Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Dog Pound - Jan. 31, 2003

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 15:23:19 -0500

Tucson (Ariz.) police dispatcher DeAnna Jack has been honored by the state's APCO chapter
for her handling of two officer-involved shootings in 2002--she has been named the state's
Telecommunicator of the Year from a field of 20 nominees. Modestly, she told a reporter,
"It's an honor. I didn't even know I'd been nominated." Jack's father and uncle are former
officers, and her brother is in officer training in Oklahoma. She joined TPD in Jan. 2001,
and is TPD's second dispatcher to be so honored. A newspaper story noted that TPD's comm
center has just 27 of 39 dispatcher positions filled--69% of authorized strength.

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Follow-up on the Internet worm: We've confirmed that it hit Bellevue's (Wash.) city
network, which led to the Eastside Communications Center CAD computer running an SQL
database, which slowed down the software's read/write operations to a crawl. The city
network is used to link TriTech CAD to firehouse printers and other locations.
Fortunately, they had a manual dispatch back-up plan in place and weren't seriously
affected. We've also confirmed that the worm affected at least one other comm center
through the same type of link-up. So, don't believe the media hype that the worm "crashed
the 911 system."

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has produced an excellent, comprehensive
citizen guide titled, "Are You Ready?", which includes pre- and post-incident advice and
information for all types of incidents from tornadoes to nuclear power plant incidents.
It's filled with lots of specific ideas for public safety comm centers, too. Surf:

http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/

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The United Telecom Council (UTC) has issued a press release saying that it disagrees with
proponents of priority access service (PAS) "as the solution for interoperable emergency
communications." Instead, the UTC said that, "Wireless PAS will be largely useless in
providing communications during serious emergencies." The group, which represents several
industries including the power industry, noted that when power is out--and when emergency
communications is needed most--the commercial wireless systems aren't working either. The
UTC advocated instead for "a small, dedicated spectrum allocation to (critical
infrastructure)--which it does not have currently--to meet homeland security protection
needs and to help provide interoperability to public safety, federal and other agencies
responding to emergencies." 

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OK, is there such a thing as <too> much interoperability? Sonoma County (Calif.) deputies
were chasing a suspect who threw a shotgun out the window of his car, and thought they
were on their own. However, when the chase entered the city of Santa Rosa, they received
some unexpected help: SRPD dispatchers had heard the chase and informed their officers,
who graciously threw out spike stripes to stop the suspect. Two pursuing deputies, unaware
of the spikes, had their tires punctured--but the suspect managed to avoid the same strip.
Deputies laid out their own spikes down the road and snared the suspect, but the sheriff
and police chief are no doubt no talking about the incident.

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Software developer VisionAIR has signed the Louisville (Ken.) Metro Police Department for
its VisionFORCE and VisionMOBILE systems that will link in-car laptops and handheld
computers to records management and law enforcement databases, including NCIC. The
department will initially purchase 25 VisionFORCE systems, and add 40 more VisionMOBILE
systems to their current fleet.

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