 156.180 MHz) are today's current 25 KHz "wide band" channels. The one in blue (153.7625 MHz) is one of the new 12.5 KHz wide narrow band channels. In general (with a few exceptions), by 1/1/2013, all radio channels below 512 MHz (and that includes all VHF radio channels) must be re-Iicensed and operated as narrow band channels. This means the radios that talk on those channels must be capable of narrow band operation, and any radio not capable of narrow band operation will become obsolete and may not be used after that time (or, perhaps out to 2018, depending on one's interpretation of the FCC's rules). This applies to base stations, mobile radios, and portable radios, and (while not subject to enforcement) practically speaking, receivers also. - Consequently, to the extent any or all radios that are in use today on the County's radio system (to include lots of radios not owned by the County but which access the County's system) are not narrow band capable, they will have to be replaced. This could be a large expenditure, and we'd recommend that the County inventory of all these radios soon, so as to assess the number of not narrow-band capable radios in the field. Clearly, to the extent there would be more rather than fewer such subscriber radios, and more rather than less base stations needing this replacement, such a large expenditure could factor into the question of whether or not the County should migrate over to the City's (then expanded) trunked radio system once and for all. - G=.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-39 December 2005 ~- The E9-1-1 Telephone Environment in Johnson County Consists of Three Types of Entities 1. Those Aaencies which answer 9-1-1 telephone calls. (The PSAPs) In Johnson County there are three such agencies, two of which are "Primary PSAPs" (to the extent they are the initial answering point for calls dialed to 9-1-1), and one of which is not technically an Enhanced 9-1-1 primary PSAP (U of I/DPS), meaning a full part of the regional Qwest 9-1-1 network. The Police Department in Iowa City (ICPD) is the Primary PSAP for calls dialed to 9-1-1 from within the City's boundaries as well as from within University Heights. Also located within the City of Iowa City Oust a few blocks from the ICPD PSAP) is the U of I/DPS dispatch center, which is the secondary answering point for all 9-1-1 calls originating inside the U of I campus phone system and all other wired phones installed on campus. The U of I/DPS dispatch center also initially answers calls dialed to 335-5022, but the campus phone directory lists "9-1-1" as the emergency phone number. For the rest of Johnson County, the Primary PSAP is the Johnson County Sheriff for all 9-1-1 calls dialed within the County, outside the city limits of Iowa City, University Heights, and phones on the U of I campus. These Primary PSAPs/dispatch centers either initially answer the 9-1-1 calls or receive them on a transferred basis, and then collect and record information from the callers, dispatch the appropriate responders via their two-way radio systems and collect information regarding types of incidents, who was assigned to handle the event, track their response times and how - they disposed of the events. 2. The Johnson County 9-1-1 Joint Services Board Under Iowa Law, Enhanced 9-1-1 service was planned by, paid for (meaning 9-1-1 surcharge levied by) and implemented under the auspices of what are county level organizations called 9-1-1 Joint Services Boards. The Johnson County 9-1-1 Joint Services Board, working with the PSAP entities, developed the E9-1-1 plans, addressing, Emergency Service Boundaries (ESNs) policies, procedures and regulations and purchased and installed all of the component parts of the E9-1-1 telephone network and equipment in place in the County. In Johnson County, it is the minimum responsibility of the Joint Services Board to "deliver the 9-1-1 call to the 9-1-1 call-taker's ear" (so to speak), and then of PSAP operating entities to provide the communications mechanisms needed to facilitate dispatching responders to the incident. However, as has been the case in many other Iowa Counties, the Johnson County Joint Services Board has agreed to fund other communications system elements that go beyond the basic phone call, but are clearly a part of the "continuum of emergency communications processes". - G.~n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-40 December 2005 - To fulfill these requirements, the Joint Services Board has arranged a contract for and manages a modem Enhanced 9-1-1 network and system. They lease Enhanced 9-1-1 trunks, selective routing of E9-1-1 calls and networking from Qwest Communications, and E9-1-1 All (Automatic Location Information) database services from Qwest as well, which then out-sources the All database maintenance work to Intrado in Boulder, CO. This configuration means Johnson County has access to a true "Enhanced 9-1-1 Network", with two of the three PSAPs participating fully on this integrated network, with complete and seamless call and E9-1-1 ANI/All data transfer capabilities between the two full PSAPs, as well as between these two Johnson County PSAPs and many neighboring county PSAPs on wired 9-1-1 calls and to and from every E9-1-1 network connected PSAP in the state for wireless 9-1-1 calls. QUICK DEFINITIONS: "ANI" Stands for Automatic Number Identification, which is the act of using the 9-1-1 dialing phone's telephone number to check a call routing database to determine which PSAP that call should be sent to, and displaying the calling party's for the answering dispatcher before the call is answered. It is importantly very different from "caller ID" numbers in many ways. "AU" stands for Automatic Location Information, which is an E9- 1-1 feature that takes the ANI and submits it instantly and automatically to an All database which then provides the 9-1-1 dispatcher with the name of the subscriber to the wired phone that dialed 9-1-1, the location of that phone (currently for all wired phones but soon for all wireless as well,) the jurisdiction in which that location is found, which police, fire, and EMS agencies are appropriate for that location, and which PSAP the call should have been (and - probably was) initially routed to. Note: When the State of Iowa started collecting the statewide wireless 9-1-1 surcharge fees a few years back, one of the things they committed to was to implement a true statewide wireless E9-1-1 network, as referenced above. This meant the State installed a special wireless E9-1-1 tandem selective router switch, and special dedicated wireless E9-1-1 trunks to eve/}' PSAP in the State that was going to initially answer or receive transferred wireless E9-1-1calls. When this commitment was made, there were a number of Iowa Counties that operated their own, intemal, private "E9-1-1Iike" systems, and which were not connected to the Qwest wired E9-1-1 system and network. That meant these PSAPs had no Qwest E9-1-1 trunks coming to them, no Qwest ALl data circuits going from them to the remote ALl data base, and (in some cases) none of the more expensive, special "real E9-1-1" compatible telephony (like the Motorola CentraLink 9-1-1 equipment in the Johnson Co. PSAPs today) needed to terminate calls coming in on the E9-1-1 trunks. To rectify this, the State wireless 9-1-1 program agreed to pay the one-time costs of connecting the PSAPs and monthly charges for E9-1-1 trunks to those PSAPs (even if they didn't have any such trunks before) as well as for E9-1-1 ALl data links to the Qwest ALl database, and the sophisticated telephony equipment needed to answer the calls. Essentially, the U of I/DPS dispatch center is the technical equivalent to one of these "non Qwest E9-1-1 network connected" cities or Counties in that they have no Qwest wired or wireless 9-1-1 trunks feeding it, no dedicated E9-1-1 call termination and control equipment and no trunks to the Qwest E9-1-1 ALl database. -- G.~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-41 December 2005 -- Some time back, GeoComm spoke with John Benson, director of the Iowa wireless 9-1-1 program, and asked him if an entity like the U of IIOPS would be viewed by his program like they viewed these other "non E9-1-1 networked" agencies. His answer was YES, but (when we asked this question in 2003) he hastened to point out his program was essentially out of money until or unless the legislature permits an increase in the statewide wireless E9-1-1 surcharge fees. We think the legislature has responded to his need. Nevertheless, this means, at least philosophically, the argument could be made (and perhaps funding found for) the State should pay to upgrade the U of IIOPS dispatch center to become a Qwest based E9-1-1 network connected PSAP. If that happened, and if the U of lOPS were to maintain their own dispatch service (and not consolidate), they could be the initial answered of all 9-1-1 calls dialed from on campus, be they wired (for sure) and even some wireless 9-1-1 calls, especially those processed through small coverage campus "pico cell sites" that are becoming more common in high volume areas with lots of cell call activity. On the other side of this purported advantage, however, would be the fact that said 9-1-1 calls for fire and EMS services that would now be answered at the U of lOPS dispatch center would have to be transferred back to the ICPO PSAP, or the merged ICPOIJCSO PSAP for dispatching of the ICFO or the JCAS responders. More discussion is required on wireless 9-1.1 calls. This technology may well bring more changes to the 9-1.1 PSAP world than any other technology to date. Specifically, calls from cell phones have been dialed to 9-1-1 and answered by somebodv in most places in the USA for a number of years now. In 1996, the FCC (The only entity that can effectively regulate wireless carriers. The states, - through bodies like the State Utilities Commission have no real authority over them) issued a set of regulations to the wireless carriers which required them to create the caoabi/itv to receive and transmit wireless E9-1-1 calls in a fashion more appropriate for the Enhanced 9-1-1 networks and PSAPs of the USA. These regulations had a Phase 1 and a Phase 2. The State of Iowa wireless 9-1-1 program has been hard at work devising their methods and procedures for receiving and routing these calls, and Phase 1 calls are now being received at the PSAPs throughout the state, and Phase 2 calls at many as well. Perhaps the most challenging aspect of wireless E9-1-1 calls relates to the number and irregularity of the volume of wireless E9-1-1 calls, as well as the added time necessary to process a 9-1-1 call that does not contain a good address from All data. In 1998, most PSAPs estimated 20 percent of all of their 9-1-1 calls received were wireless 9- 1-1 calls. Industry statistics and projections indicate the number of wireless users and the number of their calls to 9-1-1 is increasing at nearly 25 percent per year. It seems to be a reasonable projection that by 2007 fully 60 - 70 oercent of all 9-1-1 calls will be from wireless ohones. In St. Clair County, Illinois, where they have been receiving both Phase 1 and Phase 2 wireless 9-1-1 calls longer than any other PSAP in the USA, they have data indicating that fully 48 percent of all 9-1-1 calls answered at their PSAP originate from cell phones today. (Metro St. Louis.) -- ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-42 December 2005 - We have recently done work for Oakland County, Michigan (suburban Detroit) where we leamed that 78 percent of the total 9-1-1 call volume answered in their large sheriff's PSAP came from cell phones! In and of itself, this could be problematic. However it onlv scratches the surface of the Dotential Drab/em. More specifically, not only will more people have these phones, and will these more people place more 9-1-1 calls, but because of more people having these phones and these people being "out and about" in a position to observe more "9-1-1 reportable incidents", there will be a significant increase in the number of 9-1-1 calls being placed to report any single visible incident. For example, 15 years ago, if there was a car-truck accident on Interstate 80 near its intersection with 1-380 near Iowa City, it would be likely that some dispatch center might receive one or two phone calls from folks who took the time, had the interest, had a quarter (since they may not have known a 9-1-1 call from a pay phone is free) and exited the freeway to find a pay phone to dial "0" (or even 9-1-1) to report said accident. Today, it is a reasonable assumption that within the first three minutes of such accident, not less than 20 calls would be dialed to 9-1-1 from wireless phones in the vehicles of passers-by or those involved in the accident. Not only is this more calls than are "needed" for the PSAP to know there has been an accident at that location, and to start the appropriate responders to the scene, but it is more - calls than any PSAP staffed with one or two operators can possibly hope to answer, while at the same time those oDerators are trvina to disDatch the resDonders to this emeraencv and handle other normal traffic. There is a corollary issue as well, relating to E9-1-1 selective routing and how wireless 9-1-1 calls work with selective routing. Specifically, Phase 1 wireless 9-1-1 calls are routed today (and will be for the foreseeable future) based on the cell tower or panel of antennas at a tower that create a "sector" of coverage from that tower. (See the illustration on the next page for an actual Phase 1 cell sector coverage in a moderate urban area - similar in density to Iowa City m in Illinois) Typically, these sectors are approximately 120-degree "pie slices" of a 360-degree circle of coverage from that tower. The 9-1-1 call routing pre-determination for a given sector of a given tower is (or should have been) based on an analysis of the radio signal coverage "footprint" provided by that tower or sector's antennas. In many cases (especially in flat areas) the coverage size of one of these footprints can be several miles across. As such, within that several mile distance, there might be three 9-1-1 PSAP jurisdiction boundaries. If all three PSAPs lay claim to some of the land within that "footprint", and the wireless 9-1-1 call can only be initially routed to one of these PSAPs, it is reasonable to assume some portion of the time the call will end up at the "wrong PSAP". This may mean a fairly small PSAP might end up getting more calls than it wants (or needs) due to the vagaries of the coverage of a given cell tower or sector, or the behavior of radio signals, or the fact the caller mav have been in the Johnson Countv 9-1-1 area by the time they found their cell phone in their purse and then pressed [SEND], but they are reporting an incident that occurred in the westem Cedar County 9-1-1 area, for example. - G'~n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merge1 3-43 December 2005 I All of which makes the need to be able to transfer these calls from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, '---' with wireless E9-1-1 All data intact, even more important. I This scenario points to a theme that will appear throughout this report, Specifically, the paradigms for the staffing of a 9-1-1 PSAP are changing radically. I -........- :'>.'..,:,>,'.-". J I ..: 2-~~' V ABOVE: Wireless 9-1-1 call showing Phase 1 cell site/sector coverage (yellow shading) in Belleville, Illinois. For E9-1-1 SELECTIVE ROUTING of this call, the 9-1-1 planners would route it to the PSAP that has responsibility for MOST OF THE AREA covered by the yellow shading, unless some PSAP had a HIGH TRAFFIC/HIGH CALL INCIDENCE location within the shaded area, and not the majority of the shaded area, in which case the PSAP with responsibility for that HIGH CALL INCIDENCE area might be the logical initial routinQ PSAP for this sector. V ~ Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-44 " December 2005 f I - 3. The Respondina Entities: With the PSAP agencies providing the general E9-1-1 call answering and radio dispatching functions, the third type of 9-1-1 entity are those agencies which are dispatched by and respond to and provide service at the scene of public safety incidents. The best way to summarize how the responders are organized and dispatched in Johnson County is as follows: ~ Iowa Citv Police have their 9-1-1 calls answered by Iowa City Police and are dispatched by the ICPD PSAP. This operation is funded by the City of Iowa City at an annual total cost of about $790,256, with recurring 9-1-1 system costs being picked up by the 9-1-1 Board (as is the case with both network connected PSAPs in the county). The ICPD also provides 9-1-1 call answering and dispatching services for the University Heights Police Department, for which the City charges $42,275 per year, based on the percentage of total traffic that is generated by the University Heights Police Department. The ICPD is a user/subscriber on the Iowa City trunked radio system and has its own talk groups, plus sharing access to other talk groups used by other users. The ICPD PSAP is also the initial answering point for 9-1-1 calls from the U of I campus in the City. U of I police calls are then transferred back to the U of I Police dispatch operation, while U of I fire and EMS calls are dispatched by the ICPD to the ICFD and/or Johnson County Ambulance Service (JCAS) for response. ~ Iowa Citv Fire nCFD}: Fire/rescue calls are answered at the ICPD PSAP for dispatch and tracking. These ICPD dispatchers are aided by a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) - system into which all sorts of fire response scenarios have been programmed. For example, the CAD system might contain a dozen different types of fires to which responses could be generated. "FBLDG" might be fire in a building, "FVEH" could be a car fire, and so forth. For each type of reported fire response event, the CAD system is (or can be) programmed to know what type of fire apparatus should respond to that type of event (two engine companies and a ladder company, for example). Then the CAD system is programmed to place that reported event's address in a "Fire Demand Zone" (smaller area of the city within which all fire responses for the same type of event will be the same) to that the CAD can recommend to the dispatcher: "For an FBLDG in this fire demand zone #23, send two engines and one ladder, and based on my (CAD's) awareness of the relative availability of all the ICFD's fire apparatus you should assign Engine 1 and Ladder 1 out of Station 1 and Engine 2 out of Station 2". The ICFD is a subscriber/user on the City's trunked radio system and has its own talk groups and shares some with the ICPD and other users. ~ Emeraencv Medical Services (EMS or ambulance) For the most part, Paramedic ambulance responses are provided by the Johnson County Ambulance Service (JCAS) JCAS provides Emergency Medical Services for Johnson County and is based in Iowa City. Approximately 100,000 persons depend upon JCAS for Paramedic-level service including the communities of Iowa City, Coralville, West Branch, North Liberty, and others. - 9-1-1 calls for emergency medical service are answered at the ICPD and JCSO PSAPs. ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-45 December 2005 - Then, either the ICPO dispatcher or the JCSO dispatcher radio dispatches the JCAS unit. Additionally, "First Responders" are also often sent on these calls to provide immediate life-saving actions pending the arrival of the paramedic ambulance from JCAS. In the case of Iowa City, for example, these First Responders are units of the ICFD. Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMO) directions are provided only for medical emergency calls answered by the ICPO PSAP. The JCSO PSAP, for staffing reasons, does not offer this service. "EMD" is the use of pre-determined "protocols" by 9-1-1 operators to determine the specifics of a medical emergency call, and to provide to the callers specific, directed instructions and guidance on how the caller can provide direct life-saving services to the victim, pending the arrival of a first responder at the scene. For example, a mother calls reporting a "baby not breathing". The EMD provider, while getting the responders on the way, can walk the mother through the process of clearing the baby's airway and performing rescue breathing on the baby. "Real" EMD events can be relatively few and far between. The smaller the PSAP, the less chance there is for a "qualifying EMD event" in any given time period, and the less likely it is for a given 9-1-1 operator to be exposed often enough to maintain their skill set in this important field. By centralizing this service provision someplace, higher skill proficiency should be attainable, especially since their exposure to such events is spread out across a broader service area. JCAS is a user/subscriber to the Iowa City trunked radio system as well as operating on a - VHF radio system when they are dispatched by the JCSO. This means every ambulance needs radios to access both of these systems, which is not a desirable situation. On the next page, we are reproducing a section directly from the JCAS web site, using their words to describe the EMD process in the County: - G=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-46 December 2005 ---- -- I I V :;.;,..t0~t'_.,,-,,:, . ,",-"<,~ .-':l..i~'-1 ~ -'!t~,:0;..1' <-.:;;:tJ~~>f:i ~J.~'1.''''. .............., >" . - ~ -<:, ~ <;:! In 1996, the Iowa Citv Police Department began to offer Emergency Medical Dispatch. The communication specialists were trained to ask callers what is wrong with the ill or injured person, and instruct the caller on how to help the victim. Callers may be instructed on how to perform CPR, help stop bleeding, or what to do for victims who are choking. There are two reasons for offering Emergency Medical Dispatch. The first is pre-arrival instructions, where callers are instructed on how to help victims by phone. The second is priority I dispatching, by which the dispatcher can learn the severity of the illness or injury, and determine whether I I h . d' . bl df . d d r.ht d . Pre-Arnvallnstructlons This system is called Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD). The system is based upon questions that a dispatcher asks a caller to find out if the person has immediate life-threatening condition, such as no pulse, or no breathing. The dispatcher has a flip-card system with generalized conditions that require Emergency Medical Services. By going to the appropriate injury or illness category, such as chest pain or car accident, the dispatcher may ask questions to find out how serious the illness or injury is. Instructions After determining the severity of the illness or injury, the f1ip-cards have instructions on how to instruct the caller in first aid for the victim. The cards are based upon a curriculum taught in an Emergency Medical Dispatch Course, offered locally by the UIHC Emeroencv Medical Services Learnino Resource Center. The 1" aid techniques delivered by phone I '----' are simple lifesaving skills, such as CPR or control of bleeding. These lifesaving skills greatly aid the victims outcome if I begun as soon as the call is made. t Priority Dispatching Emergency Medical Dispatch also offers Priority Dispatching. The system is designed to separate calls without life-threatening conditions from the calls that do. The priority of the call is based upon the severity of the victim's illness or injury. A pre-written set of protocols determines if the ambulance or first responders respond using the lights and sirens or not. The Johnson County Ambulance Medical Director approves the protocols. I RedUCing Risk I I Priority Dispatching reduces the amount of times an ambulance travels to a call with lights and sirens. This reduces risk to the public and the ambulance. Nationwide studies have shown that using light and sirens in urban areas do not save as much time as thought. The system overestimates the severity of the illness or injury, so if there is any question as to the severity, lights and sirens are used. \.......--" ~, Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-47 . December 2005 ~ I - ~ Coralville Police Department The Johnson County Sheriff's Department PSAP provides emeroencv dispatch services for the Coralville Police Department. However, during normal business hours Monday through Friday, Coralville does deploy their Police Records Clerk in a sort of a "dispatcher role", wherein she answers the CPO's seven-digit number and dispatches police to calls received on that number from a low-end radio set-up on her desk. This means the Coralville officers essentially have two dispatchers, one at their CPO desk and one at the JCSO. It is our view this is not an ideal situation. In general, we think an emergency responder should be responsible to, assignable by and reporting to one dispatcher, on one radio system and tracked in one CAD system. It has been our experience the opportunity for confusion is too great and too many things could potentially fall through the cracks. We have no problem with the CPD clerk having access to the CPD officers on the radio for administrative purposes (and vice versa --- providing that access by the officers to the clerk is NOT related to tactical questions and the like relating to an incident which that officer is processing in the field which is being tracked by the JCSAO dispatcher). ~ Universitv of Iowa Department of Public Safetv COPS) U of I maintains its own fully empowered law enforcement agency (Police Division) in their Department of Public Safety housed on campus. There, they serve a student population of nearly 30,000 with nearly 14,000 staff and faculty and a 1,900-acre campus. Their - PSAP is operated by five full time and two part time personnel, all of whom are civilians and not police officers. As previously discussed they answer calls dialed to 9-1-1 after they are transferred to them from the ICPD PSAP where they are initially answered. They answer their seven-digit number (335-5022) directly. Based on their personnel structure and their pay scales, we have calculated their annual direct and indirect labor costs for dispatch (and the many other services they also provide) to be approximately $271,000 per year. U of I radio operations are conducted over dedicated talk groups (and a few shared ones) on the Iowa City 800 MHz trunked radio system. They dispatch their police officers and rather large contingent of security officers to a wide variety of calls for service (nearly 300,000) on campus each year. They also provide dispatch-supported services for State and NCIC data check activity for their field units. They also answer many calls each year from the special "campus security phone kiosks" located throughout campus, all of which ring directly into the U of I DPS dispatch facility. Importantly, as the headquarters of what is also a full Campus Security operation, the U if I/DPS dispatchers also serve as Security Monitors on a number of alarm systems on the campus and spend considerable time managing responses to security related incidents by the separate but jointly dispatched security officer cadre. - G,,<,.2.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-48 December 2005 - ~ Balance of Johnson Countv Fire and Law Enforcement: 9-1-1 calls from that portion of Johnson County outside the City Limits of Iowa City, University Heights and the U of I Campus boundaries are answered by the Johnson County Sheriff's Office (JCSO) and are dispatched to the sheriff's deputies and/or city police, in, for example, North Liberty for response. The JCSO dispatch operation is funded by Johnson County at a total annual cost of about $534,702 in 2005. However, the cities of North Liberty and Coralville are both charged a fee for "contract dispatching" provided by the County Sheriff. For North Liberty, that fee for 2005 is $53,123 for their population and service load (2004 estimated population of 7,638). Coralville pays $118,554 in 2005 for this less than 24 hour service for their 15,123 residents. ~ Non Iowa Citv Fire Calls: The 9-1-1 calls for fire/rescue services outside of Iowa City and the U of I campus are answered at the JCSO PSAP and responded to by the several area volunteer fire departments. The JCSO dispatcher takes the info from the caller and then activates the pagers of the Fire Department(s), to tell them "You have a - fire at address". No fees are paid by these fire agencies for these dispatch services. In total, about $1,595,958 is spent annually from local revenues by the city of Iowa City, U of I and Johnson County for the tasks of 9-1-1 call answering and associated dispatching services for the - law enforcement, security, fire, and rescue agencies. This annual $1.6 million comes out to about $14.38 per person per year (2000 census figures) for every permanent resident of the county (111,006), not counting the significant seasonal population residing on the U of I campus. At $14.38 per capita per year, the taxpayers are getting a pretty good deal. In similar studies we have seen numerous entities where a comparable calculation yields figures well into to the $20 range, and few where it is below $10 r ca ita rear. 4. Summarv: As it relates to technical E9-1-1 service, the general environment in the County is appropriate for this point in time, especially with the pending installation of GIS based mapping for wired and wireless 9-1-1 caller locations. The JCSO and ICPD PSAPs are configured to be able to provide 9-1-1 call answering back-up to each other through the Qwest selective router network, using what Qwest calls "Condition 3 Alternate Route". However, a major potential issue going forward is the issue of 9-1-1 calls being placed via what is called "Voice over Intemet Protocol" or VoIP. These calls fall into two categories: 1. Those VolP 9-1-1 calls which try and make it to the PSAP by acting like they come from regular wired phones. 2. Those VolP calls that come to the PSAP on a PC to PC basis and expect to be answered by a PC with special software on it. - The whole VolP issue is a major concem to the E9-1-1 community and industry in general from a number of perspectives, and is outside the specific scope of this study project. c~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-49 December 2005 Suffice it to say, however, one of the fundamental principles here is unless and until VolP providers figure out a way to ensure VolP 9-1-1 calls are automaticallv routed to the PSAP appropriate for the location from which the 9-1-1 call is being placed (they are far from that capability today), it is axiomatic the fewer PSAPs there are in a given county, the better the chances are VolP 9-1-1 calls will get to the right PSAP. The same can be said for wireless 9- 1-1 calls. As it relates to radio systems, neither the JCSO system(s) nor the Iowa City trunked system is particularly bad, in and of themselves. As separate, technologically obsolete, incompatible and non-interoperable systems, they work O.K. within their own limitations. However, the City's trunked system needs some channel expansion, and could certainly use some technology refreshing to avoid some non-support problems going forward and the County's system needs new dispatch consoles at the JCSO to avoid total non-support in a few years, and could really benefit from MDCs. - - ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-50 December 2005 _._.- -- - I ~ Johnson County Sheriff's Department \J - PSAP Location: Iowa City Jail facility Radio dispatcher workstations: 2 PSAP call taking workstations: Same I Current PSAP Inventory and Review I The Johnson County Sheriff's Department PSAP is the Primary PSAP center for all law enforcement, fire and EMS operations within Johnson County except for the Cities of Iowa City and University Heights and the U of I campus. This facility has no obvious expansion area within the PSAP room, and the radio system equipment within it is relatively obsolete, dating back to the early 1990's, if not before. The radio console equipment is of a vintage offered by Motorola from the mid 1980's to the mid 1990's called "CentraCom Series II, and while it represents the "state of its art" for the time, that art has moved beyond this equipment. (See below): l \..../. I I I I I The operating principle behind this sort of radio control console is that there is a computer l based back-room processor called a Central Electronics Bank or "CEB" (pronounced I "SEEB"). That CEB is connected to the specific radio base stations controlled by the I console. The radio base stations are usually located some distance (feet or yards) away from the CEB, often in a "radio shack" outside or in a room on the roof of the building closer to the antenna cable runs. On the "other side" of the CEB is where the wires from the I individual control modules in the console are connected. \....-" ~.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-51 ., December 2005 , I -. - - I I , All of the electronic work is done in the CEB, and when one presses an individual button in a V "transmit and receive module" on the console, that button is actually a pre-programmed computer "function key", and it sends a pre-programmed command to the CEB, telling it to do whatever command has been programmed, such as "transmit on FIRE MAIN", for example. From this explanation, one can see the condition or functionality of the control console or the CEB bears little or no relationship to the performance or functionality of a given base transmitter or any receivers associated with it. One can have brand new console equipment, but bad or poorly performing base transmitters and/or receivers and still have a poor radio system, or vice versa. In the picture below, we have outlined one of these "transmit and receive modules" in the CentraCom console in yellow. The two console positions each have 14 such "T&R modules" I I I \..../ I I Most of the bulk of the console fumiture is used as a place to mount or house equipment ~ unrelated or tangential to radio communications, most of which is now designed to be accessible via PC workstations. In the photo below, we have identified some of this ancillary equipment. I i I I I v ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-52 I ., December 2005 .. l - - I ! l . "NAWAS. phone . CCTV remote I (National Warning controls System) . CCTV monitor . Audio intercom . Individua controls paging buttons . In-house and 7 . Paging tone digit phone set . encoder .9-1-1 phone se New, state of the art dispatcher workstations are far less bulky, far more ergonomically designed, and rely much more on PC workstations on which multiple tasks can be performed. In the workstation pictured below there are four PC screens. The one on the left is the mapping system on which 9-1-1 calls are plotted as well as dispatched events from the Computer Aided (CAD) system and (optionally) the positions of "dispatchable" resources, \...; such as fire trucks, police units or ambulances who feed their position to the map in "real time" via GPS receivers and Automatic Vehicle Location (A VL) tracking. The middle two I screens are for the CAD system, with the unit status screen on the left, and the dispatcher interactive screen on the right. The far right screen is a recent version of Motorola's latest I radio control console electronics. This is called the CentraCom Gold Elite console, and from this one screen all the functionality contained in several square feet of console fumiture in the Sheriff's PSAP today can be done. I i I I r I I \J G,<,;!;!. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-53 December 2005 I , I , f Pictured below is a radio position only for a large police department (Long Beach, CA) and "--' 9-1-1 calls are not answered at this position. If they were, a fifth PC monitor would be on the far left. . I I Pictured below is another configuration showing two dispatch workstations, each with four monitors (left to right: CAD, CAD, E9-1-1, and radio) with mapping as another application I running on the E9-1-1 computer. V ~ I I '---' G=.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-54 I , . December 2005 ~ -- I , PSAP Inventory and Review: PSAP E9-1-1 Telephonv Equipment: G This PSAP operates E9-1-1 telephone equipment provided by Motorola called CentraL ink 9-1-1, mated with the SRX Vision phone platform. Motorola was one of the larger providers of such equipment in the USA, but no longer markets their own E9-1-1 equipment. The version of Motorola CentraLink 9-1-1 equipment in place dates back to 1992 and is nearing the end of a normal lifespan. 