HomeMy WebLinkAboutMicrosoft PowerPoint Report
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An Analysis of 911 Communications Issues for Iowa
City, Johnson County and the University of Iowa
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Final Report: January 25:1 2006
Consulting Team:
Paul Linnee & Mike Celeski
Johnson
County
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.. T'he City~ of'Io,wa City' requested pro,posals
fr'om qualified consulta,nts fOf' a com-
p:r'ehensJve study' of' a, recommended
replacement/upgra.de o,f the; City's radio:
co!mmu~nica.tio:ns sy'stem.,
· As a, s,econda,ry iss,u~e, th~e stu,dy wa.s, to in~clu,de
an~ a.naly'sis of th,e fea.slbillty of a, j oin,t
dispa.tch comm~unica.tions center with the
John,son C'ounty S,h~erifrs offi~ce.,
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Two major tasks:
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· Asses the status of, upgradeability (if required)
of, and/or replacement options for the City's
general government two-way radio system.
· Determine if merging the 911 call taking and
dispatching activities of the ICPD (which also
serves the ICFD and U Heights), the U of I
Police and the Sheriff (and those public safety
agencies he dispatches for) is a technically and
economically viable option.
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</. ~Bnt the~se. two tasks are related
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· The radio system used by the City/U of
I/UHPD, and the radio system( s) used by
the Sheriff s dispatched agencies would be
integral component parts of any merged 911
dispatch operation, so looking at the radio
systems without looking at how and if they
would work in a merged 911 dispatch
operation would not have made sense.
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Radio System Issues in Ge;ueraJ
II
An Excerpt from our report:
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The issues discussed in this executive summary and the
accompanying complete report represent important elements in
local government decision-making. Recent in-depth analyses of
problems and failures encountered in the response to major
disasters (9/11, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita) have highlighted
failures in the organization, technology and management of
emergency communications systems and processes. While
there are some federal rules and/or resources that come to play
in these deficiencies, it has been our experience that well over
80% of these failings have been the result of flawed decision
making at the State, regional, County or City levels. This study
enables Iowa City and Johnson County to take pause and
carefully consider these issues to make good choices.
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/// " the City's 800 MHz Trunked Radio SysteDl
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· It operates at 800 MHz, which is not compatible with the
County's 150 MHz systems or those of neighboring
jurisdictions or State/Federal agencies.
· It operates in an analog mode. Digital is now preferred.
· Major components of it are obsolete
- It is approaching 15 years old, which in high-tech systems is truly
ancient.
· How many of you are still using IBM PCIXT's or analog cell phones, dot
matrix printers or cassette tape answering machines?
· It is not compliant with current and relevant "open architecture"
standards for interoperability and competitive procurement.
· It does not provide good coverage, county-wide, or adequate
coverage in buildings in Iowa City.
· It does not have adequate channel capacity to support
occasional heavy user demands.
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· Trunked radio: Simplified
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· End user radios are actually little computer terminals with a speaker and a
microphone.
· The user "requests a channel" from the central radio system computer by
pressing the "Push- To- Talk" button.
· Central computer recognizes that user's ID, dynamically assigns a frequency
for that communication (from the 6 it is managing), and then electronically
reaches out to all other radios in that user's group and electronically switches
their radios over to that frequency to hear our user's talk.
· When that communication is completed, the frequency they were assigned
"goes back on the shelf' to be managed and dynamically assigned again by
the central computer the next time a user needs to talk.
· Think of bank tellers and a line of waiting customers......
- In a trunked system, all waiting customers queue up at one point awaiting an
available teller, so the next customer in line always gets the next teller.
- In a non-trunked (conventional) system, waiting users line up in front of a teller,
hoping they picked the shortest line. (Like a grocery store)
· Trunking systems are far more efficient
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· City system coverage issues
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--- · The current city system has two
transmission tower sites, but only one of
them is in use at a time, while the other acts
as the back-up site.
· The current city system was not engineered
to provide good coverage outside the city
limits (logical), and was not engineered to
provide good coverage inside buildings, but
that was the best available technology of
that time.
· Here's what the signal propagation for the
current system looks like:
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Sigpa1 Levels
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-) --- In order to im prove signal coverage:
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· In the city alone, a second active tower site would
be required.
· This 2nd tower site would operate in a "simulcast"
mode, thereby ensuring greater signal penetration
into buildings.
· An expensive simulcast controller would be
required also.
· And none of the above addresses the other
deficiencies of obsolescence, analog, non open
architecture and lack of interoperability.
· Here's how simulcast works:
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/// " But making a 2 site simulcast system may be in
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· If, on day one, one knew the requirement was to
provide good coverage county-wide, one would
place the 4 towers at places sought out for the
most efficient coverage of the whole county.
· Quite likely, two of those sites would NOT
naturally occur in Iowa City.
· However, if on day one, one was only trying to
provide good coverage inside the city, one would
put the two towers in or near the city's area, and
not provide much coverage out in the county.
· Here's a four site system's coverage plot for the
county:
80 M1z4- Site Pcrtable ll- In Cbvernge
80 Mhz4- Silt MJbile Ccm:rnge
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· Fix city obsolescence by replacing controller
· Fix city capacity shortage by adding 7th channel
- Total projected cost for above: $125,000
· Fix city coverage with 2 site simulcast.
- Brings projected cost up to $1,050,000
· With these, you're still proprietary with closed
architecture, you're still analog, you still lack
interoperability, and you still have poor coverage out
in the County.
· And then there's the County's radio system.......
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Johnson County radio
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· Old style conventional VHF (150 MHz) systems.
- Not trunked radio
· Operating on wide-band radio channels
- FCC has mandated all wide band must be converted to narrow band by
2013.
