That is something first responders in Burlington County, N.J., can now say because they are able to communicate during catastrophes. In July 2008, the county’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) began using military technology in its Emergency Operations Center to connect seamlessly with first responding agencies during incidents. Using an integrated voice communications system (IVCS) — designed for use in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarines — OEM staff and emergency management crews with disparate communication devices and on different radio spectrums can speak with one another.
But that wasn’t always the case.
The Problem, the Solution
Burlington County consists of 40 municipalities and is the largest county in New Jersey. Like many jurisdictions, it had communication barriers when responding to emergencies. And 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina impressed upon everyone that closing the gaps in communication must be a critical part of emergency response and recovery — those events were a wake-up call for the emergency response community. But with numerous factors that plague interoperability, such as balancing budgets, old technologies and spectrum disparities, how could the Burlington County OEM overcome these inadequacies and let emergency management agencies collaborate with one another to assist citizens?The solution came from the MarCom communications system used by the USS Greeneville, a nuclear submarine that was dry docked for refurbishing. MarCom, developed by L-3 Communications, a Camden, N.J.-based company, uses off-the-shelf digital technology that facilitates communications by integrating different devices, making it more user-friendly and simple.
“This technology has streamlined a lot of things that other pieces of equipment have tried to do along the way, but became too technical or cumbersome to the end-user,” said Kevin Tuno, the county’s emergency management coordinator.
Prior to deploying this IVCS, OEM staff had to monitor different radio spectrums in a separate room. “We didn’t have any communications in the Emergency Operations Center,” said Tuno. “We had a room off the center that we put all of our communications in. It required someone to be in there to monitor those radios. Now with the MarCom system, each of those functional coordinators can bring their portable radio with them, drop it into an interface and work from their position.”
The system also provides additional command-and-control capabilities during incidents.
In the past, the OEM had a wait-and-see approach when emergencies occurred. But with the IVCS, staff members can monitor radio spectrums and receive alerts, as well as coordinate with other agencies. During a December 2009 snow incident, the OEM exercised a more proactive response, because staff didn’t have to wait for calls for help.
“This makes us a little quicker with our response,” said Tuno. “Before the MarCom system, if we wanted two radio systems to interface with each other, we would have to call for specific pieces of equipment, and wait for a radio tech to come out and interface the two radios together with the appropriate patch cables if they had them. Now we can hit a couple of buttons and we’re done.”
Miami Vice
Similar interoperability issues plagued Miami and again, the issue was brought to the fore after 9/11.In 2002, the U.S. Coast Guard’s (USCG) Miami Command Center needed to put modern technology in its basic search-and-rescue coordination center. At the helm of that project was Capt. Gerald Bowe, who was then the chief of resources and technology for USCG District 7 and had served as the USCG’s chief of electronic systems. Bowe, who is now the operations manager of the Maritime Technology Program at the Borders and Maritime Security Division, had experience using MarCom and vouched for the system’s functionality. He persuaded his seniors that this could close existing communication gaps.
Much like Burlington County, before Miami implemented the system in 2004, the command center worked on different spectrums and radios.
“At the command center, you had a handset for each of the spectrums,” said Bowe. “That in itself is a maintenance issue. It’s confusing.”
But the IVCS changed that. “The MarCom allowed the command duty, search-and-rescue or law enforcement officer to pick up one handset and with the push of a button, have access to any of the spectrum that the command center had in place,” said Bowe. “You could also net all of them together so you could talk to all of them at the same time.”
Momentum for Interoperability
The system removes the piecemeal approach to interoperability, and decreases funding and standardization barriers. “This technology — and technology like this that allows you to take existing spectrum and integrate it, rather than trying to make everybody conform to one spectrum — is a more efficient, logical approach,” Bowe said.In Burlington, Tuno said only minor tweaks were made to ensure everything was operational at the OEM. He said the installation took approximately six weeks and staff needed minimal training, which was conducted by L-3.
The system would’ve cost the county $1 million, but that was absorbed by L-3 because the project is a pilot. In late 2009, Atlantic County, N.J., paid nearly $750,000 to acquire the MarCom system, which will create redundancy in its emergency response. The county felt that it would be more cost effective than replacing legacy technologies and resolving governance issues — a sentiment shared in the emergency response community.
“We have a tendency to want everybody to be able to talk to each other, but everybody has different needs,” Bowe said. “You’re never going to go and replace everything [radios] out there.”
And perhaps soon, this interoperability will diffuse throughout New Jersey. L-3 is working with New Jersey to create statewide emergency communications. And Miami’s Bowe said he hopes to push the technology at the local level, so officials can be more in control of situations.
[Photo courtesy of L-3 Communications and Burlington County, N.J., Emergency Operations Center.]