15 years out of E9-1-1 equipment is far better than most agencies experience. This equipment has three workstations (one not visible at the supervisors desk) and handles four in-bound wired line 9-1-1 trunks and four in-bound trunks I for wireless 9-1-1 calls. The Motorola CentraLink 9-1-1 equipment (like the Motorola radio console equipment at the ICPD) is really "terminals" off a Central electronics Bank of its own in the "back room" a few feet off the PSAP operations floor. The E9-1-1 All displays are 15" PC monitors, which show the caller's name, address, phone number, and who the proper response agencies are for that location and they are mounted high up on top of the console in a position making them difficult to read. (See below) I V I . E9-1-1 ALl display I screen . E9-1-1 phone device . Old CAD status screen .Old CAD interactive creen . Old CAD keyboard I I I \....../ ~~n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-55 ., December 2005 - - I t Current generation E9-1-1 equipment is almost all PC based now, and pictured below is one L- version. On these systems, the callers are answered via interaction with the PC screen and all the data is displayed on the PC screen, to include the location of a wireless E9-1-1 "Phase 2" caller (little red stick men on the map). ~ I I I I I V I PSAP Data Svstems lCAD. ete} I The JCSO is implementing a new PC/server based CAD system in early December, 2005 I from SMART Public Safety Systems, which we have not seen in operation, but should A provide a competent current Windows operating environment CAD system for their operations. On a related matter, in some cases CAD and Records Management Systems (RMS) are closely bundled by some vendors and sold as "CAD/RMS" systems. This does not have to be the case. CAD has a role in a public safety agency significantly different from that of an RMS system. Specifically, CAD is intended to be a "process facilitator" for the act of receiving, dispatching and tracking the response to calls for service. It also serves a role of "tracker of data related to real-time demands for service as oerceived of bv the callers, and I how our agency responded to those perceptions". In other words, when a person calls 9-1-1 I to report a "burglary in progress" at their neighbor's house, that reported incident is treated I with very high priority and several squad cars are assigned on a high priority basis to catch the burglars in the act. However, if the officers arrive and discover it is the resident's teen- aged son climbing in the window because he lost his keys, certainly the son is not (ultimately) I arrested, and no crime report is filed and no burglary is added to the list of reported crimes recorded for that jurisdiction. But the CAD system should still track the receipt of the "burglary in progress incident call, who was sent, when, from where, how long it took them to '---' get there, how long they were there, and how they disposed of the incident. ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-56 -, December 2005 - So the subtle difference here between CAD and RMS is that CAD is not supposed to be historicallv accurate, at least in the final analysis. In our example, there never was a burglary of any type; much less one in progress, so no burglary should show up in the agency's official crime report system (RMS). But that doesn't mean the report of such an event did not occur. In many agencies, CAD and RMS are, however, closely linked. This means once the response incident is closed out in CAD, that incident's "header data" (when, what, where, who went, when they got there, how long they stayed and what their disposition was) is presented via a data interchange cable and software to the RMS element or separate RMS system. Then the RMS takes it, and if the incident type and incident do NOT match the RMS system's "offense/incident report must be written" criteria, no further data is added to that record. For instance, in our earlier example the "header data" for the responded-to incident type of BURGLARY IN PROGRESS would be submitted to RMS, with the DISPOSITION CODE of UNFOUNDED. RMS would look at the incident type, and then the disposition code, and "know" that no burglary occurred and no report is required. Despite this, however, a later historical query to the RMS system would reveal there was a response incident of the type BURGLARY IN PROGRESS on that date at that time and at that address, but it was UNFOUNDED and there is no further offense report. The reason behind all this discussion is to make it clear that if the JCSO PSAP were to merge with the ICPD PSAP and the CAD system ended up being used were to be the ICPD CIS CAD, this does not necessarily mean the sheriff's office must abandon its RMS in addition to its CAD. It is probable the current JCSO RMS could be modified to accept response incident "header data" as described above and continue to be functional. G!;.f;I." Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-57 December 2005 - PSAP Activity and workload data: IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT "COUNTING WIDGETS" It has been our experience "comparing apples to apples' in terms of PSAP activity levels from one agency to another is fraught with difficulty. Specifically, it boils down to issues like what activities a PSAP counts as a "dispatchable event", or whether or not a given PSAP is serving as the "administrative phone operators" for the agency 24 hours a day, and there are no uniform standards for these types of things. Certainly, there are all sorts of standards that relate to the counting and reporting of crimes and fires by type, classification, victim, value, time of day, and on and on. These standards are even mandated in law and must be reported to the State and the FBI via the Uniform Crime Report. Unfortunately, no such standards are out there for PSAP activity counting. The reason we try and get a count for this activity is to begin to model "how busy would a consolidated PSAP be?" Arguably, one of the ways to predict that is to try to quantify what PSAPs are doing today, and how much of it, and of that work load, how much would be transferred over to the new PSAP to do. This is very important in estimating the staffing requirements for a new consolidated PSAP, and since many of the "go or no go" decisions about PSAP consolidation are made based on the estimates of how many employees will be needed and how much will they cost, this can be a crucial element. Logically, if some study estimates the activity in the new consolidated PSAP would be '1,000,000 widgets per year' which would require 30 staff to handle, and it turns out there are really 2,000,000 widgets per year to be handled, the original assumptions of how much the staff will cost (which would now be woefully inadequate) are instantly invalid. With the above caveat in mind, the JCSO PSAP activity data looks like this: # 7 digit calls # 9.1.1 IAlNCIC # Events Population Annual calls Actions DisDatched served oDeratina cost Unavailable to JCSO 28,002 119,323 61,567 47,799 (*) $534,702 (*) 111,006 total county population - minus 62,270 for Iowa City and 987 for University Heights Notes on the above: ~ Seven-digit calls: The JCSO PSAP answers the sheriffs department's seven-digit general administrative lines during all hours, except for the records unit, which answers its own line during business hours, and the jail, which answers its calls 2417. There are a number of sheriff's staff who have direct inward dial (DID) numbers, meaning they can be called without going through the dispatch center, providing the caller knows that staff person's direct dial number. However, we are advised in many cases, those DID numbers are not given out to the public. As such, there are probably more seven-digit calls answered in the PSAP than would be necessary if the DID numbers were employed more. We would also encourage a valid count be taken of this seven-digit call activity, as it has been our experience in a PSAP of this size in Iowa, it would be normal to see a seven-digit call level approaching three times more than 9-1-1 calls (75 percent seven-digit calls and 25 percent 9-1-1 calls). In that case, one could expect to see 84,006 calls on the seven- digit lines. ~ Number of 9-1-1 calls: Data from Owest represent the number of calls answered. They could be call-backs from an earlier incident, they could be multiple calls on the same incident like a house fire, they could be calls transferred to the JCSO PSAP from other PSAPs, etc. G=.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-58 December 2005 -- ~ Number of IA NCIC (Iowa and National Crime Information Center) actions: These represent driver's license checks, stolen vehicle checks, car registration checks, wanted persons checks, records entered, etc. all conducted by the dispatchers via the NCIC terminals located in dispatch. When a field officer needs a stolen car check, the field officer radios the dispatcher who then performs the query via the IA/NCIC computer terminal and then reports info out to the field officer over the radio. ~ Number of Events dispatched: The number of times in the year when a dispatcher told a field responder to go someplace and do something and for which a tracking record was created like "a tic mark being made" to keep track of how many times it was done during a year. ~ Annual operating cost: As reported by the JCSO PSAP in our survey. This figure would amount to a per capita cost of $11.18 when spread across the 47,799 "JCSO PSAP Served" residents. PSAP Staffina and deplovment practices I A note about Full Time Equivalencies (FTE) and Filling Chairs in a 24-7 PSAP , Staffing numbers in 24/7/365 operations can often be a confusing issue. Simply put, it is a question of math, as follows: ~ There are 8,768 hours in a non-leap year ~ A Full Time employee is paid for 40 hours per week times 52 weeks (2,080hrs) ~ A Full Time employee is assumed to take a two and one half weeks Average (minus 100 - hours) vacation per year ~ A Full Time employee is assumed to take six sick days average (minus 48 hours) per year ~ A Full Time employee is assumed to get 11 paid holidays per year (minus 88 hours) ~ Leaving a balance of 1,844 "actual at work hours" per employee per year ~ Dividing 8,768 hours per year by 1,844 worked per person, we get 4.755 ~ Therefore, it takes ABOUT 4.755 people to fill one chair. 2417/365 ~ If a PSAP wants to staff two positions 24/7/365 it should take 9.51 people . But a little later on, we'll show how it probably takes even more people The JCSO PSAP reports employing ten full-time and one part-time dispatch or 9-1-1 operator staff. This level of staffing generally permits slightly more than an average of just below two and one half persons on duty at a time. PSAP Expenditure/cost data The JCSO PSAP reports spending a total of $534,702 in the last full budget year. This comes out to a per capita cost of about $11.19 per year for each of the 47,799 residents who receives these services. The JCSO also had income of $171,677 from the Cities of Coralville and North Liberty for their portion of the workload in 2004. Of the total of $534,702 spent on the PSAP, 92.5 percent was allocated to personnel costs. ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-59 December 2005 -- - I I . I"i Iowa City Police Department \...J - PSAP Location: 410 East Washington Radio dispatcher workstations: 4 ~ tEl r III )/7'I7~fJjj PSAP call taking workstations: 4 Current PSAP Inventorv and Review The Iowa City Police (ICPD) PSAP is the primary emergency call center for all law I enforcement, fire, and EMS operations within the Cities of Iowa City and University Heights (under a fee for service agreement). It is also the 9-1-1 initial answering point for calls dialed to 9-1-1 from inside the U of I campus, and provides fire and EMS dispatching to those U if I events, while transferring 9-1-1 police calls to the U of I dispatch center, with the E9-1-1 All data being sent intact. The ICPD facility is equipped with a Motorola CentraCom Gold Elite CRT based radio control console system, a several generations successor technology to that in use at the Johnson County Sheriff's PSAP. The Motorola dispatch console system is used by the Iowa City PSAP staff for emergency and administrative communications with field units from the Iowa City Police Department and Fire units and other agencies. The console is equipped with several radio system channels and talk groups, and controls a variety of base and repeater stations. A picture of the ICPD dispatch area is shown below, not showing the fourth 9-1-1 and radio workstations at the supervisor's desk. The position identified as #1 usually handles all police radio traffic. #2 usually is the primary 9-1-1 call answerer and fire I V and EMS dispatcher (although #1 and #3 can answer 9-1-1 as well). #3 is occasionally (one I day per week) staffed by a volunteer and handles walk-in traffic and seven-digit phone call activity. I I I t r I I V G.<i1M.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-60 " December 2005 ~ -- .. - I I i I Current PSAP Inventorv and Review (continued) G .. E9-1-1 All display . Radio control console . Warning siren controls . CAD and state interface I . 7 digit phone set . 9-1-1 phone set is out of view The Motorola CentraLink 9-1-1 uses a very large PC monitor to display trunk activity and the All data, but that monitor provides no call control capabilities. (The top item in the identified items box above). The detail of this All display is shown below: I V Explanation of the above: The top one-third of the screen shows data relating to a recently received wireless 9-1-1 call. In the top left comer blank, the "Ph #" displayed is not the phone number of the callina phone. Rather, it is a fictitious number relating to the cell tower and specific bank of antennas on that tower through which this call was initially V received by the cell service provider (US Cellular). <>=,. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-61 ., December 2005 , - In the second line, right side, we see the caller's cell number in the "LOC" field. In the third line, in the "ADDR" field, this is not the location of where the caller is. Rather, it is where the serving cell tower is located and which bank of antennas (Bank 3, facing East = 3E) handled the call. On the bottom line, in the "AAI" field we see latitude and longitude, but this is for the cell tower, not the caller. Based on the "CS" (Class of Service) in the top line, second section from the left of 'WRLS", we know this was a "Phase 1" wireless E9-1-1 call, which only provides call back number and cell site of origination. Had it shown "WPH2" there (as was shown on the screen back in the JCSO PSAP section), it would have been a "Phase 2" call and the caller's lat/long would have shown up in this lat/long field, but not likely with the initial receipt of the call. Usually, Phase 2 lat/long requires an All "re-bid" to refresh that screen location. The bottom one-third of the overall screen shows status of and activity on the eight inbound 9-1-1 trunks, four of which are set aside for wired 9-1-1 calls and four for wireless 9-1-1 calls. The Iowa City PSAP controls or has access to numerous talk groups on the City's trunked radio system. The console system supports a transmit/receive console "patch" between a talkgroup on the City's trunked radio system, and the statewide VHF law enforcement channel called LEA. However, any reliance on any process has an ICPD 800 MHz trunked radio somehow getting connected to the LEA channel (or any other shared VHF channel) via either a dispatcher initiated or hard-wired patch relies on the ICPD radio being close enough to the IC trunked system's rather limited radio coverage area so it can, in fact, communicate with the Iowa City trunked system. For if that radio (be it and ICPD or ICFD radio) is to be able to take advantage of this patch, it must be close enough to communicate well with the IC trunked system. Beyond that range, the IC trunked radios, as currently programmed, are without value. PSAP Activity and workload data With the earlier caveat about "counting PSAP widgets" in mind, these are the data reported by the Iowa City PD PSAP: # 7 digit # 9-1-1 # IA NCIC # Events Population Annual calls calls Actions Disoatched served operating cost 77,190 18,570 (*) 200,000 81,586 63,207 (**) $790,256 (*) 38.7 percent of all 9-1-1 calls were wireless 9-1-1 calls. (**) Iowa City plus University Heights population - does not include U of I. Notes on the above: ~ Seven-digit calls: The Iowa City Police Department has an administrative phone system with an "auto attendant". When one dials (319) 356-5275 the auto-attendant answers, and the caller is told to hang up and dial 9-1-1 if they have an emergency. Beyond that, the caller is given a choice for a department directory, a single digit for the records unit, a single digit for the property unit, and a single digit for the "all other'''' choice, which rings in the dispatch center, 24/7. - G.<n:.l.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-62 December 2005 - These 77,190 reported seven-digit calls are spread across 365 days per year amount to 211 per 24-hour day, or an average of 8.8 per hour, if they occurred evenly spread across a 24-hour day, which they are certainly not. It is important to note, however, the Iowa City Police Department has also implemented a degree of Direct Inward Dialing (DID) for a number of personnel in the Department, whereby calls can be dialed direct to individuals (if the caller knows the individual's DID number) thereby not having to be processed by the dispatch center. It should also be noted the ratio of seven-digit calls to 9-1-1 calls figures out to 19.3 percent calls to 9-1-1 and 80.7 percent calls to the seven-digit number, close to what we projected for the JCSO PSAP where they did not provide seven-digit call data. ~ Number of 9-1-1 calls: Data from Owest represents the number of calls answered. They could be call-backs from an earlier incident, they could be multiple calls on the same incident like a house fire, and they could be calls that were transferred to any other PSAP as required. ~ Number of IA NCIC - As previously explained. ~ Number of Events dispatched: The number of times in the year when a dispatcher told a field responder to go someplace and do something and for which a tracking record was created like "a tic mark being made" to keep track of how many times it was done during a year. ~ Population served: U.S. Census 2000 data. ~ Annual operating cost: As reported by the ICPD in our survey. This figure would amount to a per capita cost of $12.50 when spread across the 63,207 ICPD PSAP served residents. Of this total cost, 85.2 percent is - attributable to personnel costs. PSAP Data Svstems (CAD. etc.) As described earlier in the JCSO section of this part of the report, the ICPD PSAP operates a CIS Windows and PC based CAD System. They also report having mobile data computers (MDCs) in their squad cars, which are interfaced to the CAD system and operate on an 800 MHz radio backbone offered for subscription service by RACOM, which is separate from the City's Motorola 800 MHz voice trunked radio system. PSAP Staffina and deplovment practices The ICPD PSAP reports employing ten full time civilian dispatchers and two part-time. This level of staffing permits an average of approximately two and one half persons on duty in the dispatch center at all times. The ICPD is also relatively unique in our observations and experience in their regular deployment of a volunteer staff person to assist front counter walk-in traffic and some admin phone traffic as well. - G.<o.'>!.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-63 December 2005 - University of Iowa DPS (Police) Location: 323 South Madison, Iowa City Radio Dispatcher workstations: 1 9-1-1 call-taker (Secondary only) workstations: 1 Current PSAP 'nventorv and review: The U of I DPS PSAP is a small area at the walk-in lobby of the DPS facility. It is equipped with minimal PSAP equipment. Since it is not a full network connected E9-1-1 PSAP, it does not have full E9-1-1 call control equipment present. Rather, it is connected to the ICPD's E9-1-1 call control equipment and serves as a remote answering point of the ICPD system to which some 9-1-1 calls are transferred once answered at ICPD. (Others are directly dispatched by the ICPD to the ICFD or JCAS EMS units). Since the U of I PD operates on only several of the talk groups of the Iowa City trunked radio system, their radio control equipment is limited to an "RF Control Station" and not a full radio - console as at the ICPD and JCSO PSAPs. PSAP E9-1-1 telephonv: As referenced above, the U of I PD is only a remote answering position off of the ICPD's full Motorola CentraLink E9-1-1 call termination and control equipment. As referenced earlier, The U of I/DPS dispatch center is not a full E9-1-1 initial PSAP, because it is not directlv connected to the Qwest Enhanced 9-1-1 network serving Johnson County and much of the rest of the State of Iowa. Because of this fact, the following statements are relevant: a. U of I/DPS cannot be the initial recipient of any 9-1-1 call dialed from a cell phone. i. We have been told a vast majority of U of I students carry cell phones and many no longer have wired U of I campus phones in their rooms. b. All calls dialed to 9-1-1 from pay phones on campus go initially to Iowa City Police Department and not the U of IIDPS dispatch center. i. However, there are provisions for a "switch to be flipped" at the U of I dispatch center, in which case 9-1-1 calls could apparently be transferred to the U if I 9-1-1 call answering equipment by JCSO dispatch, as opposed to ICPD dispatch. c. There is the potential for a "less than full E9-1-1 quality" Automatic Location Information - (AU) caller location database update system for calls placed to 9-1-1 within the U of I campus phone system. G.~.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-64 December 2005 - i. This is a ve/y complex situation, but we have been advised the U of I has taken the important step of somewhat integrating their campus phone system into the Owest E9- 1-1 system in Iowa. By "somewhat we mean they have subscribed to a Owest service called PSlALI, which stands for Private Switch/Automatic Location Information. Essentially, this system treats the entire U of I intemal campus phone system as if it were 'Just another local telephone company" serving a certain geographic area or set of subscribed phones. This means the campus phone system has its own dedicated trunks car/ying 9-1-1 calls to the Owest network for subsequent distribution to a fullv connected E9-1-1 answering point or PSAP. (The U of I Public Safety dispatch center is not such a fullv connected dispatch center.) It also means the U of I telecom management function assumes the significant burden of (and responsibility for) regularly (and almost constantly) updating the Owest Automatic Location Information (ALl) database so it knows the specific location of eve/y discrete seven-digit phone number served by that campus phone system. For example, if the number (319) 335- 1234 is installed and working in Professor Smith's office today, but next week Professor Smith retires and his replacement (Professor Jones) is placed into a different physical office, but they want to retain the same phone number Jones had (319) 335-1234, then the U of I telecom folks must manually (or automatically) reach out to the Owest ALl database via their PS/ALllink and tell it (319) 335-1234 is no longer located in room "126 SO" but is now located in room "121 SO". And, if they don't do that, a late night 9-1-1 call placed from (319) 335-1234 while the replacement (Professor Jones) is working late and has a heart attack, would be answered and the location would display as "126 SO" and not "121 SO" where Jones is actually located. This could be far worse in a larger building with many floors and many wings. And, the problem is greater when it is a "private switch" (such as the University and many large businesses have) has no "customer driven" need to necessarily ensure the ALl database is accurate. Specifically, in a "regular" local phone company service, the act of updating the Owest ALl database is a function directly flowing from the act of creating a new billing record for a customer, and since a regular phone company lives or dies on its ability to send out bills to valid addresses, this pretty much ensures a high level of ALl database accuracy for "regular phone company" subscribers which is not always present for internal subscribers to an institution's private phone system. d. All of the above can result in the following scenarios: i. For an incident on campus, assume three people see it happening (something like a fight). ii. Assume Party 1 is near a wired phone that is connected to the U of I campus phone system and they dial 9-1-1 . iii. Assume Party 2 is near a Owest payphone located on campus and they dial 9-1-1. iv. Assume Party 3 has a cell or PCS phone and they dial 9-1-1. - G=.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-65 December 2005 - e. Because the U of I PSAP is not directly connected to the E9-1-1 network, and it cannot be the original recipient of a call dialed to 9-1-1, Party 1 's call goes initially to the Iowa City Police Department dispatch center, where (after initial interrogation of the caller) it can be transferred to the U of I Public Safety dispatch center (for additional or repeated interrogation and subsequent processing) over the internal wiring of the Iowa City Motorola CentraLink E9-1-1 phone system. Essentially, this is like transferring the call between workstations of the Iowa City Police dispatch center. f. Since the pay phone being used by Party 2 is independent from the U of I phone system, Party 2's call goes directly to the Iowa City Police Department 9-1-1 center. g. Party 3's call goes to either the Iowa City Police Department dispatch center or the Johnson County Sheriff's dispatch center, depending on the location of the cell tower the call was originally serviced by, the carrier processing that call or the degree of activity on that given wireless carrier's network at that instant. All of the above is hardlv the reciDe for an effectivelv coordinated Dublic safety reSDonse. Add to this the fact that any incident on campus requiring a response from the Iowa City Fire Department requires the request for service be processed and dispatched by at least two PSAPs, and a third if an ambulance response is involved. As can be seen, this has the implication of being a large issue. And, while there are available technical solutions to the problem, none of them is without their fiscal, operational, time, and - political/control costs. It seems to us before lots of time is spent assessing the technologies and associated costs, there needs to be some high level policy making regarding what the most desirable public safety response outcomes are. Once those desired outcomes are determined, the proper technical fixes can be designed and costs determined for them. A potential logical outcome might be to equip the U of I/DPS dispatch facility as a full E9-1-1 network connected PSAP. We should hasten to point out the above scenario is repeated countless times throughout the USA in major campus environments which operate their own police or security service call center/dispatch point. It took the University of Minnesota from 1982 to 2003 to rectify this issue, and it may not be totally rectified yet. It also occurs (to a greater or lesser degree) in many industrial or other government "campuses" (such as a military base) in the USA where they have their own internal phone system and internal security response services. These facts have led several states (Illinois is the closest to Iowa) to enact specific laws requiring the operators of such internal phone systems connect them directly to the "real E9-1-1 network" and implement systems and procedures to keep that interconnection current and effective. The Illinois law was specifically directed at institutions providing residential facilities, and even more specifically to college campuses. The FCC has also been petitioned to issue a rule that would require the makers and sellers of these PBX anellor Centex services (they are somewhat different) to modify them to "work properly with E9- 1-1", and while said petition has spent nearly 11 years awaiting FCC action (it is verv controversial because it would cost quite a bit of money) it has not died and is still being actively pursued at several levels by organizations like APCO and NENA., the two major public safety communications professional associations. G,~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-66 December 2005 - PSAP Activitv and workload data: As we have stated, "counting PSAP widgets" among and between "regular" city police and county sheriff PSAPs fraught with difficulties, but not nearly so much as trying to compare their data with that related to the with workload in a campus police dispatch operation, especially one which is also managing a security officer force. Therefore, rather than trying to force the U of I's PSAP activity data into a matrix of city and county PSAP activity, we will merely present the U of I's own published activity data sheet (next page) for 2002 and 2003 and let it speak for itself. Note such elements as "building check", "building/room/apartment unlock", "money escort", and "blue cap phone", and one can begin to see the dissimilarities between campus and non-campus operations. "- -" G=.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-67 December 2005 ~ - saMCES PROVIDED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA POlice DEPARTMENT 11m 2W1 911 HNo!G lP CALL 193 178 AlARMS 1UI8 1410 ANIMAL COMPlAJNT 88 79 ASSIST AGENCY' 488 tf.1l ASSIST AMBUlANCE 100 161 ASSIST FAC SRVCStFAMIL Y HOUSINGlRES SRVCS 671 elM ASSIST MOTORIST 1118 18Q ASSIST PUBlIC 121 131 BICYCLE IMPOUND 11 7 BICYCl.EJlOCKER UNlOCK 11 10 BICYClE REGISTRATIONS 51 36 BL.Ue CAP PHONE2 274 m BREACH OF SEcmlTY 100 101 BUILDING CHECKS 291,732 291732 BUILDII'O'ROCMi'APARTMENT lH.OCK eM 528 DELIVER MESSAGE 14 15 OOCUMENTlEQUlPMENTllOST & FOUND ESCORT 23Q 294 EDUCATIONAl OFFERINGS 1119 231 - EOUIPhENT OtECK INIOUT 0 0 EXTRA PATROL REQUESTS 1 10 FINGERPRINTS 10114 1204 FOUP<<l PROPERTY 131 136 KEY CIECK OUT/IN 140 1110 MEDtCAIJ\/EJ-lICLEJPERSONNEl ESCORT 174 120 MONEY ESCORT 512 <MI2 NOTARY PUBLIC 1 2 POWER OUTAGE 5 6 PRO.ECT 10 46 80 SAFETY & SECURITY AOOITS 17 16 SAFETY Hi\ZARD' 30 26 STUCK ElEVATOR 47 10 TICKET VEHIa.ES 51 3Q VEHIClE UN..Oa<S 78 8Q WEAPONS CI-ECK INIOUT 45 15 WB.FARE CHECK 15 .1Q1 TOTAl.. SERVICES 298.652 299.324 Source: University of Iowa Public Safety Department web site at :http://www.uiowa.edu/-pubsftv/ - G,~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-68 December 2005 - PSAP DATA SYSTEMS IN GENERAL. AND CAD SPECIFICALLY: One of the difficulties in preparing a study report such as this is to be able to capture for an audience of "non dispatchers" the subtleties and intricacies of the call taking and dispatching process, especially in a larger, multi position PSAP. As a consultant, one is often tempted to say, "Trust us, we know of what we speak, and things ought to be such and such a way", but that would do the Iowa City and Johnson County 9-1-1 agencies and other readers a disservice. As we have previously mentioned JCSO, ICPD, and U of I all operate some form of public safety Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems. However, having these CAD systems in place did not automatically make the collection of comparable agency-to-agency data for this study easy. As we discussed in each PSAP section of the report, data (and what it meant) can be difficult to interpret from entity to entity. Nevertheless, if a consolidation of several or all of the PSAPs is to occur, it is a good thing CAD is already present and a part of the work processes in the agencies. Without CAD, the size and work level of any newly consolidated PSAP would begin to be unworkable, not to mention the inability to track work activity for staff and resource planning going forward. At its inception (around 1975) CAD was intended only for the largest of dispatch centers (and its cost matched their budgets!), those with numerous police patrol districts, numerous radio - dispatcher channels and dozens to sometimes hundreds of events awaiting an available patrol unit for response. Places like New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc. however, given the increasing affordability of computer driven systems, CAD as used today in many smaller PSAPs, is primarily a record keeping device, and an "automated log" which also checks some relevant files as incident data is entered. This is fine and is not a criticism. However, when implemented in a larger, multi-operator PSAP where telecommunicators may be performing different roles or providing dispatching services to different agencies, CAD takes on far greater importance than is currently the case in many PSAPs. Simply put, E9-1-1 and incoming seven-digit calls are generally not selectively routed within a PSAP. This means when there are four telecommunicators on duty at four workstations (two of which may be 25 feet apart from each other) anyone of the four is eligible to answer a 9-1-1 or other call from any place within the PSAP's service area. If one were to have just the JCSO 9-1-1 dispatchers, the U of I/DPS 9-1-1 dispatchers and the ICPD 9-1-1 dispatcher in one big room, and each was dealing onlv with their own community/agency and its police and fire departments or EMS responders, one would not have accomplished much in the consolidation of the PSAPs, except they would all be in the same room. - G.<;';!?,,, Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-69 December 2005 .