· Much of the base radio equipment and many of the field radios
in the county will require replacement
· Good interoperability with some of the neighbors (not Cedar
Rapids or Iowa City though, or the planned state 700/800 MHz
system)
· Not good in-building coverage in many areas.
· Analog system with security issues
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· Coordinating radio upgrades
---... A common approach in counties in the u.s. who are trying to
improve all governmental coordination and operations in
disasters and day to day is to move to an all-agency, shared
trunked radio system. (Not just public safety)
- This does not require merging 911 dispatch centers ---- but it does
facilitate it.
· The same applies to states (MN, SD, MI, IL, OR, IN, CO) and
Iowa is actively working towards such a system.
- Such a system would be "P25 standards compliant" and almost
certainly operate at 700/800 MHz.
- Local units could "plug their systems into" a Statewide system,
and probably precede a statewide system.
· These concepts, when applied to Johnson County, would argue
in favor of the county spending NO MONEY to migrate to
narrow band on VHF, but rather to migrate over to a new City
800 trunked system that would be built to be county-wide.
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· Build with 4 sites, simulcast from day one.
· Build to P25 standards compliant and open architecture ensuring
competitive procurement of user radios.
· Build with maximum interoperability in mind
· Build 10 channels from day 1, handle 1,200 user radios.
· Build as digital from day one
- Will need to be digital to use much of 700 MHz spectrum
· Grand total cost for an all new, countywide system with the
above, including 1,015 user radios would be about $6,917,000.
· This costs $2.5 million more than building such a system for the
City only with 2 sites, but digital, and P25, but it's what we
recommend.
· Costs should be shared City/County, as well as control.
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Why is "interoperability"
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Excerpted from our report (Page 2-14):
One could rightfully ask why it is so imporlant to have the Iowa City (and/or any other local
government 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 unforlunate 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 porlable radio equipped officers) and fire
trucks (with porlable radio equipped fire fighters) and ambulances (with porlable 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 parl of the command and control network that is so necessary for effective resource
deployment and information exchange to supporl correct decision-making. Furlhermore, 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 throuah. 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.
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. 'Task 2: Merging 911 dispatch?
Today's e"nvironment:
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· 911 calls are initially answered in 2 places in the County:
- ICPD for all ofIC, UR and the U of I campus
- JCSO for everywhere else in the County
· ICPD radio dispatches ICPD, URPD, ICFD and some JCEMS calls.
· ICPD transfers 911 calls for the Campus over to the U of I police. They
dispatch UIPD
· JCSO radio dispatches everybody else in the county
- Coralville "kind of' dispatches for themselves (except 911 calls) during
weekday hours.
· 27.5 FTEs are employed at these three dispatch centers
· Annual operating expenses total $1,594,958.
· The handling of wireless 911 calls is becoming a major issue
- They often do not route to the right 911 center
- They come in very "spikey" spurts, taxing staffing in small centers
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· Merging 911 dispatch: The issues
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· Yes, staff and annual operating expenses could be saved on the
narrowly d~fined tasks of 911 call taking and dispatch.
- We estimate about six positions could be saved, and about $295K per
year, with better staff flexibility to handle irregular workloads, better
supervision, better training, better work conditions, consistent provision of
EMD and better coordination of public safety operations countywide, all
the time.
· But not without some issues and hurdles:
- A new facility would be required. Might cost up to $900,000.
- A new "owner/manager Board" would be required
- Some staff might lose jobs
- "Replacement" local costs may be required to handle some non-dispatch
tasks at ICPD currently handled by dispatchers.
· Possibly at JCSO and U of I PD as well.
- These costs could cut into or wipe out the above $295K savings.
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'y ou're too small to save big.
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- In all these studies we have done, it is rare for a 2-3 small PSAP county to
save enough money by merging to offset potential local discretionary
expenditures for replacing 911 dispatchers as "front desk receptionists".
- But part of this is due to our belief that any new, merged PSAP should be
adequately staffed, properly equipped, have proper training and supervision
and employ the Best Practices for 911.
· All too often, the participant PSAPs don't do all of the above in their stand alone
configuration as well as they should and would like to.
· So the real true comparison of costs would be to upgrade all the stand alone
PSAPs to Best Practices standards across the board, then determine that cost, and
then compare that cost to the cost of the merged PSAP.
· Ultimately, we think you should organize, staff and operate your
911 service in the manner that will provide the best, most effective
and most coordinated service for the public and the responders.
· In Johnson County we think that is one consolidated PSAP.....
- And you might even save some money in the process.
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Conclusions:
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· Iowa City needs to upgrade or replace its current
radio system
- We recommend replacement with a highly interoperable,
P25 digital, 2 site simulcast system.
· Johnson County needs to upgrade their radio( s),
some of which they don't own
- We recommend that they join the above new Iowa City
system and that the City system be built to be countywide
( 4 sites).
· This system should have shared ownership and costs
and serve more than just public safety agencies.
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Conclusions:
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· 911 dispatch in the County is more fragmented than is
desirable.
- We recommend that (at a minimum) 911 call taking and
all dispatching tasks be "virtually" and electronically
coordinated through a server based E911 platform and
CAD system, which could be operated from today's three
separate PSAPs.
- However, our main recommendation is that there be only
one PSAP facility.
- We recommend a Joint Powers (28E) Board to own and
manage such a facility and its various systems.
- We recommend that said agency be independent of any
existing public or public safety agency.
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--- r ,uestions! Answers
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Contact info:
Paul Linnee:
pauI1911@aol.com
612.869.6164
Copies of the full report are available at
Iowa City's web site at:
http://www.icgov.org/headlines.asp ?ID=169