- In and of itself, this "non-selective routing of incoming calls" would not be a big issue. However, add to the fact each of the 9-1-10perators is generally managing one of several radio channels and agencies that work on that radio channel/talk group and the part of the jurisdiction where those agencies tend to work. This means, for example, if you are a dispatcher handling Channel/Talk Group A, which is for Town X, and you happen to answer a 9-1-1 call from (for example) that portion of Town Y a few blocks from the PSAP, you may also have to dispatch responders to that call, on different radio channel than the one you had been managing. Furthermore, since you had not been managing the units on the other radio channel, you may have minimal to no awareness of which units are doing what, and you may not even know if some unit has already been assigned to the event you are about to dispatch, due to a call being previously answered and dispatched by one of your co-workers. Often the only way out of this dilemma is to shout (so all other dispatchers can hear you over the radio channel and/or phone traffic blasting into their one ear) to see if anyone else knows anything about this event and if you should go ahead and dispatch it as an all-new emergency call. It is just this sort of chaos which led to the development of CAD systems. With CAD, every operator who answers a phone call has instant access in front of them on a computer screen to a listing of all "events being handled". They also have instant access to a listing of "all units eligible for assignment" and whether they are available or not, and, if not, what event they are assigned to, and how long they have been doing it and where. - But this description only scratches the surface of the power, flexibility, and functionality of CAD. We will cover more on CAD elsewhere in the report. The degree to which this situation occurs in any PSAP is almost 100 percent a function of the level of activity and the number of dispatchers/operators working. To a certain degree it occurs even in PSAPs the size of those in the JCSO and ICPD today, except the two dispatchers who need to coordinate are within ten feet of each other, are generally operating on or listening to the same radio channel, are all responsible for the same field units and the same geography, and can generally overhear what each other is saying on the phone or radio, thereby making coordination much easier. In smaller PSAPs, it is our view CAD is not purchased, nor is it a requirement, for the same reasons it is needed and purchased in larger and busier PSAPs. In small agencies, CAD is not a necessity, per se, to assist the one or two dispatchers on duty in managing their workload or tracking their available field units. It is very valuable, however as a vehicle for expediting the collection and recording of important data associated with the event, such as times, etc. This is as opposed to relying on an already harried dispatcher to remember to either time stamp a card or write a time on it, or remember to ask an important question, for which a CAD system could provide a prompt. Another major component to the "controlled chaos" we are describing here is related to the three other important issues of: - a.) One stage dispatch vs. two stage dispatch G,~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-70 December 2005 - b.) Service specific dispatch vs. cross-service dispatch c.) Geographic consolidation (or not) of police radio districts These are all issues that can be facilitated, organized, and expedited by the use of a properly configured and managed CAD system. Briefly, with CAD it is far easier to implement "2 stage dispatching" and provide the benefits (and, unfortunately, endure the shortcomings) of having positions dedicated to the sole task of answering and devoting 100 percent of their attention to incoming emergency phone calls, while other positions are 100 percent dedicated to dealing with radio dispatching duties. In a CAD assisted two stage dispatch environment, a "call taker" enters an event for dispatch into CAD (after a quick glance tells whether or not the same event has already been entered for dispatch by another call taker, and is subject to review and updating or addition of timely information by this second call taker), and the CAD system automatically prioritizes the event (based on agency driven pre-prioritization schemes developed for each type of incident code) and routes it to the workstation of the radio dispatcher who is handling the agency(ies) which CAD knows should respond to that event in the part of the jurisdiction where the event is taking place. As it relates to "service specific" vs. "cross-service" dispatching and how it is affected by CAD, note in the scenario depicted immediately above, we mention CAD will route the event - that was entered by the call taker to the "radio dispatcher who is handling the agencies which CAD knows should respond to that event", In a "cross-service" dispatch environment, this CAD decision is based 100 percent on geography. In other words, CAD knows which dispatcher position is handling a given town or jurisdiction for police, and fire and EMS dispatching, and routes the events for dispatch to that dispatch position. In "service specific dispatch" (as opposed to cross-service), on the other hand, there is a separate dispatch position(s) which is/are dedicated to fire and/or EMS dispatch for a given geographical area, separate from a dispatch position which is handling law enforcement dispatch for the same geographic area. In this environment, CAD knows this, and sends the fire event (for example) to the fire dispatch position handling that area. CAD can even "clone events" and send a copy of the same event for dispatch action to numerous different service specific workstations. Assume, for example, a serious personal injury car accident (" 1 0-52" in dispatcher parlance) requiring the response of police, fire, (for heavy rescue) and paramedic ambulance(s). Assume further there are "service specific dispatch positions" for each of these three services (Police Department, Fire Department, and EMS). The call taker enters one event, but by classifying it as a "10-52", CAD knows it is a "PF&E" event which requires dispatch of each of the three services, and it automatically sends a copy of that same event to each of the three dispatch positions for their independent dispatch action. Further, anyone of the service specific dispatchers can view that event in the other service's "version" via a few keystrokes. For example, a police officer asks her dispatcher "Where's -- fire?" G~n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-71 December 2005 - The dispatcher merely keys in the event number plus the letter "F" for Fire and instantly sees the fire event in CAD, complete with who was assigned, when, and from where. Finally, relating to CAD, we would be remiss by not also mentioning MDTs/MDCs. Not only does having these devices in field units (particularly police units) mean field officers can generally run their own data checks (thereby off-loading a massive amount of work from the PSAP operators), but these devices can be fully integrated with CAD such that much of the radio traffic between dispatchers and field units and from field unit to field unit can be eliminated. Simply put, any PSAP that is handling the workload and the number of agencies that would be handled by a consolidated Johnson County PSAP will require and enjoy the power and benefits of both CAD and mobile data computing (MDC) devices. Table 1: PSAP Aaencies Demoaraphics. Budaet. and Workload Indicators A<i.J;N(:Y .RoJ>. "~~P ..~_... 63,207 $790,526 81,586 47,799 . $534,702 61,567 o $270,000 5,352 .. - 111,006 $1.51J4,9581~.. (*) Remainder of County population after Iowa City plus U. Hgts. are subtracted t*) Rough estimate by GeoComm of the number of the 299,999 plus "incidents" reported by the U of I that would have involved receipt of a call for service in a PSAP and the assignment of a response unit to an incident. Our assumption is the vast majority of the 291,732 "building checks" reported for 2003 were "patrol initiated" and not assigned, one by one, by a dispatcher. Table 2: PSAP Aaencies Personnel Information AGENCYFTPT . City of Iowa City: 10 2 Johnson County 5.0. 10 1 U of IIDP5 5 2 TOTALS . .25 5 Using our earlier calculated factor of .5 Full Time Equivalency (half full time) for the listed Part Time positions, we will award the three shown with a 2.5 FTE value, which when added to the 25 actual Full Time, comes to a total of 27.5 FTE. G=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 3-72 December 2005 r 4 - ~ Section 4 Considerations in PSAP Consolidation A. Operational issues: The first question that needs to be answered regarding any sort of 9-1-1 PSAP operation is: What services do these PSAPs provide and how are they performed? Before we examine that question, however, it may be helpful to understand how we got where we are today. Historical backaround: A 9-1-1 PSAP is a relatively new creation in the world of emergency services delivery mechanisms in the USA. 9-1-1 first arrived on the scene in 1968, in what was called "Basic 9-1-1" (B9-1-1). With B9-1-1, calls dialed to 9-1-1 from any phone connected to a telephone company central exchange office (CO) were routed directly to the one PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) that served the community in which that CO was located. In many communities around the USA, the geographic boundaries of any telephone CO are rarely concurrent with political jurisdictional boundaries of cities, villages, or counties. This means that CO boundaries often serve phones in more than one community or county. This -- single fact significantly delayed the implementation of B9-1-1 systems. The reason for this was that if of all the phones connected to CO #1 were 50 percent in County or City A and 50 percent in County or City B, to which Countv/Citv PSAP should 9-1-1 calls from a aiven Dhone been sent? Since the USA's public safety services grew up around those services being provided by cities and counties, their dispatching also generally followed city and/or county lines. Therefore, Basic 9-1-1 's inability to route 9-1-1 calls to the PSAP necessarily appropriate for the jurisdiction from which the 9-1-1 call was being placed meant Basic 9-1-1 was slow in achieving acceptance. Enter Enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1). In 1976, the USA's first Enhanced 9-1-1 systems were demonstrated to great fan-fare in Chicago, Alameda County, Califomia and Orange County, Florida. In addition to the obvious advantages of providing Automatic Number Identification (ANI) and Automatic Location Information (All) with the 9-1-1 calls, E9-1-1 also provided the critical capability to selectivelv route E9-1-1 calls to the PSAP determined to be appropriate for the address from which that E9-1-1 call was being placed. This literally meant that if a County or City boundary went down a given street and callers on the East side of the street were in Jurisdiction A and those on the West side of the street were in Jurisdiction B, 9-1-1 calls from the East side could be routed directly to Jurisdiction A's E9-1-1 PSAP, and those from the West side could be routed directly to Jurisdiction B's E9-1-1 PSAP, even if these callers were served by the same telephone exchange central office. ~"' Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-1 December 2005 .- This single fact made E9-1-1 a viable option and its acceptance has swept across the USA, despite no federal mandates and no (or minimal) federal funding assistance. How E9-1-1 has been implemented in individual jurisdictions has varied greatly across the USA. Specifically, the issue of which level of govemment would implement E9-1-1 was the first question that needed to be answered. In many cases, the early adopters of E9-1-1 were major urban cities, without their surrounding County or suburbs participating. They were often followed by their suburban city counterparts in implementing E9-1-1 . The key point in this historical development discussion is the agency that became an E9-1-1 PSAP was almost always that same agency that provided police and fire dispatching before E9-1-1. In other words, if Community A operated its own police/fire dispatch operation prior to E9-1-1, it often continued to provide service to themselves after E9-1-1 and it became an E9-1-1 PSAP. By not having to face the often difficult political questions of which police, sheriff, fire, or ambulance dispatching operations would have to be selected to "get out of the initial emergency call answering business', E9-1-1 planners were able to avoid these politics and concentrate on making the technology of E9-1-1 work. For this reason, there are numerous cases in the USA where some very small police, fire, ambulance, and even sheriff's departments retained their relative Iv cost inefficient - dispatching operations and became E9-1-1 PSAPs. This is not to say there are not areas where the hard issues of "PSAP consolidation" were not examined and even resolved (partially or fully) prior to the implementation of the area's E9-1- 1 system. But it has certainly been the exception. To summarize, one of the reasons Johnson County now has two or three PSAPs is mostly historical. Those agencies that provided seven-digit "emergency call answering" and police and fire dispatch services tended to become today's E9-1-1 PSAPs. These entities have done nothing "more wrong" than most others in their historical progression to this point, with respect to the number of 9-1-1 PSAPs in the County. There was also a significant set of non-telephone system technical issues that surrounded these decisions as well. These issues related to public safety two-way radio systems. Around the mid 1970's the concept of "walkie-talkies" for public safety agencies first arose. Although these hand held radios became a backbone of the movement to "get cops out of their cars and on the streets, in the parks and in the schools", it was not without a technical price. Before a low power hand held radio could be effective it has to: a.) Be able to hear the dispatcher when the dispatcher needed the officer, and b.) Be able to get its radio signal back to the dispatcher so the dispatcher could hear the officer ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-2 December 2005 - Generally, the existing radio systems serving countywide organizations (like sheriff's departments) were not capable of serving hand held radios except, perhaps, near the sheriff's office in the County seat. Therefore, since the local police department probably already had its own small area radio system for their limited jurisdiction land area, it became a natural for the local police department to serve as a dispatch center for itself and be able to serve such portable radios. If, in this environment, it had been suggested that all emergency call answering and dispatching be done at the full county-wide level, it would have required a massive investment in two way radio repeaters (for signal boosting) and satellite receivers (for picking up weak, distant portable radio signals). Such expenditures were often prohibitive and it meant it only made technical and economical sense to have the E9-1-1 PSAP be the same agency that already had a radio system that served the local emergency responders. It also meant that one didn't have to try to meld the widely varied operational procedures of two or more agencies into a larger more "monolithic" dispatching agency. Further, it would also have been a high probability that there may not have been adequate radio frequencies under the technology of those times available within the geography of the area to "patch together" a radio system with adequate capacity to serve numerous agencies. This fact is even further exaggerated in and near major metro areas. Returninq to the basic question of the services Drovided bv PSAPs. in qeneral. - These services can be generally categorized as follows: ~ Answering of phone calls or dealing with walk-in visitors for public safety service and responses, some of an emergency nature, and some clearly not so emergency. ~ Collecting information from these persons regarding their need, where it exists, its urgency, etc. ~ Keeping track of where responders are, who is available and who isn't, due to their status, location, or other service demands. ~ Determining which responders ought to handle the incident in question. ~ Using some form of communications system to notify responders of the need to respond (paging, two way voice radio, ''fire bar" telephone notification systems, fire sirens, etc.) and to where they should respond and for what type of event. ~ Collection of data regarding the responders. Who got sent? How many were sent? When were they sent? When did they arrive? What did they do at the scene? When did they leave the scene? When were they back "in quarters", and so forth. ~ Provision of follow-up information to the responders. Added details provided by the caller or subsequent callers. ~ Provision (over the two-way radio) of incident and non-incident related information to field units, such as running vehicle registration checks, driver's license checks, local record's checks, etc. G=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-3 December 2005 - ~ Receipt (over the two-way radio) of information from field responders or requests for service from field responders. This runs the gamut from 'Tell the street department that we need sand at the corner of Main and 1st", to ''Advise the State that their stop light at Highway 60 and Main street is stuck on green", to "Tell the Chief that the party he is interested in is now at his place of employment", and so forth. ~ Occasionally (more often than not in smaller agencies) serve as clerical staff, typing police reports, doing filing, copying, handing out forms to the public at the front counter, entering data into local, state and national crime and other data banks, etc. ~ Serving as the community (or campus) "24 hour security desk" performing tasks such as monitoring local security and utility alarms (bank alarm, fire water flow alarms, low pressure alarms in city water supply, etc.), tuming on FAA required lights on water and radio towers, serving as the local "waming point" for natural disasters, and even serving as the local "lost and found desk". ~ Serving as jail matrons and jailers. Often dispatchers are required to, at least, monitor local jail "lock-up" cells, usually via closed circuit TV monitors, and (if they are females) to serve as female matrons for female prisoners and/or female arrestee searches. The above list covers the range of services that need to be provided by somebody at or for public safety agencies. IMPORTANT: If the 9-1-1 staff has historically performed these services, and if those employees are no longer needed there (though consolidation), then some provisions need to be made for their continuation, reassignment or discontinuance, on a local option basis. B. Radio Communications Issues: In general, this topic can be summed up by saying an effective public safety communications system must have the following attributes: ~ There must be an effective radio system available to the dispatcher for contacting any and all of their field responders, at any time, under any conditions with a very high degree of reliability. This generally means a good transmission system with good signal strength providing high quality audio to vehicle mounted radios, hand held radios, and belt wom pagers in 95 percent of the jurisdiction's land mass, with special attention to high risk and/or high traffic volume areas and inside standard construction buildings. (Virtually no radio systems provide 100 percent coverage over and/or in 100 percent of the areas or buildings in any area -- or at least nobody can afford to build such systems!) ~ Similarly, there must be the ability for the dispatcher to receive (hear) transmissions from all field units, all types of field radios, in all or most of the areas of the jurisdiction's land area. ~ There should be the ability for the dispatcher to communicate directly with all other PSAP agency's dispatchers from which they might require assistance, support, coordination, or back-up services. .- G=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-4 December 2005 - ~ There should be the ability for the dispatcher to communicate directly with the field units and control points ("dispatchers") for any agency within their jurisdiction whom they might need to direct or coordinate. Typically this means public works agencies, ambulances, transit agencies, etc. ~ There should be the ability for field units from the jurisdiction to communicate directly with other field units from their jurisdiction (any type of agency within their jurisdiction), as well as any other field units from any other jurisdiction with whom they may have the need to coordinate. ~ There should be the provision for adequate communications security so sensitive information can be exchanged over the two way radio without jeopardizing the effective management of public safety incidents. ~ There should be adequate "talk path capacity" so that no field unit needs to wait more than a few seconds for the ability to access the system for important information. (If this relates to field units talking to dispatchers, it is also a function of how many dispatchers there are on duty with the time to listen to the field unit. Having ten radio channels or talk groups available to a field unit, all of which can theoreticallv be heard by the dispatcher, but having only one dispatcher on duty at that instant, and that one dispatcher being kept busy listening to traffic on another radio channeVtalk group means there is not adequate "talk path capacity".) ~ The communications resources (talk paths) and operations must be arranged and melded to meet the objectives of maximizing the efficient use of these talk paths, in line with operational requirements and preferences. This point relates to the question of how many functional radio "channels" (or trunked radio talk groups) there should be, how many different and discrete radio "channels" a given dispatcher can handle and how these issues relate to how the agencies on these channels work (or don't work) well together. Specifically, today in Johnson County there are discrete radio talk groups and channels used to dispatch the Iowa City Police Department, Iowa City Fire Department, the Johnson County Sheriffs Department, the JCAS EMS service, the small town/rural fire departments in the County, and the U of I/DPS Patrol units. Each of these channels or talk groups has one or more dispatchers at its home PSAP whose primary job it is (or is presumed to be by the field units) to pay close attention to THAT radio channel or talk group and answer it when somebody calls. This arrangement means the field personnel from each of the above agencies spend most of their shifts tuned exclusively to and are required to pay attention primarily to THEIR AGENCY'S TALK GROUP/CHANNEL. They are not required to listen intently to their neighbor's radio traffic in the adjoining agency, and, in fact, doing so may mean they miss out on critical information on their own radio channel. (Many two way radios can "scan" the talk groups or channels they have not selected for transmit. For example, if the ICPD and JCSO were on the same radio svstem, and if an ICPD officer wanted to monitor the Johnson Sheriff's channel, he/she could "scan" their radio talkgroup, while his/her radio is tuned to transmit on an ICPD talkgroup. G.<.;M" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-5 December 2005 .- Since being tuned to Iowa City for transmit makes Iowa City the "priority talkgroup", if there is traffic on the Iowa City talk group, the radio will instantly revert to the Iowa City talk group to pick it all up. However, if the Iowa City officer really wants to "lock in" on something happening on the Johnson Sheriff's talkgroup (for example), or communicate with somebody in the JCSO and selects the JCSO talk group for transmit, then that Iowa City officer risks missing out on Iowa City radio traffic directed to him or her. ) In the type of consolidated PSAP being evaluated by this study, an important question must be answered as to whether or not such a consolidated PSAP would retain the sort of talkgroup arrangement described above. On the one hand, doing so would be most comfortable for the field officers. Thev would have to chanGe nothinG. Iowa City officers would talk on the Iowa City dispatch talk groups, Johnson County deputies on the JCSO talk groups/channels, U of I officers on the U of I DPS talk group, and so forth. This is a possible arrangement. From a technical perspective, it would not be difficult to implement what is called "RF CONTROL" of each agency's current trunked or conventional radio system repeaters from a new consolidated PSAP location anywhere within the County. That way, the dispatchers could talk to the officers and fire fighters from the specific agencies on their comfortable old agency talk groups or channels. - But, such an arrangement could have significant ramifications on either PSAP operations or staffing, or both. Simply put, it is our experience that having one dispatcher responsible for two or more discrete police radio channels or talk groups is not effective. We stress police channels, because police channels are a sort of an "open mike, stream of consciousness" type of a communications pathway, where all officers on their dispatch talk group/channel assume all other officers and all dispatchers on the dispatch talk group are paying 100 percent attention to that talk group 100 percent of the time. This is because when and if an officer has to "bail-out" of the squad car on a fleeing suspect that was just observed running away from a crime scene, and that officer only has time to shout, "Squad 21, I'll be in foot pursuit North on Main from Maple on a robbery suspect" into the squad car radio microphone, that officer expects that the dispatcher on that talk group will have heard and will not have been distracted by being busy talking on some other discrete police talk group to which that dispatcher is also required to pay "exclusive attention". This becomes relevant in this study because J! it is assumed that a consolidated PSAP will retain all the three current discrete police/sheriff dispatch radio talk groups/channels in their current usage mode, ~ will likely mean that there should be at least three discrete law enforcement radio dispatch pos~ions staffed at all times, which impacts on the ability to implement either dedicated call taker positions or dedicated fire/EMS staff positions, and thusly the overall staffing requirements of the consolidated PSAP and whether or not all of the potential efficiencies of consolidation could be realized. c~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-6 December 2005 - C. 9-1-1 and seven-diait call handlina issues: 1. Multiple simultaneous 9-1-1/seven-diait callers. In any PSAP environment, it is a fact of life there are occasionally more incoming phone calls than there are hands and ears to answer them promptly. This situation has been somewhat regulated by the basic design of the regular and E9-1-1 telephone networks. Specifically, if a PSAP has only four incoming seven-digit lines, there can only be four simultaneous incoming seven-digit calls, regardless of how many dispatch staff may be on duty. Further, with E9-1- 1, not only are there a limited number of "lines" serving any given PSAP, but the E9-1-1 network in the community also has a finite number of E9-1-1 trunks that can carry simultaneous 9-1-1 calls from one telephone Central Office (CO) to the E9-1-1 network. This is referred to as "network congestion control". Simply put, it means if there are two E9-1-1 trunks from (for example) the North Liberty local telephone company central office to the Qwest E9-1-1 selective router(s) serving Johnson County, not more than two persons using phones connected to the North Liberty CO can simultaneouslv get through to 9-1-1. A third person dialing from within the geographical service area of the North Liberty telephone CO would typically receive a ''fast busy" signal indicating that the network is busy. Having said all of this, any PSAP must recognize the possibility that there might be a flurry of either 9-1-1 or seven-digit calls at any instant. Referring back to the earlier discussion on wireless 9-1-1, the likelihood of such a flurry is now significantly greater than in the past (with the exception, perhaps, of wide spread weather disasters such as a tornado). In the past, for every house fire, car accident, or similar local event, there would only be a few wired calls coming in the first few minutes. Now, with wireless, that could easily be dozens. These issues present significant staffing challenges for any PSAP. In the past, one could look at historical data on call loads and incident loads and make a pretty good educated guess as to how many operators to have on duty on any given shift. Now, in even the most serene community, if something like an interstate highway runs through or near it carrying dozens to hundreds of persons passing through, with many to most carrying cell phones, an event as seemingly minor as a car spinning out into a ditch during a snowstorm can cause for literally dozens of 9-1-1 calls within very few minutes. Every single one of these calls must be answered as if each was a new emergency situation. Unfortunately, neither 9-1-1 calls nor seven-digit calls have the capability of "pre-announcing" their relative urgency. A ringing 9-1-1 line must be presumed at any instant to be the "event of the decade" in that community until answered and determined to be otherwise. How is an agency that has traditionally staffed its PSAP with one or two dispatchers (and only has work spaces for two or maybe three) supposed to be able to handle such a flurry of activity? 2. Call handlina priorities: In an environment where there are or will likely be more phone calls at any given moment than there are staff available to answer them, it becomes necessary to establish call handling priorities. These priorities should be: 1. Answering ringing incoming 9-1-1 calls. G=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-7 December 2005 - ~ Some PSAPs are putting in separate inbound wired and wireless 9-1-1 trunks to create the potential for prioritizing between ringing wired and wireless 9-1-1 calls, as well as ensuring that a flood of calls on (usually) wireless trunks will not render the PSAP's equipment over-loaded and unavailable to wired 9-1-1 callers from the area. This has been done in both the Iowa City and Johnson County PSAPs already, and is not applicable to today's U of I PSAP as they can't get any wireless 9-1-1 calls directly as it is. 2. Answering ringing incoming calls on seven-digit lines which are published as alternatives to 9-1-1. 3. Answering ringing incoming calls on seven-digit lines which are published or known as "administrative lines". 4. Answering ringing incoming calls on seven-digit lines which are unpublished or known only to department staff for internal calls. Where this can become difficult is when the limited staff on duty needs to place callers on hold in order to fulfill the above priorities. One of the more prevalent myths about 9-1-1 is that all 9-1-1 calls are life-threatening emergencies and cannot afford to ever be put in hold. This is not generally true. The large majority of all 9-1-1 calls, while often requiring prompt attention, would certainly not be harmed if the operator had to place them on hold while quickly answering another equally high priority line. Simply put, it is not usually a problem for a 9-1-1 operator to place a 9-1-1 call on hold momentarily, grab another ringing 9-1-1 line and quickly ask "9-1-1 is this an emergency?" and if the caller says "no", then either ask the caller to "please hold" or to call back on the non-emergency number, and then return to the original call. A competent 9-1-1 operator can often handle two or three calls at essentially the same time, provided none of them are of the medical emergency or "crime in progress" type of call. When this becomes a problem is when the call answering tasks have to compete with radio traffic or data inquiry tasks. One of the recurring themes we hear when we analyze the satisfaction of public safety field personnel (particularly fire fighters) with their dispatching services is along the lines of: "Why is it when I call in on the radio, the dispatcher(s) often don't answer me promptly....they are always over on the other channel paying attention to the (pick your other agency, police, fire, or EMS) or on the phone talking to someone about some (pick your other agency, police fire or EMS) problem. Don't they understand I am out here in the real world and I need a response right away?" This phenomenon is often inherent in what is called "one stage consolidated dispatching". This term "one stage dispatching" refers to a dispatching system where the on duty dispatchers are all (generally) equally responsible for answering incoming phone calls and dealing with two way radio traffic, counter traffic and/or running data checks such as driver's license checks and so forth. C,=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-8 December 2005 .- The term "consolidated" dispatching is used here to refer to a PSAP that provides direct and total services to a variety of response agencies, usually law enforcement, fire, and EMS. The problem is often more apparent in "cross service" issues. By this, we mean it is most often a problem with fire service and/or EMS personnel feeling dispatch staff perceive as "paying more attention to law enforcement personnel and issues" is slighting them. This perception is somewhat to be expected, since the vast majority of the workload carried by these dispatchers is law enforcement related. (Note that in police-fire-EMS consolidated PSAPs, the ratio of police events dispatched to fire and/or EMS events often exceeds 5: 1, meaning that over 80 percent of the events dispatched were police events.) Further, since dispatchers are regularly inter-acting with law enforcement personnel 24 hours a day, and only dealing with fire and EMS personnel on those relatively rare occasions when they have been dispatched to a call, it would be understandable for them to identify more with law enforcement. Add to this the fact that in most cases in the USA (and certainly in Johnson County) these dispatchers are most often employed by, wear the uniforms of, work under the supervision of, and usually in the physical space of the law enforcement agency. None of this is said to minimize the frustration felt by a fire fighter or paramedic when they are desperately trying to get an answer on the radio from a dispatcher, unaware the dispatcher is on a phone call that does not lend itself to being placed on hold, or on another radio channel (that the fire fighter is not listening to or aware of) handling what may be an equally as important transmission. It is said, however, to develop an understanding of the foundation of some of these complaints and how they are often the result of "systems issues" brought on - by too few dispatchers, handling too many simultaneous tasks, with equipment that does not facilitate "multi-tasking" (such as radio console/telephone headset interfaces), and for agencies whose mission is sometimes in time conflict with other agencies, rather than an intentional act of a dispatcher "ignoring" a field unit. In many cases, where staffing is adequate and systems are appropriate, many of these issues can be resolved by: A. Assigning individual dispatch staff to discrete tasks as in: 1. Only answering the phone 2. Only dealing with law enforcement on a law enforcement radio channel 3. Only dealing with fire/EMS matters on appropriate radio channels B. Implementing "Two Stage Dispatch" under which one group of staff only answer incoming phone calls, and another group of staff only do radio work, for both law enforcement and fire/EMS or for these services independently. C. Implementing and/or fully utilizing technology solutions designed to relieve a large portion of radio work for dispatchers. Mainly, these are Mobile Data Terminal (MDT) systems interfaced with Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD). Without full and effective use of MDTs and CAD, all this activity has to be done over the radio, commanding dispatcher time and attention and radio channel time. G.\-~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-9 December 2005 - D. Implementing simple technologies such as effective telephone-console-headset interfaces, which essentially allow a dispatcher to talk on the phone and radio at the same time, without the listeners on either end knowing they are doing both tasks at once. 3. Seven-diQit calls and calls for local aaencv personnel (durina and after hours). One of the problems in considering the "shutting down" of any given PSAP and the assumption of the PSAP's "dispatching tasks" by some larger "consolidated" agency, is what to do with those seven-diait calls? As we see in the data regarding the current PSAP's activity levels, there are lots of seven-digit phone calls answered in PSAPs. For example, in the ICPD PSAP they determined that they received approximately 77,000 such calls per year, or an average of 211 per 24-hour day. Further (by way of example), the ICPD PSAP handled 18,570 calls on 9-1-1 lines last year. This means for every one 9-1-1 call, the ICPD PSAP answers four plus calls on their seven-digit lines, making 9-1-1 calls only 20 percent of the total phone calls answered at the ICPD PSAP. TABLE: PSAP Total Aaencv Activitv levels: AGENCY Events 7 DIGIT 9-1-1 NCIC TOTAL COST Disp. CALLS CALLS TRANS Activity PER YEAR ICPD 81,586 77,190 18,570 200,000 377,346 $790,256 JCSO 61,567 84,006' 28,002 119,323 292,898 $534,702 U of I/DPS 5,352' ? - ? ? $270,000 Totals 148,505 161,203 47,483 319,323 670,244 $1,594,958 , GeoComm's estimates using logic presented earlier From earlier data it can be seen that the ICPD PSAP gets about one 9-1-1 call per year for each 3.3 residents, while the JSCO PSAP gets about one 9-1-1 call per year for each 1.71 residents. This means that county's 9-1-1 "call-rate" is about twice as high as the City's, based on their respective populations. Why this variation in the relative numbers of 9-1-1 calls, related to population? We think there are several reasons for these variations. They range from demographics to technologies to the degree to which "call diversion" procedures are in place, to the tone and flavor of 9-1-1 public education efforts. For example: ~ A large portion of persons desiring service or information from the police, fire, or EMS services still do not dial 9-1-1. They dial the number they know (maybe from memory) that will connect them directly to their "local folks", often thinking that 9-1-1 is some distant and remote service. ~ Many persons think an event has to be an "immediate life threatening event" before a call to 9-1-1 would be appropriate, so they dial a seven-digit number instead. ~ Many persons call the general seven-digit number for the police department because they know it will often be answered 24 x 7 and it's easier than looking up the direct dial number for the Chief's office or the Water Department or whatever. - G=.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-10 December 2005 - Conversely, some departments have installed and run listings in the phone book and at 4-1-1 for a high level of "direct inward dial" (DID) numbers for various persons or divisions in the police or sheriff's department. ~ Many persons have what they think mav be a police or fire incident, question or event, but they aren't sure, so they want to call the "local police" for advice on how to proceed, but they don't want to "bother those nice folks at 9-1-1", not realizing that in many cases they'll be talking to the very same "nice folks". ~ Many have legitimate business with people other than dispatchers at a given agency and the only number they know of is the seven-digit number for that agency's dispatch center. So they call it. ~ Some agencies have decided to use their 9-1-1 dispatchers as general telephone operators and telephone receptionists either 24 x 7 or after business hours, and expect them to be the general telephone operator for the police department, and in some cases, City Hall in general, as well. Having said all of this to explain why there are lots of seven-digit calls, to be made to consolidate any of the 9-1-1 call taking and public safety dispatching in the county, it must be cognizant of this fact. Simply put, these seven-digit calls have to be answered by somebody (or system) some place. Generally, it is our experience it just doesn't work well to have an agency's seven-digit administrative phone line routed to and answered at a distant 9-1-1 PSAP. If it is well established this is an administrative and non-emergency phone number, then there is very little the 9-1-1 operators at a remote PSAP can do for the caller anyway, other than tell them to hang up and dial some other number. (Unless there is a viable Centrex or Centron service offering available from the local phone company. Under these systems, it could be conceivable -- but not likely due to their geographic separation -- for all City and County offices in Iowa City to be served by the same phone company CENTREX service and for calls to be transferred from one phone within that system to another phone within that system. Under such a system, at a "remote PSAP" the operators could answer any seven-digit call for any function in the ICPD, the ICFD and/or the JCSO and transfer it to the desired end person or unit, as if they were all in the same building. This would be feasible since Centrex and/or Centron services are phone company Central Office based and not based on a customer owned switch fa PBX] on the customer's site.) With all of the technology now available in the area of Centrex, remote call forwarding, local number portability, direct inward dial systems with voice mail systems, automated attendant systems and so forth, we are relatively confident that, on a case by case basis, the proper combination of technology and procedures can be implemented to solve this problem, if there is a will and desire to solve it. - ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-11 December 2005 - The bottom line here is that if an agency thinks it is going to shut its 9-1-1 PSAP down and have somebody else "do 9-1-1" for them (so as to "save lots of money on dispatcher salaries" that agency must give serious consideration to this seven-digit number issue. Either some person will have to answer these calls in the local Police Department, or these lines will need to ring in at a consolidated PSAP, perhaps capable of being answered in a manner tailored to the community, or some electronic system will need to be put in place to receive the calls and at least deliver a "we're closed, call 9-1-1 if you have an emergency, hang up and dial 9-1-1" message. Provision of Emeraencv Medical Dispatch (EMDl. In Johnson County it is occasionally desirable for persons who dial 9-1-1 to be offered EMD procedures and information. This also means a rather high level of training and certification needs to be in place and enforced. There is no mandate in Iowa for EMD. There is, however, a set of national protocols and standards generally adhered to by 9-1-1 professional organizations that choose to offer EMD services to their public. In some states, EMD is mandatory. The EMD issue has been handled in two different ways in Johnson County. If the caller dials 9-1-1 and reaches the ICPD PSAP, the ICPD dispatchers are trained in and certified for EMD. On the other hand, if the caller dials 9-1-1 and reaches the JCSO PSAP, EMD is not provided. The issue at the JCSO is staff availability to offer - this intensive "must-stay-on-the-line-throughout-the-call" type of service. NOTE: EMD and the decision to provide or not provide the service is a question that has been asked and answered in many different ways around the USA. Some of the areas needed to be examined as a given community works to answer this question are: A. Who are the "first responders" to medical emergencies in the jurisdiction? B. What is their average response time to medical emergencies? C. What is their level of training and equipment? EMT-II? Paramedic? D. If the first responders arrive in four minutes or less, on average, is there a statistically high probability of EMD being a true life saving service? E. What is the frequency of incidents in which EMD would be a valuable service, and in which it could practically be provided? a. Example: It may be a "baby not breathing call", but if the caller is not holding the baby and is not in the same room as the baby or even in the same house as the baby, providing EMD instructions on how to do rescue breathing on the baby to that caller would not do much good. F. If the relative frequency of events in which EMD would be beneficial is fairly low (less than five per week) are there enough incidents so as to provide the opportunity for the PSAP staff to develop and maintain a high level of proficiency? G,~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-12 December 2005 - G. Is there an agency or entity to which calls requiring EMD (or eligible of benefiting from EMD) could be transferred to or with which a 'three way call" could be established for the provision of EMD? H. How much would it cost to implement and maintain EMD and EMD proficiency and/or certification where none exists today? I. What is the relative liability exposure for deciding to offer a discretionary service (one not mandated by the State or Feds) and then being sued for not having done it "right" or for failing to do it in a given case? In order to provide this service in as efficient a manner as possible, some regions and/or counties have decided such calls received at the local PSAPs should be transferred to a regional service either at another and larger PSAP, or at some EMS service delivery agency such as an ambulance dispatch service where they will be handled by persons who also dispatch the ambulance services. This ensures that the provision of EMD information will generally be "concentrated" within one place, increasing the likelihood that the EMD providers will have the maximum exposure to EMD to maintain their proficiency. D. Data collection issues: 1. Uniform data collection issues. As has been apparent in the preparation of this report, the quality and type of data collected in the several PSAPs regarding activities conducted, -- time spent on activities, and so forth is not perfect. Without good metrics on which to base evaluations of performance and efficiency, it becomes very difficult to make sound judgments going forward on hiring, staff deployment, quality control, and a host of other aspects of service provision. Here are a couple of examples: ~ A CAD system collects data regarding the dispatch, enroute, on scene, and clear scene times for all fire units that respond to all events. Later, policy makers need to make a decision on where a new or relocated fire station should be built. By taking the historical data from the CAD system for all response times within a certain area, it is possible to draw time histograms which graphically depict areas where the response time exceeds a pre-set limit, and use that information to make decisions on the best location for a new fire station, so as to improve fire response times. This is an analysis that needs to be done not by the dispatch center staff, but by the planners, administrators, and public policy makers for the agency in question, but they need to know the data exists, how to interface to it, and how to use it. ~ A police agency wants to adjust their patrol operations to target "hot spots of crime". For this they need to know on a regular basis where police incidents are occurring. This can be accomplished by either having the CAD system available to police commanders in the field or in their stations for ad-hoc "event searches" so as to develop short-term strategies for the next day or the next shift. - G=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-13 December 2005 - Or, the CAD system can be linked to the police department's RMS so the local police department would have their "own copy" of the data for not only analysis, but to serve as the genesis point for all the reports that they create internally. This appears to be implemented in the Johnson County agencies. Similarly, automated processes or equipment should be implemented to track seven-digit phone calls handled, and other similar time consuming tasks performed in the PSAP. It is our understanding, for example, that by having the PSAP's seven-digit phone lines fed into the E9-1-1 PSAP workstation, one may purchase from the E9-1-1 equipment vendor the "MIS package" so as to be able to capture much of the same data regarding date, time, duration, etc. of seven-digit calls as you do for 9-1-1 calls. The bottom line is all of this good data that is collected as a part of the 9-1-1/seven-digit call receipt and dispatch process must be available (within certain parameters) to the field agencies to assist their on-going operations as well. We would like to see whatever consolidated or non-consolidated PSAP(s) that come out of this effort implement a uniform data collection criteria and process so that a consistent set of mutually understood and agreed upon data elements will be collected in a uniform manner, to permit fair "apples to apples" comparisons. Said data should include all relevant PSAP activities, not just CAD events, 9-1-1 or seven-digit calls or NCIC activity. E. Public Access to Public Safetv Facilities Issues - 1. How and when do people aet access to the facilitv or persons at aaencies dispatched bv a PSAP? This issue is not too different than the issue discussed earlier regarding the answering of seven-digit administrative phone calls. Obviously, if there is someone working at a police or sheriff's department assigned to answer these phone calls 24 x 7, then dealing with walk-in visitors at that facility should not be a problem, should there not be anyone else in a position to provide that service (receptionist, desk officer, etc.). At the Johnson County Sheriff's Department, the dispatchers are not relied on to provide counter assistance or jail monitoring during the workday. At the Iowa City Police Department and the U of I/DPS, the dispatchers (or the daytime volunteer at the ICPD) are called on to provide counter service 24 x 7. However, if it is an agency's decision to shut down their PSAP and to either merge with a neighbor or participate in some form of PSAP consolidation, and that agency has historically relied on their 9-1-1 personnel to serve in this "receptionist" role, they will either have to redefine their "walk-in access to the public" policies for the many and varied service requests presented by these visitors, or they will have to replace the 9-1-1 staff (as "receptionists") with some other either existing or new staff positions, and if new staff at the cost of new dollars. At a minimum, if a PSAP has historically provided "walk-in access" 24 x 7 (such as the ICPD and U of I), it would be sound practice to at least create the ability for persons who approach this facility to use an "automatic ring down" phone (near the door that would be locked) to gain access to that agency's administrative phone system to leave a message or to get into an individual employee's voice mail-box. G....\l" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-14 December 2005 - Similarly, since some of these "walk-ins" are walking in to report some emergency in their car, or on the street or wherever, it would also be good policy to install something like a pay phone (which has free access to 9-1-1) to facilitate these folks reporting their emergency or urgent incident. A concept that miqht merit consideration in Johnson County flows from the relatively unique situation that finds the JCSO, ICPD, and U of I DPS are all located relatively close (within a few blocks) to each other already. Simply put, it miqht be feasible, were there to be new consolidated PSAP facility located in downtown Iowa City, to offer "walk-in/counter service" for all three aqencies by one person at the front desk at this one facility. Properly trained, and with access to the phone systems and computer systems of the three agencies, this one person at one desk could Dossiblv handle this work. This would be as opposed to the concept of replacing the departed dispatchers at each of the PSAPs with a set of counter attendants at each of the former PSAPs. Conceivably, creating and staffing this ''front desk" position with 4.5 FTE (combination of full and part time) "Communications Aides" at the new consolidated PSAP facility and funding them out of the budget for the consolidated PSAP would provide a logical and equitable way to share this cost. Further, these positions could provide the required clerical support for the stand-alone PSAP entity and its management as well as serving as entry level positions for persons interested in pursuing Public Safety Dispatcher as a career option. However, we are not aware of this concept having been implemented elsewhere (consolidated "front desk" staff), and it is our sense that (at least) the ICPD would require the staffing of a 24 x 7 replacement front desk function. 2. How. or should PSAP maintain security at its remote facilities? This may well be a new issue to some PSAPs. Whether or not it is an issue for a given agency depends on the history and practices of that agency. If a facility has historically served as a PSAP, there is almost always some sort of security in place, to keep the general public from just strolling into the actual dispatch center. But the issue here is that said law enforcement facility would no longer be a PSAP under an independent merger or consolidation plan. Therefore, measures and systems that were in place to restrict access into the actual dispatch room in the old location will no longer be adequate to restrict access into that entire facility. On the one hand, if the facility will continue to be staffed 24 x 7 by somebody, then remoting an alarm system and/or CCTV to another facility (such as the consolidated PSAP) would not be required. However, if the facilitv will now be without OCCUDants (except for times when one or more of the field personnel happens to be in the facility) this can become an issue. It can be more significant if one is concemed about security of public safety vehicles and equipment that is usually left outside. It would be a matter of considerable risk for someone to attack, damage or place some sort of an explosive device on a police car sitting outside an occupied police facility from which the culprit would fear an immediate detection --probably via CCTV-- and response. However, remove the CCTV monitoring and the threat of immediate response to their intrusion, and it becomes a lot easier and less risky for the culprit. How to ensure this security can be problematic, particularly if there are no secure fences or extra lighting present now. G=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-15 December 2005 - In general we would strongly caution against assuming that effective security can be achieved remotely via expecting dispatchers in a remote PSAP to monitor a CCTV picture of a facility, or listen to audio monitoring of that facility. It is virtually impossible to guarantee this can always be done to the level required to meet that expectation, since clearly the dispatcher's primary responsibility needs to be answering 9-1-1 and dispatching emergency units. Having said this, facility managers who have concerns in this realm need to assess their particular needs and consider implementing security measures typical to what any other non-staffed facility with a similar risk level would have. This could include garages for at-risk vehicles, high security lighting, and high fences with some type of barbed wire on them, CCTV cameras feeding VCRs, and perhaps with motion sensing cameras that would trip an audible alarm. Having some form of intrusion alarm for such public safety facilities annunciate at a PSAP may also be desirable. Mentioning the monitoring of alarms at the PSAP reminds us that alarm monitoring (both private security and fire alarms as well as what we call "function alarms" for municipal facilities such as sewage lift station alarms) can become an issue that requires attention before any merger or consolidation can take place. (The reader is directed back to our discussion of the extensive alarm system monitoring that may take place at the U of IIDPS PSAP). Simply put, if nobody will be in the "to be vacated PSAP" to hear and react to an alarm that annunciates there today, what will need to be done to that alarm if there is a consolidation of PSAPs? Electronically, this is usually relatively simple, in that most of these alarms get their signal to the PSAP for the activation of said alarm over leased phone lines feeding that PSAP. Obviously a leased phone line that terminates in PSAP X today could be redirected to PSAP Y (a consolidated PSAP) to serve the same purpose. However, there are widely varying policies and philosophies about whether or not any PSAP should serve as an "Alarm Monitoring Service", sometimes in competition with local private businesses. If the consolidated PSAP management decides against monitoring such private alarm systems, then private alarms that are being monitored today by PSAPs to be closed will need to be advised and directed elsewhere for such monitoring. (Most experts agree the monitoring of alarms for governmental facilities, especially public safety facilities, at a PSAP is appropriate). F. PSAP Supervision: In general, at the PSAPs in Johnson County there is minimal to no "on the scene and in the building" professional dispatch supervision provided on a 24 x 7 basis. By this term we mean professional supervisors/managers who have made Emergency Communications management their career, and who are not "tied to the console" during the bulk of their shifts and are available to supervise and monitor the activity of others, as opposed to (for example) career law enforcement or fire personnel, regardless of their rank. - G~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-16 December 2005 - G. Personnel issues: 1. How manv staff are needed? The answer to this question is 100 percent driven by two subordinate questions. They are: a. What tasks will this staff be expected to perform, and in what manner? b. How many of those tasks will there be to perform? When? We can provide some planning tools, and then use those tools to arrive at some projections of staffing levels required in a variety of consolidated PSAP configurations. Staffina of at least a second 9-1-1 position: It is a fact that 9-1-1 communications networks are designed at great expense to generally achieve what is called "P.01 Grade of Service". This is a network queuing theory that strives to ensure that not more than one person in 100, on the busy hour of the busy day will get a busy signal when they dial 9-1-1. Therefore, since getting lots of 9-1-1 calls passed through the telephone network without busy signals is a desirable objective (and it is), it should be equally desirable to cause for those calls to be answered in as rapid a manner as possible, by persons responsible for dispatching the appropriate responders for the incident location. In other words. shouldn't there be "P.01 at the PSAP", as well as in the network? This would mean there needs to be a close look at the human call answerinq caoacitv at the PSAP, in addition to equipment and network based call orocessinq caoacitv to that PSAP. The most cost-effective way in which the call answerina capacity of the 9-1-1 network serving Johnson County could be maximized (without resorting to having multiple calls "roll-over" to neighboring PSAPs) is to have the most number of 9-1-1 dispatchers as possible on duty in one place, to where all the 9-1-1 calls would be routed. Earlier we used this table: AGENCY Events 7 DIGIT 9-1-1 NCIC TOTAL COST Disp. CALLS CALLS TRANS Activity PER YEAR ICPD 81,586 77,190 18,570 200,000 377,346 $790,256 JCSO 61,567 84,006 28,002 119,323 292,898 $534,702 U of I/DPS 5,352 ? ? ? ? $270,000 Totals 148,505 161,203 47,483 319,323 670,244 $1,594,958 From the above table, the critical number is the total of "events dispatched". However, as we have established earlier, there is far more done than the dispatching of events within a PSAP. For that reason we have come up with a method we think tends to capture a more complete picture of activity in a PSAP. We call this the "PSAP INDEX OF ACTIVITY". It has several component parts. They are: ~ Number of events dispatched G~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-17 December 2005 - ~ Number of seven-digit calls answered ~ Number of 9-1-1 calls answered ~ Number of NCIC (State driver's license type, etc. data checks) performed and entries created When all of the above are counted and added together, this is the "total number of dispatching widgets" handled in a year by everyone who does public safety dispatching in these PSAPs in Johnson County. Those figures for these PSAPs are reflected in the TOTAL column on the right side of the above table. Simply put, if there were to be a single consolidated PSAP instead of the current three PSAPs, something more than 670,244 (to account for the lack of data from U of I/DPS) is the number of "widgets" (discrete dispatch related or performed transactions) such a facility would have had to deal with in a year with the same activity levels as the year of the data in this table - assuming all the work being done at today's stand-alone PSAPs were to migrate to a consolidated PSAP elsewhere. In order to determine how many staff is required to handle this minimum of 670,244 "INDEX ACTIVITIES", one needs to first figure out approximately when these transactions typically occur during the day and on which days of the week. - G~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-18 December 2005 - Seven-diait in comina phone call workload analvsis: Using sample data provided to us from a wide variety of PSAPs, (large, small and medium), representing both PSAPs which serve as their agency's "regular phone operators" as well as those who only do "emergency call taking", we have determined that incoming seven-digit calls are typically spread across the 24 hours of the day in the manner depicted in the chart below. (The hourly break-outs from a sample one month period at the ICPD are shown in these italics in the middle column for comparison.) HOUR at START ICPD one Multi agency sample OF 7 DIGIT CALL month sample percent of day's 7 data digit calls occurring at this hour 0300-0359 3.29% 1.18% 0400-0459 2.29% 0.77% 0500-0559 1.95% 1.59% 0600-0659 1.17% 1.49% 0700-0759 1.95% 2.36% 0800-0859 2.27% 4.52% 0900-0959 4.32% 5.49% 1000-1059 5.10% 7.14% 1100-1159 5.70% 7.60% 1200-1259 5.59% 7.19% .- 1300-1359 6.15% 5.55% 1400-1459 5.90% 6.11% 1500-1559 4.68% 6.37% 1600-1659 5.24% 5.59% 1700-1759 6.09% 5.08% 1800-1859 5.23% 6.42% 1900-1959 5.03% 4.42% 2000-2059 4.22% 5.96% 2100-2159 4.37% 3.90% 2200-2259 4.19% 3.38% From the above, it is obvious where it is NOT BUSY. Specifically, the hours of 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7:00 a.m. are the least busy, across the board. There is often a general increase across the board from 9:00 a.m. to about 3 or 4:00 p.m. Then, after awhile, NCIC and 9-1-1 activity moderates somewhat, and CAD activities increase modestly. This gives a clue as to how we can proceed with this allocation. Often, when one activity goes up, another goes down, thereby indicating an overall balance. This would often be due to time available. For example, if all patrol units are all busy handling assigned calls, there is less time for patrol officers to make requests for license plate checks and driver's license checks resulting from traffic stops. Therefore, while CAD events and/or 9-1-1 calls may be up during that period, NCIC queries could be down. - G.~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-19 December 2005 .- Certainly, these days and times fluctuate widely, based on a host of extemal factors such as the weather, when the first and 15th of the month falls (pay days), when welfare checks are issued, when social security checks are received, and when certain holidays known for celebrations occur, such as New Year's Eve and the 4th of July, and when certain crowd or activity producing events occur at places like U of I. Having analyzed and said all of this, it often develops that a reasonable way to deploy one's staff resources would look like this: Day shift: (0800-1600): 40 percent of resources Evening shift (1600:2400): 25 percent of resources 'Power' shift: ( 1900-0300) 20 percent of resources (later starts weekends/holiday eves) Night shift: (2400-0800) 15 percent of resources If one is operating a one or two person PsAP, all of the above is irrelevant, because one would have one or two persons on duty 24 hours a day, no matter how busy or slack the activity level is. However, in talking about a consolidated PSAP with numerous employees, some real opportunities exist to match the staffing with the expected and real activity loading, provided the PSAP manaqement is supported bv and reliqiouslv uses qood data svstems and sources. Staffina reauired for a consolidated PSAP for Johnson Countv: - Finally, for this exercise, we are to assume one consolidated primary PSAP serving the workload is currently being handled by today's existing PSAPs. This single primary PSAP would have to handle (at least) 670,244 INDEX EVENTS during the year. Now we need to determine how many of these transactions can each shift-working employee handle per shift. Some math: 670,244 divided by 365 days = Avg. of 1,836.29 INDEX EVENTS per 24 hour day. We will round this down to 1,836 and calculate: 1,836 events x 40.64% for day shift = 746.15 INDEX EVENTS 1,836 events x 36.26% for evening shift = 665.74 INDEX EVENTS 1,836 events x 23.1 % for night shift = 424.12 INDEX EVENTS (Assume 35% of the above would occur from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.) In terms of staff requirements, a full time person, working 47.5 weeks per year (52 weeks minus 2.5 weeks vacation average, minus 5 sick days [1 week total] minus 1 training week) is theoretically deployable for 47.5 times 40 hours, or about 1,900 hours in that year. However, assuming 30 minutes of break time per shift and five shifts per week, our staff person is really "deployable in the chair to answer the phone and talk on the radio" for 37.5 hours per week, on average, or 1,781.25 hours of productive, non-break, deployable time per year. G=n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-20 December 2005 - In terms of how the work will be done, if it were to be decided to operate one consolidated PSAP for all the entities, we would make these recommendations as a foundation for determining staffing requirements: ~ A "service specific" CAD system should be used. This is a CAD system where an event is entered into CAD by the person taking the call or information and then that event is routed for dispatch to a work station appropriate for the police area - based on the incident location-- or the fire or EMS dispatcher- based on event type. ~ Implement "Service specific dispatch" with cross trained dispatchers . (One group dispatches law enforcement based on geographic zones, another person dispatches fire acting as "PRIMARY FIRE DISPA TCHER, which we refer to below as the "PFD", but also EMD service provider and 9-1-1 call taker.) ~ Implement Mobile Data Computers in all law enforcement vehicles with a radio link to permit offloading of most data queries from the dispatchers. ~ Implement a modified "2 stage dispatch" process whereby (depending on activity levels) there can be specific workstations dedicated to answering incoming phone calls and entering CAD events, but also can operate as a "1 stage system" when activity is slower. Having said this, we project that the following staffing configuration would generally be - required (assuming eight hour shifts): (Law equals Police/Sheriff channel.) Weekday day shifts 2 "law" zones = 2 dispatchers (1 Lead) [10 shifts] Weekday evenings 2 "law" zones = 2 dispatchers (1 Lead) [10 shifts] Weekday nights 2 "law" zones = 2 dispatchers (1 Lead) [10 shifts] Weeknight power shift at large = 1 dispatcher [ 5 shifts] Power Shift could open up a sro geographic law zone channel or do phones Weekend days 2 police zones = 2 dispatchers (1 Lead) [4 shifts] Weekend nights 2 police zones = 2 dispatchers (1 Lead) [4 shifts] Weekend evenings 2 police zones = 2 dispatchers (1 Lead) [4 shifts] Weekend eve power shift at large = 1 dispatcher [2 shifts] 7 days/24 hrs 1 "PFD"/call-taker = 1 dispatcher [21 shifts] 7 days 3 shifts 1 call taker 1 dispatcher [21 shifts] TOTAL: 91 shifts per week The above configuration would require filling 91 eight hour shifts per week (728 staff hours) with persons qualified to dispatch. 728 hours per week times 52 weeks equals 37,856 dispatcher hours needed per year. Earlier we established that a Full Time person is generally deployable for about 1,900 hours per year. That means one would need 19.92 FTE dispatchers for this configuration. This compares to the current 27.5 FTE shift-working dispatch positions at the JCSO, ICPD and U of I PSAPs. - ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-21 December 2005 - Currently there are usually two dispatchers on duty at the ICPD, and often two at the JCSO, and one at the U of I/DPS, for a total normal average of around four-plus persons working at anyone instant in these roles in the County. This presumes nobody is working on overtime, at training, etc. Our scheduling configuration calls for a minimum of two law dispatchers, one fire dispatcher/9-1-1 call taker and one 9-1-1 call taker on duty at all times (for a total of four) plus a third at large dispatcher for 16 of the 24 hours of the day, making a total of five most of the time, all working in one facility. Our determination of the number of FTE needed subtracts hours not present at work (vacation, sick, training, etc.) from total hours paid for to arrive at the number of deployable FTE hours oracticallv available. The actual FTE staffing numbers at today's three PSAPs are hours paid for but not all are hours deoloved doinq the work. Therefore, either FTE hours paid for but not "deployed in the chair" today due to absence are not being filled in, or are being filled in by somebody working overtime. As a result of this, the number of workers on duty in a consolidated PSAP could be considerably higher on many occasions than these numbers project. We believe staffing configurations and the number of staff required should be determined by this sort of analysis of work to be done, by type and time of day/day of week, and then predictable staff unavailability due to training, breaks, vacation, sick leave, etc. should be factored out to arrive at the actual number of persons who need to be employed, rather than planning on operating either short-staffed, or using overtime, or by not providing for legally - required breaks or necessary training. In the final analysis, staffing a PSAP serving all the County as we have laid out above would require the employment of 19.925 FTE shift working staff, if you wanted to provide the level of on duty staff suggested, provide training, provide breaks and provide vacation and sick leave relief as suggested, without having to resort to overtime (unless you have position vacancies). The staffing pattern discussed here is somewhat different that what is in place in the equivalent PSAPs today. For example: ~ PRIMARY FIRE/EMS DISPATCH: In our proposed staffing configuration, there is always one position whose primary task is to serve as the fire/EMS dispatcher for the entire service area. While we advocate all dispatchers be fully cross-trained in call taking as well police, fire, and EMS dispatch skills, we also advocate that one workstation per shift be specifically configured and designed for fire/EMS dispatch and be staffed with a consistent oerson durina that shift, and while somewhat short of beina dedicated to fire/EMS disoatchina 100 oercent of their time. we would advocate that these shifts most often be filled bv oersons with an affinity for the "culture" of fire/EMS disoatchina. which is sianificantlv less "ad-hoc" than oolice disoatchina. to ensure continuity, accountability and consistency in the fire/EMS dispatching function. Having said this, however, we also see this workstation as being a logical candidate to handle overflow 9-1-1 call taking and providing back-up and overload to the 9-1-1 operator position as well. G,f;T;Q" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-22 December 2005 - We also see a second "Fire/EMS Dispatch Position" as being well situated to handle a number of the on-going data entry and query in the areas of NCIC entries of stolen vehicles, stolen property, runaway juveniles, etc. ~ "24 x 7 ON SCENE SUPERVISION": We also recommend (and have factored in to our staffing calculations) the creation of something we call "Lead Dispatcher" positions such that there is almost always one such Lead Dispatcher on duty, 24 x 7. We see that person as a definite "working supervisor", but not always "tied to the console". We see this Lead Dispatcher handling relief breaks, training new employees, assisting/supervising where needed, etc. To consolidate or not? The questions of whether or not any of the current PSAP entities are willing to consolidate, or if it is even practical for them to consider consolidation must be confronted head-on. Here is a list of some of the direct and indirect issues that bear on these questions: A. If ICPD provides an important level of "walk-up" service to their community today, and if a consolidated PSAP were to be located away from the City Hall, would Iowa City still provide these services via some mechanism other than dispatchers? At what cost? Any money paid for these services, over and above the Iowa City contribution to a consolidated PSAP would have to be factored into the total cost picture to Iowa City. - B. If the problems with the 9-1-1 system at U of I merit a technical fix (be it complete or partial) who would pay for this fix? A complete fix would require an ongoing monthly expense based on Qwest's 9-1-1 tariff in Iowa. A partial fix (having pay phones and wireless calls routed to and/or transferred to E9-1-1 network connected equipment at the U of I PSAP) might be paid for by the State wireless program, if they have money. C. If the very nature of campus security services (CCTV monitoring, physical plant responses, etc.) dictate a continued presence of somebodv at U of I to do this, then doesn't it make some sense for that "somebody" to do some of the same things today's U of I 9-1-1 dispatcher's do? D. Where would the money come from to pay one time costs for such a consolidation? What if a new building or equipment is needed? (We're convinced this would be necessary.) E. Can the 9-1-1 surcharge proceeds be used to pay for any of the operating costs of a consolidated PSAP? Are there any left over 9-1-1 funds today, on a yearly basis? F. How would cost sharing for such a consolidated PSAP work out? Who decides what the budget would be and how much which agency pays? What if one agency wants no increase in the PSAP's services and budget and others do want an increase? G. Where would such a PSAP be built or housed? G<\-~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-23 December 2005 - H. Would a consolidated PSAP mean: a. Annual operating cost savings? b. Capital expenditure cost savings? c. Operational advantages or efficiencies? d. Staff enrichment or development opportunities? e. Service improvement opportunities? I. Who/what entity would own/operate and manage such a PSAP? For all of the above, and many other questions, there are not always easy answers. A thorough assessment of each of these issues might drive one entity to decide that this consolidation is not for them. If that were to be the case. is there anv point in two of the three entities consolidatina? This is a close judgment call. There are several factors that tend to favor an ICPD/U of I PSAP consolidation, since there is significant inter-action between the two police agencies, and all fire service on the campus is provided by the ICFD. Answering all 9-1-1 calls from campus phones as well as from cell and pay phones would be a plus. Dispatching U of I police units on either their own talk group or having them operate at slower times of the day/year on an ICPD talk group would - probably be feasible. Staffing-wise, increasing the ICPD staff to be large enough to often have three dispatchers on duty might cost less money than the U of I is paying today for its dispatching complement. Having three dispatchers on duty at ICPD would mean it would be practical to dedicate one of them to 9-1-1 call taking and fire/EMS dispatch most of the time. While the other two handle police radio and NCIC work, and some overload phone traffic. But, it seems likely that U of I will need to continue to have somebody at their dispatch facility for the many non public safety dispatch tasks they perform, and to the extent that this costs money (as it would) it is money that would have to be added to whatever fee U of I paid to either Iowa City or a Joint Powers Board that would run the consolidated PSAP. Finally, for this type of consolidation to make sense for the ICPD, it would probably have to continue to operate out of the ICPD PSAP in City Hall. There are also factors that tend to favor an Iowa City - Johnson County consolidation, and generally leaving the U of I as it is. Simply put, the cultures and operational environments of the JCSO and ICPD are closer to each other than to that at U of I/DPS. They also represent the two entities that currently have most of the full time professional dispatch talent and experience in the County. They also have more of a workload than an ICPD/U of I unit would have, thereby creating more opportunities for economies of scale. But, such a consolidated PSAP would require close to the level of staffing (if not the same level) that was outlined earlier (19-plus FTE) to be able to provide the functional specialization, supervision, and operational capacity that would be an attractive component of consolidation, and without U of I's financial participation, neither the JCSO or the ICPD would realize siqnificant recurring costs savings. - G~~?ll Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-24 December 2005 - As can be seen, this is not an easy call from a strictly economic perspective, and it is fraught with a number of value judgments and ancillary issues. None of this should be surprising. It is very rare, indeed, for a PSAP consolidation study involving this few entities (especially when one of them is a very dissimilar campus PSAP with a relatively low cost staffing plan using some students) to come up with "slam dunk" savings and conclusions. Another factor complicating analyses such as these is this: When one is considering rethinking a service delivery system such as 9-1-1 dispatching, one should probably operate from the assumption that the end product should strive to "do it right". That means staffing right to allow time off, breaks, and training; supervising to ensure higher performance standards; staffing accordingly to be prepared for peak workloads; deploying staff to provide the most effective services; training staff to ensure high performance, providing the proper equipment to generate as much staff efficiency as possible (e.g. MDTs) , and so forth. An excellent example of this issue is the non-provision of EMD services by the JCsO PsAP. Clearly, comparing cost of the "apple" of the current non EMD providing JCSO PSAP to the cost of the "orange" of a consolidated PSAP with EMD being provided would not be a fair comparison. This means to the extent that today's service delivery systems are not all 100 percent as good or full-service one might like them to be, there will be a cost (often both one time and recurring) to correct these issues in any new system, plus, the cost of staffing and operating that new service delivery system and model. And, this means making an "apples to apples" comparison between today's "no change in anything" service delivery model costs and those - of the "new and improved, but consolidated model" are difficult, at best. Towards this end, and for purposes of comparability, we would recommend that under a "do nothing" model (no PSAP merger) the County should staff its PSAPs with a minimum of three dispatchers on duty 24 x 7 x 365. We would also recommend a not less than three dispatch staff on duty staffing minimum at the Iowa City Police Department. However, it is our belief there are certain outcomes that are inherently worth pursuing and are more achievable in a larger consolidated PSAP than in several smaller PSAPs. For example: ~ Police service delivery and response is better coordinated among and between adjoining law enforcement agencies is better than that which is not. ~ Fire service delivery and response is better coordinated than that which is not. ~ A greater call handling capability (staff and equipment wise) is better than a lesser capability. ~ More complete service delivery capabilities by all staff (law and fire dispatching, EMS dispatching, and EMD service provision, for example) is more efficient and effective. ~ Purchasing new technologies (new CAD and/or MDT systems, for example) for one entity will be cheaper than for two or three entities. ~ Better, more active and task specific supervision is better than less. ~ Better and more frequent training is better than less. - G,~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-25 December 2005 As we begin to conclude this study, we will address some of the above issues. Professional Manaaement Positions at a Consolidated PSAP: In our suggested staffing configuration for a consolidated PSAP, we are also recommending an additional one FTE as a PSAP Manager who would manage the entire consolidated PSAP. We also recommend a dedicated FTE as a combined Training/Technology Manager at an approximate annual cost of $60,000. By adding the two FTE for the PSAP Manager and Technical Services/Training Manager, this would bring the total recommended staffing complement up to 21.52 FTE. How do vou hire .52 FTE? (As in 21.52 FTE) Through our experience, we are favorably inclined to thinking in terms of Full Time Equivalencies (FTE) rather than in terms of "employees". By this, we mean our experience has been properly deployed, paid, benefited, and scheduled; some part-time dispatch staff can be very valuable. For example, with part- time, one can easily schedule persons for less than 40 hours a week and/or less than eight or 12 hours per shift. One can let someone take time off and not have it necessarily be paid leave time. Also, by having part-timers pick up portions of shifts vacant due to sick leave or vacation time, one can fill those full or partial shifts without paying overtime. Further, hiring and retention is a constant challenge in 9-1-1 dispatch centers, and we have leamed from experience that a mix of part time and full time positions not only creates desirable flexibility for the employer, it also opens up decent paying jobs for people who need - the flexibility and somewhat more limited control of when they work for other life demands such as parenting, education, etc. NOTE: We are very familiar with less than enthusiastic reaction to our Part Time suggestions. We think much of that reaction flows from a fundamental misunderstanding. We are not talking about less professional staff, and we're not talking about staff that wouldn't be covered by the union contract. Our experience has been that a significant portion of the part time cadre could likely come from experienced full time staff from today, who (given the option) choose to work fewer hours (for the same hourly pay rate) for any number of reasons, depending on their place in life's cycle. We have also seen the part time role, with a requirement for full time during training, as a viable vehicle for back-filling staff vacancies via the immediate "promotion" of a willing part time person to a full time status. So, when we recommend 19.52 FTE (not including the PSAP manager - who should be full time) that may end up being something like 13 full time and 12 part-time employees, with the 12 part-timers working a total of something like 12,275 hours per year, which would figure out to an average of about 20 hours per week, each. At what pav and benefit rates? We would recommend the pay and benefits for the dispatcher positions at a consolidated PSAP be no less than the hiahest currentlv paid dispatcher pav rate at anv of the three existina PSAPs todav. We base this recommendation on the reality we have seen that the likelihood of succeeding at a merger that would mean any existing employee would take a pay cut is not realistic. - G=., Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-26 December 2005 - The current pay rates for dispatchers at these three PSAPs are as follows: AGENCY START TOP STEPS YEARS RATE RATE TO TOP TO TOP JCSO $14.73/hr $18.86/hr 6 7 U of I/DPS $8.25/hr $19.31/hr ? ? (Student rate not incll ICPD $16.07/hr $20.64/hr 6 4.5 Averages: $15.40 $19.61/hr 6 5.75 As can be seen from the above, and since we earlier stated our view that any new consolidated PSAP should pay at least as well as any of the existing, it is our recommendation that the pay rates for a new consolidated PSAP be pegged at a starting hourly rate of about $16.55 per hour (today's $16.07 per hour highest start rate, inflated by 3 percent to reflect presumed 2006 rates) and top out at $21.26 per hour (whish is today's highest rate of $20.64, inflated by the same 3 percent). This equates to annual pay rates of about $34,434 up to $44,221. If we assume an average "mid-range" staffing complement, with half of the staff above the pay range median point and half of the staff below the pay range median point, we can use the median point as an average. Therefore, the median point between $16.55 and $21.26 is J18.91 per hour or $39,322 per year for full time. NOTE ON PA Y RA TES: First of all, given that the current entities are union shops, it should be assumed - that any new, consolidated PSAP would also be or likely become a union shop. As such, the final rates of pay would, of course, be the outcome of a collective bargaining process. Oeterminina total staffina costs in consolidated PSAP: The 19.525 dispatcher FTE suggested under this model presumes five "Lead Dispatchers" are included in that number. This is adequate to permit scheduling one Lead Dispatcher per shift with adequate relief/float to cover off days, vacation, and special projects. Ideally, we would recommend that these Lead Dispatcher positions be discretionarv aooointments. for one-year assignments by the PSAP Manager. We suggest that they carry an added compensation of 7.5 percent over whatever rate of pay the person would otherwise have been eligible. Therefore, of the 19.525 FTE, five would be paid approximately $18.91 plus 7.5 percent or $20.33 per hour for 2,080 hours times five people. The total for Lead Dispatchers would, therefore, be J211 ,432 per year in direct annual wage costs. The remaining 14.525 FTE dispatchers would work 30,212 hours per year at an average of $18.91 for a total of $571.309 per year in direct wages. Finally, we would recommend a PSAP Manager (Director of Emergency Communications) be paid at an annual rate of J62.500 per year, which is approximately $20,214 per year higher than the Lead Dispatcher pay rates. This may be a higher differential than is appropriate, but may be necessary to compete with market rates for similar positions in the Des Moines area. G=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-27 December 2005 .-- Adding up these annual direct labor costs we see: 14.525 FTE shift working dispatchers = $ 571,309 5.00 FTE shift working lead Dispatchers = $ 211,432 1.00 FTE Technical Svcs/Training Mgr. = $ 60,000 1.00 FTE Managing Director = $ 62.500 Total direct wages: $ 905,241 The indirect (fringe benefit) costs over and above the direct labor costs would, to a certain degree, are a function of who the employer of the PSAP staff is, or which agency their benefit package is carried by, along with the terms and conditions any labor agreement negotiations might result in. Under provisions of Iowa law, the employer rate of contribution to the IPERS is fixed in law at 5.75 percent, while the employer's cost for FICA is 6.85 percent plus .45 percent for Medicare. All of this totals up to 13.05 percent. Therefore, for budget planning purposes we use 13.05 percent as our "Pension and Social Security/Medicare Employer Contribution Rate". This retirement contribution rate results in the following costs: - 13.05 percent of $905,241 equals $118,134 Health insurance costs can be estimated to be aooroximatelv: - Insurance at $5,000/employee/yr* x 22 FT = $11 O,OOO/yr. - ~ NOTE: We are using the figure of $5,000 per Full Time employee per year for health and related insurance based on that number being a reasonable estimate for what such insurance may cost for each full time employee ONLY beginning in 2006. This is a cost element that is rising rapidly. Additionally, consideration should be given to offering a flat pay increase equal to 90 percent of the cost payable for employee health insurance to any employee who receives insurance coverage from a spouse's plan. In other words, if John can get covered on his wife's plan at her work at a cost that is less than 90 percent of what his PSAP employer's cost would be, the PSAP employer would pay John that 90 percent of what they would otherwise have paid for John's insurance, and John can apply that added pay to the costs of being covered under his wife's plan. ~ We have also assumed that Dart time emolovees would NOT be eliaible for health insurance coveraae. but the above fiaure is based on ALL FULL TIME STAFF (which we would not like to see). Not providing health insurance for part time staff is fairly normal for the industry; however we would like to see movement towards this eligibility on a pro-rata basis going forward. In other words, if an employee meets a threshold of work (say 50 percent of Full Time), they could then be covered with the employer paying a pro-rated share of the cost of the coverage. Example: Part Time employee works an average of 58 percent of Full Time for the preceding six-month period. For the next six-month period, the employer would contribute 58 percent of what they would normally have contributed for the insurance coverage of a Full Time employee. - G~n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-26 December 2005 ~ Adding together the direct and indirect labor costs we have a total annual personnel cost of: Direct labor at $ 905,241 Retirement at 118,134 Insurance at 110,000 ITOTAL: $1,133,3751 We have not factored into the costs of a consolidated PSAP in Johnson County the costs that would be incurred for replacing (at the former PSAPs) the "walk-in, counter-traffic and seven-digit call handling" staff that it is assumed may need to be hired once dispatchers left those facilities. Nor are we including the potential costs of replacing this "counter traffic/walk- in" capability in a consolidated fashion. To complicate matters, we don't think the JCSO would need to hire 24 x 7 counter traffic staff, since their dispatchers do not generally handle this activity during regular business hours today. We think decisions regarding how to handle this "counter traffic" question are best left to the entities with the issues, now that they are aware of the significance of the issue and the fact that any of the potential solutions do have a cost associated with them. By way of recap, the positions and costs for the current environment versus the proposed consolidated environment are as follows: Item Current. '.Current C Current Total for current Proposed ~ JCSO PSAP ICPD PSAP U 011 PSAP 3 PSAPS Consolidated PSAP FTE Oispatch 10.5 11.0 6.0 27.5 19.52 Oirector/Mgr. 0 0 0 0 1.0 Tech Services - 0 0 0 0 1.0 Trainin M r. Total FTE 10.5 11.0 6.0 27.5 21.52 Total annual $1,438,185 $'1,1 , .75 rsonnel $ Is it cheaper to staff one Consolidated PSAP than three "stand alones"? Yes, by at least $304,810 per year. (Today's $1,438,185 in 2005 dollars, minus $1,133,375 in 2006 inflated dollars for the consolidated PSAP.) This outcome is not surprising. By aggregating all the basic PSAP work to be done in one place, and by aggregating the people who would do that work in one place, we are able to staff that one place with slightly fewer FTE staff than is currently taking place at the three separate PSAPs. Furthermore, we are able to provide an equivalent round-the-clock work force, plus the addition of executive management and a technical services/training manager. It is important, again, to point out that these are not necessarily "apples to apples" personnel recurring cost comparisons. For example: ~ If any of the contributing PSAPs were to find it necessary to replace their departing dispatchers with replacement staff staying at their original facility to handle work --- currently being done by their dispatchers, then these would be locally borne costs to be added to the above figures. G~"<J." Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-29 December 2005 -_. . For example, if Iowa City Police Department decided to keep 24/7 staff at the ICPD HQ to handle non-dispatch duties now being done by dispatch (assume a new position at about $12/hour) that would cost Iowa City about $144,000 per year, with fringes. Does our proposed model have too manv staff? This is a difficult question to answer. All of the staff in the "One PSAP" model is in the same facility, sharing the consolidated workload. They are dedicated to do 9-1-1 call taking to handle things like extraordinary events, wireless 9-1-1 call spikes, etc. There are dedicated dispatchers for fire and EMS. There is also on-sight, hands-on, PSAP specific supervision, as well as professional training and technology management through a full time professional staff. Could this staffinq be reduced. to save monev? Perhaps, but it's not too likely. But until the exact tasking, workload, workflow and other issues are resolved; we would recommend the proposed level of staffing as a starting point for the One Consolidated PSAP model. Where do vou find staff for a consolidated PSAP? Given the relatively limited training cycle required (particularly since most current staff are fully trained on the shared 9-1-1 systems and infrastructures), the general scarcity of persons willing to do this type of work (regardless of the pay), the "drop out rate" for new hires in such facilities of sometimes more than 25 percent per year, and the need to "hit the ground running" in a new operation, it seems to us the only practical and viable plan for staffing this consolidated PSAP would be to start with a nucleus of those persons who are currently employed in these positions at the existing PSAPs in the County. - The data indicate there are currently enough dispatcher positions at the three PSAPs to meet the staffing needs of the consolidated PSAP. Whether all of these slots at the three PSAPS are filled as of this writing is unknown. The proposed consolidated PSAP would require 20.525 FTE (counting the new Director) dispatch related persons. While it is entirely feasible that many to most of the current PSAP dispatchers could "find a home" in the new consolidated operation, with five of them being designated as "Lead Dispatchers" and (perhaps) one of them being hired by the new operating entity as the Director, it also needs to be recognized that one or more people who otherwise want to miqrate may not be able to accommodated in the staffing of the new organization, at least not as a dispatcher or full time. In any event, there may be more eligible people than positions to be filled, but probably not many more. It is in this area that some creative utilization of part-time positions may be beneficial in avoiding complete lay-offs during any transition period. In other words, if there were four persons who ended up without a Full Time dispatch job, after all the required Full Time dispatch positions in the new organization were filled, perhaps those four persons could become the nucleus of the cadre of part-time staff, who could either stay part-time (if they preferred) or wait as a part-timer until a permanent or temporary (due to something like a matemity leave) Full Time position became available. We would recommend inviting all currently employed dispatchers to apply for jobs with the new organization, should one be formed. We recommend that all new staff become new employees of a new organization and all start at "Square 1" in terms of all issues except for seniority as it applies to vacation accrual and pay steps. G.~n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-30 December 2005 - Under whose supervision would thev work? Within the PSAP operation, the staff would work under the overall direction of the Manager, as delegated to the Lead Dispatchers who, in this plan, are often also "pulling duty" at workstations. The biaaer auestion is for whom do the Director. Manaaers. and dispatchers work? This leads into the discussion of what is often the most difficult part of any consideration of PSAP consolidation: Administration and Control Issues. Administration and Control Issues: 1. Who "owns" the PSAP? 2. Who manages the PSAP? 3. Who manages the manager of the PSAP? 4. Who disciplines manager and dispatch staff? 5. Who determines who gets hired and passes probation? 6. Who determines how staff should be trained? 7. How are disparate issues and needs handled (police versus fire versus EMS) 8. At what level can service be "localized" and "personalized" for individual agencies? 9. Who develops overall policies and procedures for the PSAP agency? 10. Where is the PSAP located? - The above questions form the heart of the tough issues in any consideration of a PSAP consolidation. If a group of parties can come to resolution on the majority of (hopefully all) these issues, it is likely that a consolidation effort can be successful. Absent resolution to very many of these issues, while one may open and operate a consolidated PSAP, it is not likely that those it serves will view it as a success. We will now offer our views on each of them: In aeneral. we advocate that anv consolidated PSAP be "functionallv manaaed" bv its user aaencies in a cooperative venture. We are not favorably inclined to a situation where any single agency presumes to provide PSAP services for other agencies (with or without payment from those other agencies) or users. Our rationale for this position is simple: Public safety communications is the lifeblood of public safety. If one has no say in, or control over the communications with the general public accessing an agency's services (answering and processing 9-1-1 and other calls), and/or no control over or say in how these requests for services are managed and assigned to your agency's responders (the act of dispatching), and/or no control over or say in how the support needs of your field personnel are met and fulfilled (the act of providing radio services such as NCIC inquiries, ordering tows, etc.) then one truly has very little control over the delivery of essential public safety services. Having said this, there are several ways to attempt to achieve this sort of cooperative and - "user managed" system. G.~lm Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-31 December 2005 - Option 1: One existing governmental agency owns and operates the PsAP, but its management is guided/directed/advised by a Management Oversight Committee representative of public safety responders and governmental policy makers such as City Managers, Mayors, City Council Members, County Board Members etc. from the served communities. We have seen organizations where the owner/operator of the PSAP is a department of a County Government (rarely the sheriff's department in such a shared operation) along the lines of the "General Services Department", or some such other overall support agency in County government which has no historical ties to and nothing to gain or lose from owning and operating a PSAP. To them it is just another county-wide support service they provide, similar to running data processing, the print shop, the mail room, etc. This organization is then advised and directed by the "User's Group" described above. We think it is important that any "User's Group" so empowered must reflect not only the field responder users (police, sheriff, EMS, and fire personnel) but also the PSAP system users (9-1-1 Operators/dispatchers and PSAP supervisors) and representatives of the general public being served by the service. By this we don't necessarily mean "citizens at large", but more likely elected citizens who are elected to serve their constituents on a general governmental body such as a City Council and/or County Commission. We also believe it is important to have general government management perspectives represented on such a body in the form of city/county managers or administrators. - Often we see a General Policy Board made up as described above, supported by one or more "operations committees" that deal with the more detailed operational issues. This overall body is then authorized to: A. Hire, supervise, reward, and fire a Director of Emergency Communications, and through this Director, control and manage all subordinate employees. B. Review and make recommendations on the agency's annual budget to the funding body, if different from itself. Note: If this body is not a general tax levying authority (which it likely would not be) then it cannot ultimately approve and execute a budget, since it cannot raise all of the funds necessary to implement that budget. However, it can be delegated certain authority by a larger tax levying body such as the County Board to review, approve of and make recommendations to the County Board regarding such a budget. C. Develop and/or approve of all organizational policies and procedures. I Option 2: The "Governing Body" owns and operates the PSAP. I Under this scenario, there is only a minor change to the above. Specifically, no "general services county agency" is the titular owner and operator of the PSAP. Instead, a "PsAP Board" is. This Board would, therefore, have to be legally established under an inter-local (28E) or "joint powers" agreement. It is feasible that the Johnson 9-1-1 Joint Services Board could be such a PSAP Board and own and operate said Johnson County-Iowa City-U of I Dispatch Center. ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-32 December 2005 - In any event, we would strongly recommend that the "PSAP Board" (or its operations committee) also reflect operational concems and interests from served responders as well as working dispatcher staff. The current 9-1-1 surcharge revenues of the Johnson County 9-1-1 Joint Services Board are not adequate to cover the costs of staffing and running a PSAP. In fact, Iowa law prohibits 9-1-1 surcharge funds from being used to pay for the salaries of dispatch employees. The costs of staffing and operating local PSAPs in Iowa (but not necessarily everywhere) have historically been the responsibility of the local agencies that choose to operate them. Proportional fees paid by the participant agencies based on a formula intended to make participation fair could fund the consolidated dispatch center's operations budget. With these funds, the PSAP Board would pay for the entire operation of the new PSAP entity, less that portion paid by the Johnson County 9-1-1 Board for E9-1-1 network, E9-1-1 database, E9-1-1 PSAP equipment and trunks and related E9-1-1 costs. OUR RECOMMENDATION: WE RECOMMEND OPTION 2. Localization of Services: One of the preceding questions dealt with the issue of the degree to which the services provided by this (or any) consolidated PSAP(s) could be localized. By this we mean, "Can this consolidated PsAP provide services of 'one flavor' to one jurisdiction and - services of 'another flavor' to another jurisdiction?" Perhaps the best way to describe this is by example: Assume for a moment it is legal for law enforcement agents to assist motorists who have locked their keys in their car. This is called "handling a lock-out". Assume that Agency X (such as the U of I/DPS) wants its police officers to provide this service as a "public service" and community relations tool. On the other hand, Agency Y, for a variety of reasons, chooses to not have their officers provide this service to the public. Can a busy PSAP make such distinctions and provide one level or type of service to the Agency X residents/callers and another level to Agency Y or Campus residents/callers? General/v. not verv effective/v. Obviously, the number and types of entities in this equation is also a factor. The more entities, the harder it becomes, unless said PSAP is supported by an appropriately configured or configurable CAD system. Here is how it could work: Call is received, the call taker enters an incident code such as "LOCKOUT" into the CAD system along with the location of the event (unless it was automatically inserted from the E9-1-1 All data). The CAD system, while automatically checking its geo-fiIe to validate the address in the community in question could also (possibly) check a "service provision table" which would be programmed to know whether the city in which the address is located does or does not provide this service (LOCKOUT). If it does, the call taker proceeds. If it doesn't, the CAD system can automatically prompt the call taker to advise the caller with specific instructions provided by the Agency Y Police Department as to what it wants these callers to be told in - these cases. ("I can give you the number of a locksmith, if you wish. '7 G~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-33 December 2005 - Of course, the viability of such an approach is dependent on whether or not a given CAD system can be so programmed or set-up, as we are not advocating a new CAD for this consolidated PSAP. Ultimately, though, we think it is important to strive for as much uniformity of policy and procedure between organizations as is practical to eliminate these sorts of issues. On a related note, we have learned over the years the "culture" or "service orientation" of public safety organizations and their dispatch operations can vary dramatically. We have seen (and worked with and for) the wide range, from the highly "PR oriented" suburban police force, for whom virtually no call for service was "out of bounds", to rigidly structured old, main line fire departments under highly restrictive union contracts, to college campus departments and everything in between. Without having to determine which is better, it is probably safe to say each adopts a "personality" that it deems appropriate to its clientele and particular mission and challenges. "Public Safety Agency and Service Cultures" We must caution the Johnson County 9-1-1 agencies that should this proposed consolidation proceed; serious consideration of and work at addressing these issues will need to be done. This is true not only of the "merging" (at least on the radio and/or in the dispatch center) of the JCSO, U of I/DPS, and ICPD as law enforcement agencies, but also the merging of the ICFD, and other fire or EMS agencies with the - above law enforcement agencies. For those who have not dispatched for both a fire department (full time or volunteer - although they are different in themselves) as well as law enforcement agencies, it may not be well known that the role and (to a certain degree) responsibility of dispatchers varies greatly between the two disciplines. In dispatching full time fire departments, it is important to recognize that a "boss" is sent on virtually eve/}' run. This may just be a Fire Captain, but he is the boss of his Company, and is a part of a highly defined chain of command, and reports directly and frequently to his Battalion Chief. Fire responders often do not need assistance on "tactical decision making" that police officers often want or have become accustomed to from their dispatchers. We think the root of this issue is the histo/}' and functions of fire are largely more process oriented and pre-planned than the rarely predictable world of police incidents. None of this should be interpreted to mean one cannot provide police and fire dispatch services from within the same entity, or even by the same people. It is merely to acknowledge the dispatch work is significantly different, the people who perform the field responses operate (and sometimes think) differently, and all of this needs to be remembered by those who perform the dispatching and call-taking, hire the dispatchers, and assign them to their work stations. - Gf.,.~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-34 December 2005 - What does this Consolidated PSAP end UP "Iookina like" and how does it work? First, there are several very basic choices to be made: ~ Should U of I be included or not? ~ Does this involve a new Dhvsical facilitv. and if so. where? . Yes, almost certainly. The current ICPD space is the largest in use as a PSAP today, and it is not capable of being expanded to house the required workstations the PSAP we have envisioned would require. . As to where and how big (and how much it would cost) is a bit premature, and would require answering the preceding questions first. The size (and cost) will have to be driven by who the participants will be and how may. . To a certain degree, a PSAP does not need to be located within its 9-1-1 service area, or necessarily with police cars, fire trucks, or ambulances or jails. It does not even have to be near its radio transmitters or receivers. This opens up several potential opportunities for location of a PSAP. . It could be an all new, from the ground up facility, specially designed for the unique work and environment. . It could be created in existing but surplus government or quasi-government space. We have seen some very nice conversions of places like "surplus" elementary or middle schools into PSAP and related support facilities, with the gymnasium - making an ideal large area for the main PSAP operation. We have also seen nice PSAPs created out of vacant storefronts, although the "hardness" of the construction of these types of buildings should be questioned. Now that we have asked a lot of questions (and answered a few) let's get back to the question of "how does this PSAP work?" The following statements relate to a new consolidated PSAP. The place: ~ The PSAP operations center is in one large room ~ There are adjacent offices for managers ~ There is a well equipped break area ~ There is a small "quiet room" for rest breaks ~ There is a small exercise room with small equipment ~ There is an environmentally controlled and fire protected equipment room ~ There are locker rooms with showers ~ There is a training room (depending on space, this room could double as an Emergency Operations Center for the City or County as well) ~ Ideally (within security considerations) windows looking outside would be desirable ~ The facility itself is significantly hardened - ~ There is off-street and secure parking ~ There is external video monitoring ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-35 December 2005 - The staff and the work flow/process: ~ Most 9-1-1 calls are answered at a bank of workstations with CAD terminals and 9-1-1 equipment at which there are generally one-two persons working. ~ Participant agencies have instituted policies (to the extent possible) to have most seven-digit calls go initially to someplace other than the PSAP, meaning that most of the seven-digit calls coming to the PSAP are calls where the caller could not figure out where else to call, assuming they tried. These seven-digit calls are answered on a second priority basis by the above dispatchers. ~ The staff is all civilians, employed by the same entity. ~ They mayor may not be uniformed. . We favor "soft/casual" uniforms to maintain a minimum standard of appearance. ~ There is a dispatcher sitting at the fire/EMS dispatch position. This position is also designated to be an "overflow" 9-1-1 call taker. ~ There are two or three (depending on whether Power Shift has arrived) persons sitting at "police info/service/NCIC" positions, all are capable of being "second overflow" 9-1-1 call takers --- "Fire" should answer the first overflow, if available. ~ It is assumed that all agencies have migrated over to an expanded coverage area (and - probably technically upgraded) City 800 MHz trunked system. ~ There are two or three "Police Zone Talkgroups" in operation. . When two, one could be ICPD and U of I, with the other being the County and small towns. . When three, one could be ICPD, one U of I, and one County and small towns. . This would require some minor re-work of the way the two way radio system is set up for the sheriff versus the small towns like North Liberty. We envision all JCSO cars working the County to be dispatched on one talk group with the small town police departments. This is an operational change, but we think it is important to not have the dispatchers handling the County and small towns have to monitor two primary radio channels. We also think it is critical to have the street units of the two types of agencies (County and small towns) agencies, who are often on the same streets, to be on the same radio channel and to be fully aware at all times what is happening in their area. . All POLICE response events entered by the 9-1-1 call takers would be routed by CAD (based on their geo-Iocation) to one of the two or three above police positions for dispatch. . CAD would route all FIRE response events entered by 9-1-1 call takers to the fire position. They could also be routed to all police positions as advisory or for them to - help on in an overflow situation. ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-36 December 2005 - . All EMS events would be entered into CAD and electronically submitted to the CAD system for immediate receipt by the fire/EMS dispatcher for action. . Calls requiring EMD would be handled by the answering 9-1-1-call taker and/or the fire/EMS dispatcher, on an overload basis. . A Lead Dispatcher would be ''floating'' throughout the PSAP, helping, supervising, or mostly giving breaks as required. . As much as possible, real breaks away from the console (but probably not away from the building) would be permitted and encouraged for both stress relief as well prevention of Repetitive Stress Injury problems. (Like carpal tunnel syndrome). Recurrina cost and budaet issues: 1. How much does it cost to operate the PSAP? We have established earlier that the operation of a new consolidated PSAP would require 21.52 FTE employees, and that the annual recurring costs for these staff would be in the vicinity of $1.13 million per year in 2006 dollars. Generally, outside of long term capital costs for buildings, data, and radio systems, etc. such personnel expenses generally consume around 85 percent a PSAP operating agency's annual budget. Therefore, we are adding a factor of 15 percent to the above $1.13 million in direct and indirect labor costs to arrive at an estimated total annual operatina cost of $1.3 million for a single consolidated PSAP (2006 dollars). Today, the three PSAPs report spending - $1,594,958 in total costs for 2005 (a low end estimate, including onlv U of I's personnel costs), or about $294,958 (22.69 percent) more than we are projecting for the total cost figure for the consolidated PSAP in 2006. NOTE: This figure does not represent anyone time capital costs for acquiring or preparing a facility to become the new PSAP, or for any recurring costs associated with leasing or renting such a facility or space. The finding of an appropriate location for such a new PSAP and any costs to acquire, build, or remodel such a facility are outside the scope of this study. In many cases, facilities such as parts of schools that have been taken off line for education make good facilities. We have also seen creative adaptation of no longer used fire stations and similar already publicly owned facilities. The only BIG CAUTION would be to avoid space in any of today's police or sheriff facilities. If it is in any given police department or sheriff's department, regardless of what it is called, what the dispatchers wear, or how they answer the phone, it will still be the PERCEPTION that said PSAP is a part of whatever police or sheriff's department's building they are occupying, and that it definitely something to avoid. 2. Who should pav for recurrina (annual) PSAP operations? There are three separate philosophical approaches to this issue. However, the existence of the U of I in the Johnson County mix somewhat complicates this analysis. The reason for this is because, according to most analyses, U of I has no "population" (at least not in a census sort of way) and it has no taxable assessed valuation. - G~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-37 December 2005 - These are both factors that are often used in determining what an agency should pay and its ability to pay, which are not available here. As one examines the following alternative systems, this issue must be kept in mind and some work-around arrived at if there is to be a viable funding mechanism developed. These several normal approaches are: A. "COUNTY PAYS" PHILOSOPHY: This philosophy is founded on belief that the provision of public safety communications services is and ought to be an appropriate county-based service. As such, it is most appropriately paid for via the broadest based funding mechanism available to the County: The general fund of the County. Under this model, any agency that needs public safety communications services is eligible to have them provided and paid for by the County and/or any subordinate "PSAP Board" to which the County may delegate or "outsource" the task. B. "EVERYONE PAYS BASED ON WHAT THEY GET" PHILOSOPHY: The underpinning of this philosophy is that the provision of public safety communications services is the responsibility of those agencies who choose to exist outside the county structure (a city could choose not to have a police department and the County Sheriff would be responsible for basic law enforcement in that city). As such, by making that choice, they have to buy their own buildings, squad cars, uniforms, etc.; they must also pay for their police officers and the provision of communications services. They can either "pay themselves", and operate their own PSAP, or they could pay someone else to provide this service for them. - Under this model we see the "pay for service" concept, which is applied in several ways around the USA. One way is to bill users by incident dispatched. Another way is to bill users based on their population and/or assessed valuation or some other measurable indices. Yet another way is to bill on the basis of transactions, but this usually requires a CAD system and a trunked radio system capable of counting transactions agency by agency to be fully equitable. It is under this "pay for service" concept that a workable solution to the ''U of I not having any population/assessed valuation" issue might be found. C. "DOUBLE TAXATION/PAYMENT" PHILOSOPHY: In this view, the belief is that the County taxpayers, as residents of the County at large, stand to benefit from the existence of a county-based public safety communications operation, whether their community chooses to participate in and be served by it, or not. That being the case, these residents should be expected to pay for their portion of the County service, as well as paying for their community's choice to provide this service to themselves, and not use the county services. This is no different than when a city chooses to operate its own police department, as opposed to merely being provided whatever level of service the County Sheriff might be able to provide to that city. This is often called the "double taxation model" in that it means the resident of a community that chooses to pay for its own PSAP operation, is also paying for the County PSAP service, of which his/her community chooses not to take advantage. - G~n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-38 December 2005 - This model presumes that Model A from above is also in place and that the County is not charging its users for its PSAP's services. However, in many cases, even though some charge-back is levied to users of a county service, it is rare that a County recovers all of the costs associated with running its PSAP by billing out to its user agencies. OUR RECOMMENDATION: PHILOSOPHICALLY, WE PREFER MODEL A, BUT RECOGNIZING THE LIKELY REALITY OF LOCAL POLITICS, WE RECOMMEND MODEL B. We are aware that there is not a strong history in many Counties of significant county tax levies to pay for such operations, and that the likelihood of that model being adopted may not be high. Ideally, the County picking up the total cost would be a "wash" to the taxpayers, because for every dollar the County covers, the City should not have to tax for that dollar. However, that is not always the case, and if the City saves $100 by not providing a given service any more, the resulting budget cut (if any) may not equal that full $100 due to the need for the city to continue to pay some of that $100 for an alternative delivery method for services that had been provided under the old $100. Having stated our preference, and our perception of the low potential of "A" being implemented in Johnson County, we think you should consider Model B, where each of the user agencies is charged on some sort of an equitable or proportional basis. - This raises the question of which sorts of agencies should be "assessed" this fee? It seems as if there are three or four different types of agencies that need to be considered: A. Agencies that had been operating their own PSAP and would logically be expected to pay their fair share of the cost of a new PSAP operation. B. Agencies within the County which had NOT been operating their own PSAP, but who were receiving PSAP services for free. This would include some small town police departments as well as the fire departments in the rural County. C. Agencies within a County who had been paying the County for PSAP services. (The only examples we are aware of here are the North Liberty, Coralville, and University Heights Police Departments paying dispatching fees to the JCSO or ICPD. D. Agencies in and outside the County which had NOT been operating their own PSAP, but who were receiving PSAP services for free. This would be fire departments, probably housed outside of either County or any of the cities, but who provided some fire services within the PSAP jurisdictions of the two counties. Frankly, if one follows the logic of Model B to its logical conclusion, everybody who gets PSAP service would pay. However, this gets very messy when one recalls that many Fire Departments are not parts of City or County governments, per se, and are somewhat autonomous, not-for-profit organizations which serve land areas not always defined by city or village boundaries. Therefore, developing an assessment schedule for each city and/or village for "PSAP" services based on that city or village's assessed valuation and/or - population might be inequitable. G$;,Q" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-39 December 2005 - Philosophically, we support the view that "there is no free lunch", particularly as it relates to police dispatching services. Why should a smaller community that decides to have its own police department, hire its own officers, buy its own squad cars, etc. not have to pay something for being "connected to" and dispatched by 9-1-1? Therefore, we would recommend a fee payment schedule that reflects a fee from every law enforcement aqencv that receives services from the PSAP(s) in the County. We generally do not encourage fees based totallv on "PSAP services consumed". Such a fee works like this: ~ Total cost of running PSAP is determined ~ "Service Elements" are defined . Events dispatched . License checks run . Records checks run . 9-1-1 calls received from city/county . Seven-digit calls handled for city . Etc. ~ Add service elements up (not unlike our earlier INDEX OF ACTIVITY) ~ Determine what percent of the total service elements are caused by City X or County Y ~ City X or County Y then gets billed for the percentage of the PSAP operating costs that is - equivalent to their percentage share of the total number of service elements The main problems we have with this are two: 1. It can only be totally accurate if done "in arrears", meaning one can't know what City X's share of the service element total and, hence, the PSAP budget is until that billing period is over and one can look back and do that calculation. Not being able to know that in advance with certainty could play havoc with smaller police department budgets. 2. More importantly, however, we fear that if the amount a given police department has to pay for dispatch services is somehow based on how much activity they have or they generate, there miaht be a disincentive for that Do/ice deDartment to use all of the services it should use. For example, if every "action" requires a CAD entry, and a traffic stop is called in on the radio and is considered an "action", then every time that department does a traffic stop and calls it in on the radio, "the meter will be running", so to speak. If I am the Chief of that department and my budget has been cut and I am running real close to the line, and I know that every "called in traffic stop action" will cost me $XX.XX, I may find it just too tempting to balance my budget at the expense of officer safety and tell my troops to "stop calling in so many traffic stops". And that may not mean they DO fewer traffic stops. Only that they CALL IN fewer traffic stops, thereby jeopardizing officer safety. - G.'fi.'>l" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-40 December 2005 - In the final analysis, we prefer a fee model that is somewhat more predictable and, perhaps, arbitrary. We have seen this model work well: ~ Total up PSAP operation costs based on the next year's budget. ~ Determine if (based on its location) any given entity naturally benefits from some PSAP services not available to entities. For example: Consolidated PSAP is in City Hall of City A, thereby meaning it can provide 24 x 7 "counter services" for the City A Police Department. ~ If there is a value to the above location, assign an arbitrary percentage figure to that value. Say 15 percent of the total cost of the PSAP is benefit received by City A for the PSAP being in its city hall. . Recall, however, that we caution against locating the PSAP in such a single city owned facility. This negative could be minimized if the facility in question was NOT a police facility. ~ Subtract that percentage figure (15 percent in this example) from the total cost and declare it a "cost not to be shared", and (in this example) City A would have to pick up all of that cost. ~ Take the remaining percentage of the total cost (85 percent in this example) and divide it in two. (Assuming a mvthical total budget of $1 million, we are now down to $850,000, - which is divided into two pots of $425,000 each.) ~ Determine the total population and assessed valuation of the entire PSAP service jurisdiction(s). ~ Determine what percentage of the total PSAP jurisdiction's population and assessed valuation is attributable to each PSAP fee paying entity. ~ Apply each PSAP fee paying jurisdiction's population share to the first $425,000 half. ~ Apply each PSAP fee paying jurisdiction's assessed valuation share to the second $425,000 half. ~ Add the results of these up. This would be that PSAP fee paying jurisdiction's total cost for the next year. - G=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-41 December 2005 - Here's how it would work practically using mythical ANYTOWN as our model: MythicBITotal2006 PSAP budget: $1,200,000 Mythicaltotal PSAP jurisdiction population: 60,000 Mythicaltotal PSAP jurisdiction assessed valuation: $500,000,000 Deduct portion for City A having PSAP in its city hall: 15% Total PSAP "costs to be shared pot" = $1,020,000 (85% of $1.2 million) ANYTOWN'S population: 25,000 ANYTOWN'S population share of total 41.66% ANYTOWN'S assessed valuation: $123,456,789 ANYTOWN'S assessed valuation share of total: 24.7% DIVIDE TOTAL "COST TO BE SHARED" INTO TWO SIZE OF "COST TO BE SHARED BY POPULATION POT": $510,000 SIZE OF "COST TO BE SHARED BY ASS'D. VALUE POT" $510,000 ANYTOWN'S proportionate share of "population pot": 41.66% of $510,000 or $212,466 ANYTOWN'S proportionate share of "valuation pot": 24.7% of $524,450 or $125,970. TOTAL of both of ANYTOWN'S SHARES DUE: $338,436 In the above model, if we retum to the U of I issue again, perhaps about the only way to fit U of I into such a model would be to negotiate an arbitrary percentage of the total PSAP operation's costs that is U of I's share of the cost, right off the top. That initial negotiation - could be based on an analysis of historical workloads. Once that is done, the remaining participants go through the above exercise. Finally, there needs to be mention of the relationship between budget development and govemance. If one were to assume a goveming board representing all the PSAP using entities such as Iowa City, U of I, County, Cities of Coralville, North Liberty, and University Heights etc. one must be cautious to not create a situation where a large using (and paying) entity such as the County or Iowa City has their authority to rule on the budget subordinated by "simple majority rules" issues. For example, if there were a seven member governing Board, with Iowa City or the County each being one member, and a budget increase for the dispatch center was being considered. Perhaps both Iowa City and the County see the budget increase as driving up their proportionate costs at a rate that they cannot afford and they need to not approve that increase. But they are only two of seven votes on the Board. They could lose five-two. Perhaps a way to deal with this is via proportionate voting on the Board, somewhat akin to "owning shares". For example, if Iowa City has 62/111ths of the County's population, then maybe they would hold 56 percent (which is what you get when you divide 62 by 111) of the "voting shares" on the Board. But, alas, this still leaves the question of U of I and how one would weight their shares. - <>=m Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-42 December 2005 - WHERE WOULD A CONSOLIDATED PSAP BE LOCATED? There are three basic choices here: 1. Build/outfit a new PSAP from scratch. 2. Find a "neutral" existing facility appropriate for becoming a PSAP and make it one. 3. Convert an existing PSAP into a consolidated PSAP. There are subordinate questions feeding into this larger question. Some of them are: ~ Can existing communications console equipment be expanded, and/or moved to another location? Should it be? ~ Can existing E9-1-1 PSAP equipment be expanded and/or moved to another location? Should it be? ~ Should the current City trunked radio system be expanded to provide county-wide coverage and more channel capacity? Should this involve staying analog, or should it mean migrating to a largely new digital system? ~ Does any existing PSAP facility have adequate expansion space? ~ Are there any "perception" issues associated with having a PSAP located within an existing PSAP agency's facility? ~ Can existing CAD system(s) be merged, expanded or modified to support a larger, - consolidated PSAP operation? Should they? ~ Are there any other significant radio system upgrades that would be required and are they in any way PSAP location dependent? ~ Are there any immediate technological improvements required to support a consolidated PSAP? We will deal with these questions one at a time but before doing so, some discussion in general: As stated earlier, in an ideal world, (money being no object) we would like to see a brand new, ground up PSAP facility. Not only would this make the task of installing new equipment or moving existing equipment there prior to its "live date" easier, it could also be a space tailor-made for this new and important function. The geographic location of such a facility can be a relatively moot point, since through leased phone lines and/or microwave links, one can pretty much control any radio transmitter or receiver equipment located anywhere in the county. Although, those links have either recurring costs (phone lines) or could have a hefty one time cost (microwave). Often "RF control stations" are the answer for controlling repeater systems. For making connections to non-repeater systems, leased telephone control circuits are a necessary evil. There is also a cost deferment opportunity here. If each of the existing PSAP facilities were to free up the space currently used for their PSAP, each would have several hundred feet of space that they could devote to other needs, perhaps deferring the need for (and expense of) expansion of their current facilities. - G,!f;"C;?m Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-43 December 2005 - Now to the specific issues and their answers: MovinalexDandina communications control consoles:. The County's Motorola CentraCom II "button and light" consoles should be retired. The City's Motorola Gold Elite console system may be able to be expanded to add another one or two workstations, but if the radio system is to be replaced as a part of an expansion/.upgrade, it may be necessary to also migrate to Motorola's new IP based MCC 5500 console from the current CentraCom Gold Elite platform. As it relates to what radio systems these consoles will be controlling, that question is fairly simple. They should control the expanded/enhanced 800 MHz trunked radio system, which should become the "all local government radio system" serving the entire county. Can existina E9-1-1 PSAP eauipment be expanded and/or moved to another location? Should it be? Yes. but probablv not. We think a consolidated PSAP will need six E9-1-1 Workstations. ICPD currently has four Motorola CentraLink 9-1-1 workstations. JCSO has three. We think it will soon be time for both to migrate to new E9-1-1 telephony equipment, and we think you would benefit from the new Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) equipment that most of the vendors are offering. Such equipment is represented by the normal "back room electronics", but uses a PC and CRT screen at the workstation as the phone. It can also terminate all seven-digit lines, contain your GIS mapping, contain your TDD equipment as well as your instant recall recorder. We think the time of a move to a consolidated facility would be the ideal time to implement such a change. This equipment can be competitively procured and we have seen six workstation suites come in at under $250,000, with attractive multi year lease purchase options. Does anv existina PSAP facilitv have adeauate expansion space? No. For obvious space, as well as "turf" and perception reasons, we would not encourage the consideration of any of the current PSAP facilities as candidates for expansion or remodeling to become the new facility. Are there anv "perception" issues associated with havina a PSAP located within an existina PSAP aaencv's facilitv? Yes. As discussed earlier (and repeated here for simplicity) those are the issues referenced as "turf" reasons above. Simply put, it has been our experience that if a PSAP is located in the "ANYTOWN Police Department" and, consequently, the "ANYTOWN Police Department" has greater access to the PSAP and its personnel, it will be oerceived by the service recipients (and even the dispatchers themselves) that the ANYTOWN Police Department is dispatching FOR everyone else. It won't matter how many boards and whatever fancy name one comes up with for the PSAP. It will be "ANYTOWN Police Department dispatching FOR everyone else'. And that is not what we think you want or should want from a shared control service. -- ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-44 December 2005 - Can existina CAD svstemlsl be meraed. expanded. or modified to support a laraer. consolidated PSAP operation? Should thev? Yes, possibly. Either the ICPD CIS system or the County's new SMART CAD system could be looked to in this role. We would also recommend the implementation of MDCs in all law enforcement, fire, and EMS response units; all linked to whatever CAD is implemented in the consolidated PSAP. Installing MDCs in fire trucks and ambulances can be a good idea for several reasons. Among them is the "digital dispatch" of event data to MDCs in trucks (or simplified fire truck versions of an MDC) to prevent the mis-hearing of addresses, or the mis-writing of them on slips of paper. We are familiar with systems that actually install full MDCs in fire stations and actually digitally dispatch events to those MDCs, with hard copy printouts at the stations. Chief officer vehicles can also benefit from MDCs that can access CAD, and (via a message switch) the Fire Incident Reporting System or other data systems from the field, not to mention things such as pre-fire plans, etc. on the hard drive of the laptop MDC in the vehicle. It would be important to link the CAD in the PSAP to the current records systems. It would also be a good idea to maintain CAD terminals at all "home agencies" for the creation and entry of "non-response" events that require the generation of case numbers by CAD. The costs for these terminals, as well as the recurring costs for connecting them to the main CAD processor have not been included here as their parameters are too fluid at this point. But these are costs that must be considered. - Are there anv immediate technoloaical improvements reauired to support a consolidated PSAP? Yes. As a first undertaking, the City's 800 MHz trunked radio system should be expanded and upgraded so as to become the countywide radio system. Then the replacing the E9-1-1 telephony equipment, replacing the radio consoles, the optional addition of mobile data capabilities referenced above, the CAD modifications and possible added terminals, and the relocation of logging audio recorder(s), would be the remaining major challenges, along with coordination of the move of all of retained equipment from its current place of service to the new PSAP location. But, properly planned, even this should be manageable, compared to what would have been involved a decade or so ago with dispatch consoles such as those in use at the JCSO PSAP today. - Gs.:,j" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-45 December 2005 - Estimated one time costs for implementina consolidated PSAP: Based on the preceding discussions and related issues, we see the following potential one time costs and cost categories being incurred in implementing a new consolidated PSAP with two options for the facility. We have not been able to precisely determine all costs yet, as some of them are dependent on what other underlying decisions are made. Where we feel we have a good sense of costs, they are reflected. $250,000 for new E9-1-1 workstations and controller. $350,000 for finishing and remodeling of an existinq owned soace for a new PSAP, 2!: $900,000 for constructing an appropriate PSAP facility, from the ground up. . $60,000 for any costs associated with expanding CAD. $75,000 for any costs for emergency generator at a new PSAP if old can't be moved. $300,000 for six new radio consoles $7,000,000 (maximum) for total replacement of the current Iowa City trunked radio system with a new, all agency, countywide, digital simulcast trunked radio system. In any event, significant technical planning will be required, along with implementation management and related expenditures. One of the issues that would need to be considered for a consolidation to be pursued is that - of "back-up". As it stands today, Iowa City can back up JCSO for 9-1-1 call answering, and vice versa. They could share radio system controls (but they don't now), and are on the same 9-1-1 network. If they became one PSAP, the obvious question is where would their back-up come from? It is quite likely that creating "hot-standby" back-up capabilities at a remote location would add somewhat to the above cost estimates. Another option might be to keep one of the existing PSAPs as a "shadow PSAP" ready to be fired up and operated in the event the main PSAP goes down. This option can be very effective, but also very expensive (not to mention rendering any potential gained space unusable for any other function). We are aware of a major example of this approach in Omaha, Nebraska, where they shut down the entire Omaha City Police Department and Fire Department communications center in the sub-sub-basement (bomb proof) of the Omaha Civic Center to merge with the Douglas County PSAP in remotely located new building out in the suburbs. They left their old Civic Center facility 100 percent intact, with CAD as well as E9-1-1 and radio equipment in place. But this was not too hard to justify, especially considering the space their ECC occupied in the Civic Center was not well suited to any other government function. But, we have learned that the decision was also made so as to provide Omaha an "escape valve" to move back to if things don't work out with the County merger, long term. Rather, we think an arrangement with a neighboring county to provide them with RF control station access to what would by then be the Johnson Countywide trunked radio system, along with designating them as the "condition three alternate route" destination for 9-1-1 calls would be most appropriate. The Cedar Rapids or Linn County PSAPs might be good choices. - ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-46 December 2005 - Transition to a consolidated PSAP issues: How does it happen? Over what time period? These questions are generally too premature at this time. The specifics will depend on which of the scenarios the Agencies choose to implement. However, it is a safe assumption that any change from the status quo will need to be a closely planned and managed, and (likely) involve a gradual transition. The 9-1-1 world is not like some other worlds. One can't close up on the Friday preceding a three day weekend at a slow time of the year and "make the move" over the weekend, and then start up operations again on Tuesday morning! Everything must be in continuous operation throughout the entire move and transition. In any event, rest assured whatever migration is to occur will need to be closely planned and will likely require the nearly full time attention of a "transition planning team" with professional assistance. These are the general areas in which detailed planning will be required: ~ E9-1-1 system migration issues. ~ Radio system expansion and upgrade issues. ~ Radio console system migration/upgrade issues. ~ CAD modification/expansion issues. ~ Hiring/Staffing issues. ~ Training issues. ~ Policy development and procedural issues. ~ Facility issues. - Is there a middle aroundlsomethina that could achieve the operational and functional advantaae of a PSAP consolidation. but not entail shuttina down existina PSAPs? Yes. Over the past several years, we have several such systems in place, and based on these observations we have come up with what we refer to as "Virtual PSAP Consolidation" . Simply put, imagine the above described integrated, all agency, all-service CAD system we proposed for the consolidated PSAP, but imagine the CAD work stations located in three separate PSAP facilities, operated by the current staff of those three separate PSAP facilities. Then imagine that the all-agency, all-service, countywide 800 MHz trunked system we recommend is implemented, with the dispatcher consoles at the three PSAPs all controlling their portion of the shared radio system. (Just like the several dispatch positions at the ICPD PSAP now share access to the system's different talkgroups.) Finally, imagine an E9-1-1 PSAP telephone system with a central controller, which has PC based 9-1-1 call taking workstations remotely connected to it at three separate PSAPs. With all this in place, any dispatcher could sit down at any workstation, and their "sign-on" to the 9-1-1, radio, and CAD terminals would determine what "role" they were playing for that shift, just like they were all operating in one big room in one consolidated PSAP. - G'~n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-47 December 2005 - The disadvantages here are two-fold: First you save none of the recurring operational costs we described in detail. Secondly, you do not gain the full benefit of the real-time coordination of the response agencies, since the operators are still physically separate from each other and, to a certain degree, their operations would be divorced from the other agencies. There would also be a significant recurring cost for the high-speed connectivity required between the three PSAPs. If PSAP Consolidation is to be pursued. how should it proceed? We would recommend the following general steps be taken in this order: 1. Political orqanization: Decide what you want to do, get the political blessing and funding support to do it, form the Goveming Board (or reorganize the 9-1-1 Board) and gather it together to form its working committees and to select and hire the PSAP management staff not less than six months prior to Day One of operations. 2. Take the necessary action steps to do what is to be done to the City's trunked radio system. 3. Decide on location for PSAP. 4. Build new or renovate existing facility for new PSAP. 5. Begin the labor-intensive process of developing new SOPs that will be necessary to set - up the relocated CAD system anyway. Oddly, the process of enabling a CAD system to recognize mutually developed EVENT CODES and the prioritization of them can serve as a definite focal point for discussing and adopting mutually shared operational philosophies and procedures. 6. Conduct PSAP recruitment and training (training would have to be on a part-time basis since most new hires would be currently employed as dispatchers and would need to continue in that role until their "old PSAP" is shut down) beginning six months before "cut-over" . 7. Move existing operations to the new PSAP space. .- G~n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger 4-48 December 2005 5 - ~ Section 5 Appendices See the following. - - ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-1 December 2005 - ~f;b Appendix 1 Technology Inventory Form 1. PSAP Name: 2. Person completing form: a. Phone number: b. E-mail: c. Fax number: 3. Does your agency have Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD)? _ Y - N a. If Yes: i. Name of software supplier: 1. Name of software: 2. Support contact name/number: ii. Number of workstations: - iii. PC or "main frame" based? iv. Any access from outside PSAP building? v. Windows based? _ Y N 1. If No, what is OS? 4. Does your agency have E9-1-1 telephone equipment? _ Y _N a. If Yes: i. Brand name: 1. Model name: ii. Owned or leased? 1. If leased, from who? 2. Term of lease? iii. Number of workstations: iv. When installed: v. Number of 9-1-1 trunks: 1. Any separate wireless trunks? How many? - vi. TDD Present? _Y N - G.~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-2 December 2005 --- - 1. Make and model: vii. ANI printer? _ Y _N viii. All printer? _ Y _N 5. Does your agency have GIS mapping? a. If Yes: i. Interfaced to E9-1-1 for auto plot? 1. Wired calls? _ 2. Wireless P1 calls? 3. Wireless P2 calls? ii. Interfaced to CAD for plot after CAD event entry? 1. Wired calls? _ 2. Wireless P1 calls? 3. Wireless P2 calls? b. Status of GIS map data? i. Centerline data is MSAG valid? _Y- N - ii. Point file? _Y N - 1. If Yes, how updated? 6. Does your agency operate a computerized Records Management System (RMS) not CAU? a. If Yes: i. Make and model: ii. Shared with others or just your agency? iii. List modules you use: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. - 8. G=" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-3 December 2005 - b. Is dispatch a main entry point for data? _ Y _ N i. If yes. Which types of data? 7. Does your agency have Mobile Data Terminals? _ Y _N a. If Yes: i. Make and model: ii. Interfaced to State of IA? _Y- N iii. Interfaced to agency's CAD? _ Y _N iv. Interfaced to agency's RMS? _ Y _N v. Over what radio medium do they operate? vi. Are they "dumb" MDTs, or laptop MDCs? 8. Does your agency have Automatic Vehicle Location (A VL)? _ Y _ N 9. Two way radio system elements: a. Does PSAP have control console(s)? _ Y _N i. Make and model: b. How many RF channels controlled in console? - c. Which channels: i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. d. Describe the radio channels controlled above and what they are used for, whether they are repeated or simplex, whether or not they have satellite receivers etc. : i. ii. iii. iv. v. - vi. ~'M" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-4 December 2005 - vii. viii. ix. x. xi. e. Are any of the radio channels "scrambled" or encrypted? _ Y - N? i. Which ones: f. Is/are there radio channels over which you can inter-ooerate and communicate with other departments and agencies? _ Y _ N i. What are they and with whom? g. What radio frequencies is your agency licensed for? i. MHz. Function: ii. MHz. Function: iii. MHz. Function: iv. MHz. Function: v. MHz. Function: vi. vii. viii. ix. 10. Does your PSAP monitor closed circuit TV? _ Y _ N a. If Yes, what do you monitor? 11. Does your PSAP monitor any "private alarms" (burglar, fire, etc.)? _ Y _N a. If Yes, how many and under what general policies? 12. Does your PSAP answer seven-digit phone lines? _ Y _N a. If Yes, which ones: i. - and its function is: - ii. - and its function is: - iii. - and its function is: - iv. - and its function is: - v. - and its function is: - G.~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-5 December 2005 - vi. - and its function is: - vii. - and its function is: - viii. - and its function is: - ix. - and its function is: - x. - and its function is: - 13. Do you have an automatic way of counting seven-digit calls? _ Y _N 14. Do you answer all these seven-digit lines 24 x 7 or are some of them only during "office closed" hours? Explain: 15. Does your PSAP have an Iowa NCIC terminal in it? _ Y _N a. If Yes: i. Are dispatchers the prime operators for inquiries? _ Y _ N ii. Are dispatchers the prime operators for entries? _ Y _ N Iii. Do you do NCIC entries for any other agencies? _ Y _ N 16. Do you provide "Emergency Medical Dispatch" (EMD)? _ Y _ N a. If Yes: - i. Which protocol do you use: ii. Flip cards or PC based: iii. Quality control regimen? _ Y _N 1. Explain: iv. Medical direction from: G=.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-6 December 2005 - ~ Appendix 2 Activity and Cost Data Collection Form PSAP Name Contact Person Contact Phone: ; E-mail: ; Fax: Is your PSAP a "PRIMARY PSAP" (first "answerer" of 9-1-1 calls) or a "Secondary PSAP" (one to which already answered 9-1-1 calls are transferred)? Primary Secondary Calls transferred to our seven-digit line only A. Number of seven-digit phone calls answered by PSAP per year. Try a 2 week "sample survey" if annual number not known Is PSAP "general phone operator" for this agency 24 x 7? _Yes _No Specify details: Seven-digit Breakout by day and time available? _Yes _No (Attach if available) B. Number of 9-1-1 calls answered by PSAP per year. - Breakout by day and time available? Yes No (Attach if available) c. Number of "NCIC type" inquiries run per year. (State may have data) Breakout by day and time available? Yes No (Attach if available) D. Number of "NCIC TYPE" entries performed per year. (Available From State) E. Number of "dispatched events" per year. Use this definition: An "EVENT'is an incident to which an emergency service responder is told to respond, or which a responder comes across in the field, regardless of whether or not a crime or incident or accident report is generated. Breakout by day and time available? Yes No (Attach if available) F. Number other quantifiable and verifiable activities handled at PSAP per year. Specify these activities. (Examples: "walk-ins" assisted at window; persons fingerprinted; accident reports sold/provided over counter; DL or other checks done for counter visitors; tow calls placed, etc.) - G. Is PSAP "service counter/window" available to public 24 x 7? _ Yes _ No Gf..-~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-7 December 2005 - Is there another "receptionist" position staffed at any time? _Yes _ No Specify: H. Number of Full Time dispatch/9-1-1 operator staff: I. Number of Part Time dispatch/9-1-1 operator staff: J. FY 2004 annual expenditures for PSAP operations: $ a. Personnel portion of this expenditure: $ b. Equipment portion of expenditure: $ c. Other expenses (specify) portion: $ K. Waaes/salaries: a. In terms of dollars per hour, please provide the following for your personnel classified as "9-1-1 dispatchers" or whatever title you use for these roles: i. Starting hourly wage: $ /hour ii. Top hourly wage: $ /hour iii. Number of "Steps" between starting and top wage: iv. Time from starting to top pay step: years - v. Any "shift differential pay"? _Yes No - 1. If Yes, describe: vi. Any "holiday pay"? _Yes _No 1. If Yes, describe: vii. Any "longevity" type pay? _Yes _No 1. If Yes, describe: viii. Number of scheduled work hours per year for Full Time: L. Benefits: i. Are all staff enrolled in the "IPERS" Pension plan? _Yes _No ii. If "No", then what pension plan? (Attach details) 1. Pension plans other than IPERS? _Yes _No 2. If Yes, then what are they: a. (Attach details) iii. Are they covered by a 401 K program? Yes - No - c~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-a December 2005 - iv. Briefly describe health and/or dental insurance benefits: v. What is the vacation accrual rate per pay period? vi. What is the sick leave accrual rate per pay period? vii. Are these positions covered by a labor agreement? _Yes _No If Yes, name of union: Can you provide a copy of the current labor agreement? If so, please mail or fax it to us. viii. Please describe any other "benefit" you think we should be aware of below: ix. Does your PSAP have CAD? Yes No. If yes, vendor: ; Contact at vendor (name and TN): x. Do you have/use MDTs in vehicles? _Yes _No. If yes, how many? - If Yes, are they linked to CAD? _Yes _No. On added sheets (or below), please provide added information or comments that would help better define the picture of the total workload and activities of your PSAP. For example, if your PSAP staff is involved in the writing/entering of police reports into a Records Management System (RMS), please explain and quantify that activity. A good context for answering this question is to ask yourself, "If our dispatch staff was not here to do , then we would either need to have some replacement type of staff to do (because it is critical to do XX hours per day), or we would just live without _ being done _hours per day. " Now tell us what" " is in the previous statement, and how many _ 's you handle per year or how much time you spend handling _s in a year. - ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-9 December 2005 .- ~ Appendix 3 System User Surveys SUMMARY REPORT OF EMPLOYEE USER SURVEYS RE: DISPATCHING SERVICES Iowa City/Johnson County - PSAP Consolidation Study Prepared by: Mike Celeski, Project Consultant GeoComm Corporation ~2~~ - G~',2" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-10 December 2005 - Introduction This report summarizes the results of a number of questionnaires that were administered to employees affected by a potential consolidation of 9-1-1 and radio dispatching centers within Johnson County, Iowa. Two groups of employees were asked for input about their current and potential public safety communications systems: ~ Those who receive dispatch services ~ Those who provide dispatch services Thirty surveys were returned by mostly command and supervisory staff of agencies that receive dispatch services. Seventeen surveys were submitted by dispatch personnel. The questions were fairly open-ended allowing comments and individual responses. Thus, our findings are summary, not numerical in nature. The remainder of this report highlights those findings in two sections: Receivers responses and Providers responses. Dispatch Service Receivers' Responses It appears that surveys were retumed from most (if not all) public safety agencies in the County. Chiefs or other Executive Staff completed most; but there were some from the - supervisory ranks. There are basically only two full time dispatch centers and two radio systems in the County: The County Sheriff's VHF conventional system and the Iowa City 800 MHz trunked radio system. We have chosen to aggregate our findings except where there are specific differences noted by a user of a particular system. E9-1-1 Svstem The E9-1-1 systems' performance was rated from "adequate to works very well." There were few negative comments about system performance. However, there were notable "desirable" system features that are not currently provided at some or all of the agencies: ~ Mobile Data Terminals (MDT) and GIS mapping capability in the vehicles ~ GIS mapping at the dispatch centers ~ Identification of cell phone caller locations ~ Use of ''flags'' for specific locations, such as previous calls, hazardous materials, and building owner contact information ~ Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) for calls answered at County ~ Better addressing in rural county areas (I.e., properties that share a common driveway only have a sign at the road; not the specific house numbers located there) - G."~,, Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-11 December 2005 - Consolidated Dispatch Center There was near unanimous support for having only one, 9-1-1 call answering center. Most of the respondents also indicated that if there were only one call-taking center that all dispatching should be done from that same center. With respect to management of a consolidated center, a majority think that it should be governed by an independent board, which is representative of all user agencies. Moreover, its funding should be shared among all agencies. The most common sharing formula was suggested as being based on call volumes, although some thought a per-population formula would be equitable. A few individuals mentioned a "28 E Agreement" as an organizational vehicle. For a location of a new center, many wanted it "central to Johnson County" identifying Iowa City as a likely place. However, most respondents thought that it ought not to be located in any single user agency's building; most thought a separate building would be better. Technology A majority of the individuals reported that CAD is used more as an "after the fact" record-keeping tool rather than a dispatch aid. In other words, CAD is used more for tracking times, and units rather than identifying which units should be assigned, or what types of call or premise history information are available for dispatch purposes. - MDT's and Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) are generally perceived favorably, as tools that can assist field units with running name/license checks, identifying the closest unit to a call, and finding newly created roads in developing areas. One or two individuals reported they had bad experiences with MDTs in fire trucks. The surveys were about evenly split on whether the paging system worked satisfactorily. Some complaints were that they "need a better call back system" "occasional signal problems" and the ambulance service reported that it was "cumbersome receiving pages from two different agencies", which would appear to be more of a complaint about multiple dispatch centers rather than any particular paging system or technology. Radio Systems Portable radios work okay for most of those who use them with exceptions noted in specific buildings of the U of I campus, and basements and elevators in other city buildings. Other coverage problem areas, in general, were reported for: ~ North Liberty Area ~ Lake Area ~ West Overlook Area ~ Industrial Park ~ Coral Ridge Mall ~ South End of the County ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-12 December 2005 - ~ Northwest Corner of the County ~ Low Lying Areas ~ Far North and Northeast Areas of the County ~ North Edge of the Reservoir ~ Northwest Manor Township ~ Northeast Jefferson Township ~ West of West Liberty ~ West side of Iowa City (particularly for portables) ~ Tiffin ~ Mormon Trek Most thought that they have enough channels to operate; but some fire department personnel indicated a need for more fire ground channels. Respondents were almost evenly split on whether their system provided enough security and privacy over the air. Staffing In a consolidated communications center, most agencies feel the dispatchers should be cross-trained in all disciplines (i.e. police, fire, and EMS dispatching). However, there was significant support for having dedicated workstations for each type of service. (We interpret - this to mean that when seated at "workstation X", a dispatcher should be primarily dedicated to performing "function "Z:' (fire dispatch, for example), but said dispatcher ought to be trained to be able to also sit at "workstations A, B, C, and X" and be able to perform whatever function is specifically dedicated at those workstations. Almost all respondents felt the current dispatchers should be absorbed into the new center; an alternative to re-assign dispatchers within their own agencies was also suggested. A slight majority thinks the current centers are sufficiently staffed. But majorities did not know, or have an opinion on whether dispatchers received enough benefit time off (i.e. vacation and comp time), or enough training or supervision. There was also no clear-cut majority opinion about whether there is enough space in the existing communication centers. Strengths and Weaknesses The most resounding opinion expressed about the strengths of the current systems was the dispatch personnel were quality, dedicated individuals who performed admirably, especially during peak busy times and high-risk incidents. Weaknesses of the system were mentioned as outdated equipment, staff shortages, and no direct communications capability among field personnel. This last point was also emphasized -- in the "Interoperability" questions. G~~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-13 December 2005 - The agencies feel there should be a common County-wide channel that all public safety responders can use to talk with each other during incidents needing coordination. Several individuals reported the current method of setting up patches between the radio systems is cumbersome and too slow for incidents such as pursuits and in-progress crimes. Dispatch Service Providers' Responses Questionnaires were received from 17 dispatch personnel. In many ways, their responses were similar to the receivers' but not as complete. This section of our report highlights the findings of the dispatch providers' surveys. E9-1-1 System Reliability of the E9-1-1 network, All database, and Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) was rated from adequate to excellent. A few individuals expressed a desire for the ability to "trap" a 9-1-1 call, preventing the caller from hanging up before providing all the necessary information. An altemative of automatically dialing back a 9-1-1 caller was also suggested. GeoComm note: This capability was present in early "Basic" 9-1-1 systems but went away with Enhanced 9-1-1 technology. The E9-1-1 designer's presumption was that if the 9-1-1 call taker was being provided with the caller's phone number (E9-1-1 ANI), they could easily call the caller back, as required. - Most dispatchers expressed a desire for Phase II Wireless service, with the ability to locate wireless 9-1-1 callers based on their latitude and longitude. They would also like subscriber information (name, etc.) for the owner of the cellular phone. GeoComm note: This mapping capability for wireless 9-1-1 calls is now on order and will be installed fairly soon, and will begin plotting "Phase 1" calls immediately and "Phase 2" soon thereafter. However, information regarding the subscriber to a cell phone appears to not be on the horizon in the foreseeable future. Consolidated Center Just about half of the dispatchers thought the concept of a single E9-1-1 PSAP was a good idea. Many expressed no opinion, or said they didn't have enough information to provide an answer. There was more indecision about whether a single, consolidated PSAP should also conduct all of the dispatching for the County. A slight majority indicated they thought a single independent board ought to manage a consolidated center. These individuals also thought that all user agencies should share the cost, but based more on call volume than on population. Another mention of the "28 E Agreement" for an organizational vehicle was made in the dispatcher surveys. Most dispatchers would like the communications center to be located centrally within the County (for ease of traveling to work). A few suggested it be placed in a new, or the existing, jail facility. Many respondents indicated it should not be housed within any current agency's facility, though. - G.~.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-14 December 2005 .- Technology Mapping, for both dispatchers and field units, is viewed favorably by the dispatchers. Reasons given were for displaying wireless callers' locations, and displaying the location of new roads and streets. CAD seems to be used in various ways, depending on the dispatcher. Most say they use it as a record-keeping tool. They say that the CAD systems can do unit recommendations, but many don't use this feature, opting for other methods of determining which unit to assign (e.g. area rosters). Coralville and Iowa City Police Departments have MDT's and according to the dispatchers, they are a valuable tool, "when they're working." This indicates some system reliability problems with the current MDT system. Most dispatchers think that MDT's are helpful in reducing radio traffic when the officers run their own name and license checks, although there was one indication that Coralville Police Department prohibits MDT use while driving. (We have been unable to confirm this.) If so, the result would be the dispatcher runs these inquiries for CVPD units more often than do the units themselves. The paging system was reported to be cumbersome by several of the respondents. Radio Systems There were mixed responses on the portable (walkie-talkie) radios. Some think they operate - okay, some think not; many other dispatchers offered no opinion. We assumed that these responses were in the context of the ability of the portable to be heard by dispatch and vice-versa. Coverage problems stated by the dispatchers reflected similar areas mentioned by the receivers. There was an additional problem identified by one of the dispatchers, however. It seems that, on occasion on the 800 MHz system, the fire department talk group(s) override the police talk groups on the air. This could be a technical system problem that should probably be researched by the maintenance technicians. GeoComm note: We have investigated this issue more thoroughly, and it appears the issue is more of one dealing with the priority on the receive talkgroups on the field radios than the fire talkgroup actually "overriding" the police talkgroups. Channel capacity was generally thought to be okay for the most part. Some respondents, however, indicated they get "busies" at times when other City departments are using the City's 800 MHz trunked system heavily during the week. Respondents were about evenly split on whether or not there was sufficient privacy and security over the air; many indicated scanners will always be a problem. Staffing A majority of the dispatchers expressed worry over the possibility of lay-offs if the centers - were to be consolidated. G.<;,Q.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-15 December 2005 - Only one dispatcher thought the centers were adequately staffed. Most said taking any vacation or comp time resulted in a lot of overtime for others. But granting of benefit time off was pretty fair. Training time was dependent on staffing workloads. JCSO dispatchers indicated most training was voluntary, so many didn't take advantage of it because of the need to staff the consoles. Some Iowa City dispatchers indicated they wanted more "hands-on" training, not just manuals to read. Some Iowa City dispatchers indicated a need for more writing space, while JCSO comments indicated a desire for adjustable workstations, allowing them to sit or stand at the console. Strengths and Weaknesses The major strengths of the current systems were, as in the service receivers responses, reported to be the personnel. Dispatchers also feel they are good, dedicated employees who work well with each other, even across agency lines. The main weaknesses were highlighted as a lack of interoperability and a shortage of staff. - - ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-16 December 2005 - ~ Appendix 4 Primer on Trunked Radio Systems Reprinted from "Ick! I Hate Technical Stuff", @ Professional Pride, 1998, By Paul D. Linnee, ENP. One of the latest developments in the two-way radio world is something called TRUNKED RADIO or TRUNKING. For some reason, trunked radio has been a difficult concept for lots of folks to get their hands around. We'll try here to explain the basic concepts of trunked radio in a fashion that (we hope) will make you able to be conversant about a topic that is almost certain to impact your system in the next 10-20 years, if it hasn't already. First of all, trunkina in itself does not necessarilv mean 800 MHz. The fact is that trunking is a method of efficiently using and re-using several radio channels that could be done (at least in theory) in any of the frequency bands available for land-mobile communications such as VHF, UHF, 700 MHz etc. Yes, you could even use trunking on the 40 good old CB radio channels! However, the reality is that for a trunked system to work properly, it needs at least a handful (usually five or more) of relatively adjacent pairs of radio frequencies. We say "pairs of radio frequencies" because a trunked system is always "repeated". Repeated means the talk path goes to and through a device called a REPEATER (much more on this later) and it needs one frequency for the transmissions headed to the repeater and another frequency for the transmissions coming out of the repeater. Therefore, each CHANNEL consists of two FREQUENCIES, one inbound and one outbound from the repeater. So, to repeat (no pun intended), a trunked system needs several pairs of frequencies (channels) and about the only place in the usable spectrum left where you can find relatively clean (free of interference) pairs of frequencies is in the 700 and 800 MHz. band, to include the NPSPAC channels, which are located at 821 and 866 MHz respectively. That's why almost all of the trunked systems you'll hear about for the foreseeable future will be at 700/800 MHz. (Yes, it is true that there are VHF {150 MHz.} trunked systems in use. One place is the entire State of South Dakota, but they could pull it off there due to the fact there were vel}' few VHF licensees in place and they could come up with an adequate number of "clean" channel pairs.) Now that we've established that "trunked" doesn't necessarily mean 800 MHz, but that almost all trunked systems are 800 MHz trunked systems (have we got you confused, yet?), lets try and get a handle on how trunking works. The best way I've found to understand this is to make a comparison between simple two way radio (non-trunked) and simple telephone systems. On day one, when Alexander Graham Bell invented telephone, he ran one pair of copper wires from Place A to Place B. Over these two wires he sent voltage which turned into voice at the other end. This is a "talk path". On day two, he ran another pair of wires from Place C to Place D. This is another talk path. If the telephone world would have followed this basic concept, each of us today would have as many pairs of wires running from the phone at our house to as many other different places as we could imagine we would ever want to talk to. This would definitely be lots of wires and a real mess. G~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-17 December 2005 - Every time we wanted to talk to somebody, we'd have to go into that pile of wire "spaghetti" and find the pair of wires that went to the place we wanted to call and connect them to our phone. Then we'd have to hope that the party we were calling had also found the pair of wires that came from our house and connected them to their phone. If they had, we could send a ring down those wires, they'd pick up and we could talk. Needless to say, old Alex figured this problem out real fast. What he did was invent "telephone exchanges". That meant that from every house there was just one pair of wires running to a central place. At that central place (you've all seen pictures of old telephone company switchboards and operators), then we'd ring the operator, who would plug into our pair of wires and ask us who we wanted to talk to. We'd tell her (they were always "hers" back then). We'd tell her and then shed run a "patch cord" from the plug representing our pair of wires to the plug representing the pair of wires that went to the place we were calling. Then she'd put a ring on those wires and the phone would ring at the desired place. If somebody answered, we'd talk. When we were done, we'd hang up and the operator would get an indication of that and remove that patch cord and free up that temporary connection between the two of us. Here's how the analogy works: The first example of a pair of wires running to every place we might want to call is exactly like simple non-trunked two way radio. The only difference is that instead of dealing with wires we are dealing with specific radio frequencies or pairs of frequencies that make up radio channels. Imagine CB radio. If you want to talk to me on CB Channel 14, both you and I have to have CB radios. They must both be turned on. They - must both be switched to the same "pair of wires" (channel). Then when you call me, you are the only person who can be talking on Channel 14 at that instant and if I hear you, I answer you. Nobody else in our geographic area (say ten miles in diameter) can be using that channel at the same time. If they do, we end up in a party line sort of situation, which is what CB is. Now jump to public safety radio. Let's say your agency has a four-channel radio system with four-channel radios in all the cars and trucks. If the dispatcher wants to talk to Car 54, the dispatcher must know which channel (pair of wires) Car 54 is tuned to, wait until nobody else is talking on that channel and then call for Car 54. (Old enough to remember "Car 54 Where are you?" if so, its time to retire!) You all know what radio scanners are. Imagine you are in TV station's "assignment desk" room in a major metro area. They might have ten of these scanners mounted on the wall, all humming away. Let's say each scanner has one channel tumed on. That means they are monitoring ten channels continuously (one of each of ten scanners). Not all the channels are all talking at the same time (usually). Each channel in each scanner is assigned to a different agency in the same unit of government (one police, one fire, one street department etc.). All of a sudden, there is a big deal going down in Agency #1 and their channel gets real busy. At the same time, however, none of the other nine channels are busy at all. The folks at Agency 1 are dying. Their channel is all tied up and they are having a hard time getting any air time for all the important things they need to say, while the other nine are dead silent. If only some of the folks from Agency 1 knew that channel five (the sanitation department) was dead silent, they could switch to it, if they even had that channel in their radios. This is what trunked radio is all about. - G=.. Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-18 December 2005 - Let's take the same unit of govemment and give them a ten channel trunked radio system. What we do is take all ten channels and control them by a computer. Then we put all ten channels in all of the mobile and portable radios of that unit of government. Now, we no longer think in terms of "channels". Instead, we think of terms of "talk paths", or in trunked radio language, "talk groups". A typical assignment of talk groups to a unit of government (a city, for example) might look like this: Talk GrouD Desianation Assianed to Police North Patrol Police Police South Patrol Police Police Tactical Police Police Investigative Police Police Traffic/Radar Police Police surveillance Police Police Car to Car Police Police Administration Police Police Common Police Fire Disoatch Fire Fire Command Fire Fire truck to truck Fire Fire Ground Tactical 1 Fire Fire Ground Tactical 2 Fire - Fire administrative Fire Fire Common Fire Sanitation 1 Sanitation Sanitation 2 Sanitation Park Maintenance Park Park Ooerations Park Sewer Mtce. 1 Sewer Sewer Mtce. 2 Sewer Street Mtce. 1 Streets Street Mtce. 2 Streets Public Works Common Public Works Citv administration 1 City Manager Citv administration 2 Citv Manager Inspections 1 Building Insoections Insoections 2 Buildinq Insoections Citv Wide Common 1 Citv wide Citv Wide Common 2 Citv Wide Statewide VHF Emergencv (155.475) Hard oatch to 155.475 - G<~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-19 December 2005 Each of the radios owned by the separate agencies are programmed to be able to access only the talk groups for their agency, plus some or all of the "common" talk groups (Like city common). That way, you don't have sewer workers listening in on police surveillance activities, etc. So, for a city that used to have only radio ten channels, we now have 32 separate talk groups. In reality, in a trunked system, all of the radios are actually remote computers first and radios second. Let's take a look at one simple transmission and see how this all works: ~ Police Car 1 wants to talk to Police Car 2. He knows 2 is monitoring the North Patrol Talk Group. ~ Police 1 selects (via a knob like a channel selector) North Patrol and calls for 2. ~ Police 1's radio (computer) sends a split second command to the central system computer saying: . I am Police 1 . I am authorized to access the North Patrol talk group . I want to talk on the North Patrol talk group . Please take a channel (pair of frequencies) from your set of ten stored channels and set it up to support the following communication between me and everyone else on North Patrol ~ The central computer hears all of this and picks one of the ten channels in its bank (six) - and then: . Sends a command out to all radios monitoring the North Patrol Talk Group . Tells all those radios to tune to channel 6 from the ten channels the system has . Sends a signal back to Car 1 which tells car one it is OK to talk (*) ~ Car 1 talks and everyone monitoring the North Patrol Talk Group hears Car 1, especially Car 2. ~ Car 2 goes to answer, and the whole process is repeated. (*) Car 1 isn't actually told that it is OK to talk. In reality, Car 1 always assumes that it is OK to talk unless the computer tells her radio that no channels are available on which to set up a talk path for that talk group at that instant. In that case, Car 1 's radio would beep when she pressed the talk button, with the beep indicating no talk path is available. This is great, because ~ means that several users will no longer be permitted to talk at the exact same instant (A dispatcher never again has to say, 'Two cars calling, try again!"). Further, no user will think they got through when they didn1 actually get through. Another neat side benefit of trunked systems is that (in order to work and be able to identify each user's radio) each radio is assigned its own 10 number. This is really just like ANI (Automatic Number Identification) in an E9-H system. It means every time a radio talks, its ID number can be displayed for the dispatcher and the other receiving radios. That ID number can be listed in a database and can automatically cause for a plain English display to be shown saying not "RADIO 123344", but "CHIEF SMITH' when the Chief talks. This could be the end to those occasionally gross and inappropriate (but unidentified) comments (or other noises) that some of our fine and professional field personnel find it necessary to make now and then. C'~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-20 December 2005 - Further, it also creates the ability to establish a "private call" whereby a properly equipped radio (one with a touch tone pad on it like a phone) can "dial up" the radio number of the party she wants to talk to and then establish a private talk path between her and the other party for the duration of that chat. This would seem to be ideal for Supervisors to use to communicate with an errant subordinate or one needing guidance, without risking everyone else hearing the counseling or other advise being given. A final neat benefit of trunked systems is they are, by definition, much harder to listen to from scanners. In a conventional radio system, if two detectives on a surveillance are saying some really juicy stuff, all on one channel all the time, the scanner buff (or bad guy or "newsie") need only lock in that one channel and (provided they are within range) listen to their heart's content. In a plain (non digital) trunked system, that same buff would have to listen to all ten channels of our ten channel trunked system all of the time in hopes of picking up snatches of what the two detectives are saying, because every time they are talking, the computer is assigning them a different one of the ten channels for their talk path. So, in order to hope to hear them, they'd have to monitor all ten. But, in so doing, they'd have to listen to and wade through all of the other talk going on in the system and, by doing this to pick out our detectives, they'd certainly miss much of what the detectives are saying. In trunked system design, the key is to have enough channels (pairs of frequencies) serving the trunked system users (regardless how many talk groups there may be) so there are very few, if any, occasions where the user's radio beeps to indicate inability to provide a talk path to that user. It is often the case that the number of channels necessary to support a given agency's communications on a trunked system can be as few as 25 percent or less than they would need for the same level of communications in a conventional, non-trunked environment. The author is aware of a planned large metro wide trunked system which will support 25,000 end user radios which are now using over 300 conventional VHF, UHF, and 800 MHz. channels and it will do it with 96 NPSPAC 821 MHz. channels. Further, through this system, every single user will have coverage throughout the entire 2,500 square mile metro region and have the ability to inter-communicate with any other user from any other agency or type of agency. Now that's INTER-OPERABILITY, folks! To sum up trunked radio, the technology came into being as a mechanism for getting better efficiency and utilization out of a very limited number of available radio channels in urban areas. In fact, the FCC now requires that any agency that has more than five 800 MHz. channels must implement a trunked radio system, and most NPSPAC and 700 MHz channels will likely be used in trunked systems. SPECIAL NOTE AND CAUTION: There are several vendors of trunked radio systems. In general, these systems are not inclined to be able to talk to each other in a trunked mode. Each vendor uses proprietary computer protocols Oust like an IBM PC trying to work with an Apple MAC) so (for example) a Motorola trunked radio cannot be used in a trunked mode on a (formerly called) Ericsson GE trunked radio system (then called Com Net Ericsson and now called MAlCOM), and vice versa. .".-. G.~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-21 December 2005 Perhaps you have heard of something called APCO PROJECT 25. This is a user based standards setting effort which is intended to entice the radio manufacturers to make radios that will all work to the same minimum standard of trunking protocols so a radio from one vendor will, in fact, work on a trunked system from another vendor, in a trunked mode. This is being done for the obvious reason of ensuring greater inter-system inter-operability, but also for the important reason of ensuring that a unit of govemment that buys Vendor A's trunked system on day one, can gain the advantage of competitive bidding for the end user radios by getting bids from more than one vendor as time goes on. PROJECT 25 has been very controversial and a slow process. Its Phase 1 is complete and several vendors have agreed to the protocol standards in it. Unfortunately, (as of this writing) one of the major vendors has not agreed to the standards across the board, and the battle goes on. 1.2 ANALOG vs. DIGITAL RADIO This won't be nearly as confusing as you might think. (Now that's good news!). That's not to say that it isn't confusing, but it is to say that we who use radios really need to know only a small portion of this gobbledygook. Here goes: Radio systems can send out radio waves that are either the noise (usually a speaker's voice) transmitted is the form of analog waves which look like squiggly but flowing lines on a radar screen, or they can send out digital series of 1 's and O's (that's zero, not the - letter 0). Digital stuff is very common in our every day lives. All computer data is digital. All those wonderful voice mail messages we hear are digital. If they weren't, can you imagine all the audio tape those systems would use? In digital, there's a microprocessor at the transmitting and at the receiving end. The transmitter microprocessor "looks at" all the words sent to it from the talker's microphone. As it looks at those words, it breaks each word down into a series of 1 's and O's (based on what the word sounds like) so that a simple single word might end up looking like this: 100110001111000110110111001. Now the transmitter's microprocessor and the receiver's microprocessor share the same "digital dictionary" so when the transmitter microprocessor hears the word "STOP" and tums it into "1010101010101", when the receiver microprocessor gets "1010101010101" it can "translate" that into the word "STOP". There are three distinct advantages to digital transmissions: o It takes up less space in the frequency bandwidth to send 1 's and O's (even long series of them) than it takes to send words converted into analog waves. Hence, more digital transmissions can be compressed into a narrow bandwidth space than can analog transmissions. This will eventually permit the FCC (when everyone has gone digital) to slice the usable spectrum into narrower channels than we have today. This means we can get more channels from the same bandwidth than we have today, without them interfering with each other. (NOTE: Recently, the FCC has resorted to auctioning off frequency bandwidth to commercial users of that bandwidth such as cellular providers, paging companies, etc. G.~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-22 December 2005 - These auctions are netting literally billions of dollars for the U.S. Treasury, all of which is earmarked for deficit reduction. So you can see why the FCC and the Feds, in general, would like to get more channels within the finite usable spectrum.... so they can get more money from these auctions. Currently, and likely into the future, public agencies such as public safety are exempt from competing for frequencies at such auctions. Thank goodness for little favors!) 8 Digital transmissions are generally of a higher quality throughout all of a given transmitter's range. With analog, the closer the receiver is to the transmitter, the better the radio signal quality. As the receiver gradually gets farther away, the signal gradually deteriorates. You have all heard "Your signal is getting weak and scratchy" as the receiver of your signal gets farther away. That's analog. At some distance away the signal gets so weak and scratchy that it can no longer be understood. With digital, the receiver will likely be able to hear 1 00 percent of the message at 100 percent quality within 100 percent of the coverage area of the transmitter. This does not mean that digital signals go farther! It does mean a digital signal will be of a generally higher quality within the same coverage area than an analog signal. It also means when one begins to get near the outer fringe of a digital transmitter's range, the receiver will "drop off the end of the world" and not be able to hear anything at all any more. All of this is due to the little old 1 's and O's. If the receiver can hear and understand all of the 1 's and O's, it can fully reconstitute them and reproduce the voice from the transmitter, just like the transmitter was next door. To help this, these smart guys have also come up with some called Error Correction Logarithms which are capable of taking a set of 1 's and O's which have a few 1 's and O's missing and (using some very heavy duty logic programs) figure out what the missing 1 's and O's should have been and insert them. e The last of our advantages for digital is security. Remembering our discussion about how it was harder for a scanner buff to monitor a trunked radio transmission? Well, it was harder but the words (maybe not the words they wanted to hear, but still words) could still be heard clearly over the scanner. With digital, what is going through the air to be picked up by a scanner is no longer words. All the typical, older version scanners would hear are 1 's and O's, and they simply sound like "white noise" or pure static. The only radio receiver which can takes those 1 's and O's and make any sense out them is one with the same exact logic within it as the transmitters and receivers of the digital system and the permutations of how many different coding schemes can be used here are mind boggling. (I remember when digital first came out for two way radio in the late 1970's, Motorola had a commercial that described the total number of digital coding schemes available to be a number as great as the number of grains of sand that would be present if you covered all of Chicago with 10 feet of sand! Now that's a rather large number in anyone's book.) So, not only has trunking made it harder for scanner buffs to hear, by "going digital" we've made it even harder. This may sound neat, but it does have its downside too. For example, assume your agency has installed a digital system, and the cops in your neighboring jurisdictions have scanners in their cars over which they have always monitored you folks. It has worked out well many times when they heard that chase coming their way and so forth. - Well, forget that plan! G!.-~n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-23 December 2005 .- Their scanners are no smarter than the average scanner buff's so all they will hear is your pretty white noise. Further, it's a good guess that your local major "newsies" will not be at all thrilled when they discover they can't listen to the local cops or fire fighters any more. We've heard of several cases where both trunked and/or digital systems have been installed and the installing agency had to make an arrangement with the local news organizations to let the newsies have a receiver only radio that was a part of that trunked and/or digital system so they could listen to, at least, the main operational and dispatch channels or talk groups. Importantly, however, by late 2003, at least one major scanner manufacturer had introduced a well performing scanner capable of receiving and decoding Project 25 digital trunked radio, and they are relatively affordable, at about $550 each. The final issue on digital is that it is not unique to trunked radio. True, we're beginning to see more and more digital trunked systems, but one can use digital transmission on any type of system at any frequency band. Cops have been doing digital UHF and VHF for years, especially in their "scrambled" narcotics and other special channels. - G~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-24 December 2005 - ~ Appendix 5 Primer on Two-Way Radio Systems It is important that we establish and define the terms we will be using. They are: "REPEATER" and "REPEATED": These are radio systems (also known as "mobile relay systems") in which vehicles and portables generally transmit to and hear from a high tower in the area and not directly with each other (at least the radio waves don't go directly from car to car). When one talks to the "tower" one does so on one "repeater input frequency". The repeater (located at the tower) receives the input and re-broadcasts (or repeats) it out on a repeater output frequency, which is different from the input frequency. The two frequencies make up the "channel". How a repeater works: 1f: , Radio frequency: "Talk in" =.......... . " " "Talk out" = --. . " ..' :, . " " . " . . " . . , - . . " . . . , . " . . , Repeater Base I Mobile radio # I I Station I Mobile radio #2 I Radio #1 "Ialks inlo"the repealer on one freauencv at, say, 35 watts, The repeater hears it and "repeats" what it heard back out at, on a different freauencv at, say 250 watts of power, so that Radio #2 can hear what Radio #t said, This means radio I and 2 can talk to each other from much farther apert than they could otherwise do if they weren1 talking "through the repeater", It also means that radios I and 2 must listen to what all other radios operating through this repeater are saying and, therefore, can know when not to talk. Obviously, then, a "non-repeated radio channel" is one where there is no repeater and the units then communicate directly radio to radio. Repeated radio channels offer the advantage of dramatically increasing the range for car to car or portable to portable communications. Thev do absolutelv nothina to imorove the abilitv of anv radio to talk in to the disoatcher! If any radio can't make it in to the repeater, they won't be able to talk to anyone on that repeated radio channel. - G~~n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-25 December 2005 - An advantage of non repeated radio channels is that you can take two (or more) radios operating on such a channel and plop them down anywhere in the world (regardless of how close they mayor may not be to some tower) and they can talk directly back and forth, provided they are close enough to each other. Public Safety Answerina Point or PSAP: The place where 9-1-1 calls are answered and from which police, fire, and EMS units are paged and/or radio dispatched. "VHF. UHF. HI BAND. 800 MHz". etc.: These are terms that refer to the frequency range at which a radio operates. VHF (Very High Frequency, also sometimes called High Band or HB or HF) radios operate at around 150 MHz, UHF (Ultra High Frequency) at around 450-470 MHz and 800 MHz operates at 806 MHz or 821 MHz. In general, radios designed to operate in one band cannot communicate directly with a radio in another band. For example, a VHF radio cannot generally communicate directly with a UHF or 800 MHz radio, or vice versa. RADIO CONSOLES Are the pieces of fumiture or computer terminals at which a dispatcher sits and through which they control the radio systems they deal with. Consoles often also contain other control switches that are not related to radio or communications, per se, but the switches or buttons need to be mounted someplace, so they get mounted in the console. Garage door opener switches are good examples of this. IMPORTANT: THE CONSOLE IS NOT A RADIO. IT MEREL Y PROVIDES A PLACE FOR THE BUTTONS, ETC. THAT CONTROL RADIOS LOCATED ELSEWHERE. In many cases, we have had dispatch staff proudly report that they have "All New Motorola Radios", when all they really have is a new radio control console controlling the same 40 year old base transmitters and receivers "in the back room or down in the basement or down at the tower site", and they complain that the "radios still don't sound too good!" "RF Control Station" This is a term that is used to refer to a device which serves as a remote control for a radio base repeater located some distance away. Simply put, if the base repeater is located at a tower "five miles south of town" there needs to be some way for a dispatcher to get his or her voice out to that base repeater so that it can then be transmitted out from that base station to be heard all over the area. One could lease an expensive (and not too reliable) phone line over which that voice and voltage could be carried from the PSAP to the remote repeater site. Or, one could install a quite expensive microwave system between the PSAP and the remote repeater site to carry that voice and voltage to the repeater. However, an RF control station is often the simplest and most effective way to do this. It is really not much more than a mobile two way radio (like the one installed in the squad car or fire truck) with an AC power supply (instead of the 12 volts DC provided by a car) and connected to a directional antenna located someplace outside the building on the roof of the building. Via such a system, if a dispatcher wants to talk on POLICE CHANNEL 1, the dispatcher presses TRANSMIT on POLICE 1 on the console and talks, which then sends the dispatchers voice to the RF control station in the back room, out the small antenna on the roof and on its way to the remote repeater. C~n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-26 December 2005 - When it gets to the repeater (in a split second, as it is traveling at the speed of light or 186,300 miles per second) it is received Gust like any other inbound mobile radio) and then re-broadcast at hundreds of watts of power off the very high antenna. There can be a down side to RF control as the means via which a dispatcher accesses a repeater base station. Simply put, if the dispatcher's path to the repeater is the same as the path taken by any other mobile (or portable) radio on that channel, then anybody operating a similarly tuned mobile or portable could effectivelv comoete with or "iam" that channel and either denv access to or render harmful interference to the disoatcher's attemot to access and control that reoeater. This is not a problem that would occur were that distant repeater under wire line or microwave control. "TX" and "RX": "TX" is radio shorthand for TRANSMIT and "RX" is shorthand for RECEIVE. PO and FO: Are sometimes used to refer to Police Department and Fire Department. TRUNKEO: (See Appendix 4 also) Refers to a technology in use in the Iowa City radio system (but not the County's) in which multiple radio channels (six in the case of the Iowa City system) are all available for use by all users who can access the system, and the central control computer for that system dynamically allocates and assigns those channels on a second by second basis to the users needing channel resources for a specific communication. For example, if ICPD car #1 wants to talk to ICPD car #2, car #1 presses the "push to talk" button in the radio microphone. This action instantly tells the trunked system's central control computer that "AN ICPD CAR WANTS TO TALK TO ANY OTHER RADIO TUNED TO THE ICPD DISPATCH TALK GROUP". The system's central control computer checks to see if any of the six radio channels it manages are free for use at that instant. If yes, the central control computer picks one of the available channels and sends a data burst out to the radio requesting said "channel grant" (ICPD Car #1) telling it (and all other radios tuned to the ICPD disoatch talk-qrouol and tells it to electronically and remotely switch to that free radio channel and to go ahead and talk. Once that communication is done, the channel that was used is "put back on the shelf", available for re-assignment via the same process to the next radio making a "channel grant request". If, however, no channel is available when the requesting radio makes a "channel grant request", the central control computer will send a "busy tone" back to the requesting radio, implicitly advising said radio that "due to use of all of my channels by other radios, I cannot grant you a channel right now". This is called a "system busy" and it is a key benchmark for assessing the capacity of any trunked radio system. The relative capacity of any such system is a function of two major elements: 1. How many radios are out there trying to gain access to the system? 2. How long are those who have gained access talking, thereby using up all voice radio channels? In other words, if we had only 20 radios out there using six radio channels we mayor may not encounter "system busy conditions". If six of these 20 radios were used to talk a whole lot of minutes, they could regularly cause "system busy" conditions. On the other hand, one might have 500 radios out there, but if none of the 500 radios was used to talk very much, then the frequency of "system busy" conditions may actually be less than for the 20 radio system. G,~"iCj~n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-27 December 2005 - Oiaital Radio Svstems. Whv ao diaital? In two-way radio systems today, there are two basic technology directions. They are Digital and Analog. This section of the report will explore the pros and cons of these two technologies and make recommendations. First of all we need to dispel the "way too high tech" aura that often surrounds any discussion of digital. We deal with digital every day in many very mundane ways. When we say digital, we are not referring to digital as in "digital clocks", where the digits display prominently (10:54, for example) as opposed to the hands of a clock pointing at hours and minutes. What we are referring to is the act of a micro chip computer processor in the transmitting radio (Called a VOCODER, which stands for VOICE ENCODER/DECODER) that takes the sounds that are spoken by the person transmitting, analyzes them, and puts them into packets of data (encoding) wherein the sounds are turned into sets of 1 's and O's (digits), and it is these series of DIGITS that are transmitted through the airwaves. Hence the term DIGITAL. On the receiving end, there is a like computer processor in the receiver radio that hears these packets of DIGITS and is programmed with the same logic in its "de-coder" as in the transmitting radio's encoder. Hence the encoded digital packet that was sent can be decoded and returned to normal sounds that can be interpreted by the human ear. Probably the most common way we deal with digitized speech everyday is in voice mail systems. When you call and receive a voice mail greeting, that greeting is not likely stored as - an analog stream of sounds on a piece of audio tape in some cassette. Rather, the "owner" of that voice mailbox has stored their greeting as a digitized packet of data that is stored on a computer chip someplace until you retrieve it by accessing that voice mailbox. Similarly, when you leave a message in that person's voice mail box, your message is digitized and stored in a place in the system's memory where it can be later retrieved by the owner of that voice mail box. As we have all heard, the quality and clarity of voice reproductions in digitized voice mail systems can be excellent. (And think of all of the space that is saved by not having to have miles of audio cassette tape on reels to store all that stuff!) But the reasons radio (and just beginning now TV) has begun to migrate to digital systems are somewhat different than those for voice mail systems. It has primarily to do with what is called bandwidth. This often over-used term refers to both the frequency response of any given communications pathway or transmission medium, and the "carrying capacity" of said pathway or medium. In two-way radio, the MEDIUM of the transmission is the airwaves or the electromagnetic spectrum. The communications pathways within that medium are the CHANNELS, or the specifically assigned radio frequency licensed by the FCC. - ~~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-28 December 2005 The "bandwidth" of these channels is a function of how "wide" a channel is. In other words, if one was to look at the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation as a continuous line, it might look like this: I I Along that line there would be tic marks indicating specific frequency points: I I C~OMV I I 150.0 MHz 151.0 MHz 153.0 MHz 154.0 MHz Now if we zoom in on and examine just what is in the circle above we see: I I I I I I I 151.50 151.65 151.80 152.0 152.15 152.40 152.55 At each of the above tic marks is an assignable FREQUENCY. In the case of a "simplex" or non-repeated radio channel, this one frequency makes up this CHANNEL or communications pathway. In the case of a repeated or "half duplex" radio channel (such as we always use and encounter in the 800 MHz world) a CHANNEL consists of two - frequencies, or what is called a "frequency pair", with one channel carrying mobile to base communications and the other channel carrying base back to mobile communications. (Note: In 800 MHz systems the two frequencies of a channel are 45 MHZ apart, with the low side being 806 or 821 MHz and the high side being at about 851 or 866 MHz. Soon the "700 MHz" band will also be opened up to public safely licensees, immediately adjacent to the current 800 band.) Referring back to the continuum above, we can see that each channel is 0.15 Megahertz (MHz) away from its adjacent channel. This is called "channel spacing". 0.15 MHz is also referred to as 150 Kilohertz or KHz. Therefore, it can be said that the above are "150 KHz wide channels". That is their bandwidth. Obviously, the continuum representing the spectrum of usable electromagnetic radiation is much longer than what is depicted above. But, it is finite. There is a beginning point at which there is no usable radiation (the soles of your shoes, for example), and an end point where there is too much radiation (an x-ray machine, for example) to be usable in a two way radio system. Since this is a finite continuum, the width of each assignable frequency within that continuum is what determines how many frequencies one can have to assign or license to users. If every assignable frequency were 1 MHz wide, and the usable spectrum was 1,000 MHz from end to end, then one would have only 1,000 frequencies available for licensing in anyone area of the world. The width of a channel is a function of two different issues. The first is historical and technological. Channel widths were set at their historical size because the manufacturers of - radio transmitters and receivers could not achieve perfection early on. ~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-29 December 2005 - In other words, if a transmitter that was supposed to transmit on 1000 KC in 1930 (that would be 1000 KHz today, right in the middle of the AM radio dial in your car) wavered between 995 KHz and 1005 KHz, the receiver that was trying to pick up that transmitter's signal had to listen over the range from 995 to 1005 to make sure it picked it up. Hence, the 1000 KHz channel was actually from 995 KHz to 1005 KHz but was "centered on 1000 KHz". This "historical technological slop over" meant that lots of space on the spectrum was lost due to having to compensate for this slop. Having to separate channels by the above 10KHz (the next ones would be at 990 MHz and 1010KHz) meant that fewer channels could be licensed, driving up the value of anyone license and limiting access to licenses. The second issue has to do with sound reproduction. A channel that is "wider" (more KHz wide) offers a better FREQUENCY RESPONSE than one that is narrower. This means that a wide channel can carry low frequency sounds better and high frequency sounds better. It is for this reason that when FM radio first came out in the 1950's it was home to "classical music" that sounded so much better when transmitted over the wider channels in that band. In the FM band, channels are spaced 0.20 MHz or 200 KHz apart (91.1 to 91.3, for example) as opposed to 0.10 or 100 KHz apart in the AM band. That means they had twice as much bandwidth at FM than at AM. Wider channels meant "bigger bandwidth" which meant better sound reproduction. All of the above was true when what was being transmitted was analog sound wave forms, where high sounds go higher on the wave form and low sounds go lower on the form. - Enter diqital. In digital, there is very little variation between the wave form representing a "1" and the wave form representing a "0", and it is only 1 's and O's that are being transmitted. Hence, if one is taking a complex voice transmission consisting of a very high soprano going to a very low basso profundo sound and digitizing it, you are still only ending up with 1 's and O's representing the highest highs and the lowest lows, and they can be sent over a relatively narrower channel without significant degradation. So we are now at the reason and answer #1 to the question of WHY GO DIGITAL? Answer #1: Because digital transmissions will permit the employment of frequencies that are narrower, hence permitting the issuance of more licenses for more (but narrower) channels to accommodate the vastly increased demand. NOTE: The current (and velJf slow) migration of broadcast TV stations from their current 6 MHz wide analOQ frequency assignments (at VHF Channels 2-13) to new dioital frequency assignments is being done primarily to free up the literally thousands of radio frequencies within the current VHF TV spectrum for re-use (the FCC calls it 're-farming') by new and digital users, meaning that even more users will be able to be accommodated within the old TV band. -- G~?" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-30 December 2005 - The second main reason for digital is signal quality. Because the signal going through the air is carrying only 1 's and O's in digital systems, if all or a large majority of the 1 's and O's that were transmitted can make it to the receiver, once they are reconstituted into their original analog form for the loudspeaker output, it can sound just like the original input sound at the transmitter end. In fact, digital receivers now employ sophisticated computer driven logic logarithms that can actually compensate for 1 's and O's that might have been lost or garbled enroute to the receiver. This is called "error correction logic". So (and this has confused lots of folks), digital provides better signal quality within the ranqe of a given radio system. This is NOT to say that a digital system provides better or greater range. It IS to say, however, that over the effective range of a given transmitter; a digital signal will sound better at more places throughout and at the extreme outer edges of that range than would an analog signal. Perhaps the following analoq diagram will help picture this: " Radio signal diminishing in I Transmitter tower ~ '~" strength the farther it gets away , .......... from the transmitter tower '. .. "~~.~ " ............. ...... .'. - Radio at edge of coverage area hears a "weak and scratchy" Outer limit of the range of this analoll signal. transmitter tower The following diagram depicts how a digital transmission performs. The key here is to understand that the signal stays at its relatively high and usable level throughout its entire trip out to the edge of coverage, but when it gets to that edge, it ''falls off a cliff' and cannot carry enough "reconstructable" 1 's and O's to be usable. - G,~, Iowa C~y, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-31 December 2005 - Usable (reconstructable) dil!itaI / signal stays the same over its travel to the edge of coverage. I Transmitter tower ~ ...................H............H....................................... "At the edge" the digital ! signal quality goes from GOOD to NOTHING in a snap. - / But, a radio just inside the edge Outer limit of the range of this of coverage area hears a solid transmitter tower dirrital signal up to the instant when it hears NOTHING. This phenomenon (and the condition that immediately precedes "falling off the cliff") have begun to be called "going digital" by frequent users of digital cell phones. Many of us have heard the caller's voice become badly garbled, meaning that either not quite enough digits were making it through to be reconstituted into intelligible speech, or the error correction logic was not quite up to the task of "guessing" what sounds the talker was making. On the other hand, we have been impressed by how good the sound is up until just before the caller "drops off the cliff", so to speak. ANSWER #2 to, "WHY DIGITAL?" Better signal quality throughout the coverage area of the system than with analog. The third area of advantage for digital is what is referred to as "embedded signaling". This means the inclusion of pieces of information within the voice transmission that carry intelligence apart from or over and above the words being spoken. For example, with embedded signaling, it is possible for digital voice and data to be occupying the same radio frequency at the same time. It is also possible for a radio serial number to be transmitted at the same time the speaker's voice is being transmitted, or an alarm signal or a status signal, etc. This is signaling that is embedded. G~" Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-32 December 2005 - Such signaling is not only useful for carrying information such as a unit ID; it can also be used for control signaling between the given radio and the system's "head end". I WHY DIGITAL #3? Opportunity for efficiencies gained via embedded data signaling. I A final advantage for digital is its inherent "encryption". Encryption means "coding" as in the sense of "secret coding", so to speak. Spies "encrypt" their secret messages. Simply put, a simple radio receiver listens to the sounds going through the airwaves. If those sounds are analog waveforms, that receiver will pick up and reproduce those analog waveforms and the listener will hear the voice or music or whatever was being carried by those analog waveforms. "Scanner" users have vexed public safety for decades. In some cases, leading citizens scan police frequencies on their radio scanners (radios that sample lots of channels in a short time, not unlike how the "seek" or "scan" button functions on your car's broadcast radio) and have been of assistance to the police as they were "on the lookout for" some suspect for which a description was just broadcast on the police radio. Similarly, the news media depend heavily on police and fire scanners to stay abreast of what is happening in the community. Unfortunately, the criminal element also discovered scanners. There are many documented cases of miscreants ranging from the hosts of loud parties to burglars and robbers using what they hear about police patrols or call assignments to interfere with or thwart police activity. - An inherent advantage of a digital radio system is that what are transmitted through the air are not analog waveforms that can be picked up by a simole radio receiver or scanner. Rather, what is being transmitted is all those 1 's and O's and the typical analog receiver or scanner that tries to listen in will only hear the "white noise" of those digits going over the air. However, more current, much more complicated (and expensive) scanners are also available now with digital (even P25) receivers, and providing they know the digital coding scheme being employed by the radio system (many do) they can also listen in as well. Having said that, however, it is true that on the day one switches their radio system to a digital system, some people who have been monitoring via scanner will no longer be able to, unless they spend money on a new and higher tech scanner, which some will not do. It is also important to note that some of those who will instantly be "cut off" once you go to digital are folks whom you may want to monitor you. For example, if an Iowa State Trooper working the Iowa City area has a scanner in his patrol car listening to the JCSO VHF channel or the Iowa City analog trunked system, once Iowa City went digital, until or unless that trooper gets a new digital capable scanner, he will no longer be monitoring what's happening (local police-wise) in the area through which he is traveling. Finally, just like it has been possible to add encryption to analog radio systems (often making them digital while encrypted as in the DES standard) ranging from "voice inversion" (which made the speaker sound like Donald Duck on a bad day!) to full digitization, it is also possible to impose additional or higher level encryption to digital radios on a case by case and as-needed basis. .- G~~1." Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-33 December 2005 The principle here to encode the digital transmission, such that the person doing the eavesdropping cannot (without huge supercomputers and bankrolls) possibly crack the code to decode the transmissions. IMPORTANT NOTE ON COMMUNICATIONS SECURITY: Cell phones were originally thought to provide improved communications security for law enforcement, simply because they were up at 800 MHz (which many scanners did not cover back then) and because cell conversations tend to change channels as the callers move from place to place during the communication. Hard learned lessons have shown that analoa cell phones are not too secure at all. Further, diaital cell phones are only slightly more secure. Yes, the signal is digitized but it is digitized according to an open industry standard. Hence, scanner makers can (and have) made scanners that use this standard to decrypt digital cell phone talk. Further, newer cell phone like PCS services (Sprint pes, for example) do not operate at 800 MHz, they operate at 1,900 MHz and are totally digital. This may provide some increased security if the scanners of the "bad guys" don't cover 1,900 MHz (but some do). In the final analysis the only true form of communications encryption is the above referenced Digital Encryption System (DES) overlaid on an already digital system. Not only does this take inherently encrypted (but using an open standard) digital radio signals, but it encrypts them again, using a coding scheme selected at random by the user agency, which no other person monitoring the frequency could know or discern. WHY DIGITAL #4? It provides for some inherent encryption and communications - security. There are a number of issues that need to be considered when one implements any level of encryption. Certainly keeping the "bad guys" from listening in on sensitive operations is a valid reason to encrypt. Certainly encrypting the transmission of data that is confidential (patient information on a medical emergency or the ID of a juvenile detainee) is appropriate. But one needs to remember that there are also "good guys" or at least "neutral guys" out there who might want to listen on your radio communications and whom you might want to have that ability. Examples of the "good guys" would be local police officers and fire personnel at home on their scanners. Some examples: Officers from neighboring local and state jurisdictions who listen on scanners to keep abreast of what is happening in Iowa City that might impact them or their communities. The news media when reliance on them facilitates rapid public dissemination of warning information, etc. And even the general public, who has been known to hear a BOLO @e On the book Out) broadcast and within a few minutes they call 9-1-1 and report, ''The party you are looking for is hiding behind a car at the corner of 1s and Main". Diaital conclusion: In general, for the above reasons, the move to digital in public safety two way radio seems inexorable. GeoComm has been directly involved in the implementation of over a half dozen (some 800 MHz, some VHF, some trunked and some conventional) digital two-way radio - systems in the past two years. G~n Iowa City, Iowa Radio Options and Feasibility of 9-1-1 Dispatch Merger A-34 December 2005