Federal, County and City officials unify and attain $155 million federal grant to imp

[scanfan22]

From a NixleTeam email:

Community Message has been issued by the LASD - Headquarters Newsroom (SHB), Los Angeles County Sheriff.

Monday September 27, 2010 9:54 PM PDT

Federal, County and City officials unify and attain $155 million federal grant to improve public safety

A stalwart group of federal, county and city elected officials stood shoulder to shoulder in 100 degree heat to announce the award of a $154.6 million grant to the Los Angeles Regional Communications System (LA-RICS) Authority to develop and deploy the LA-Safety Net; a public safety broadband network. The LA-Safety Net will enhance communication between all emergency responders in the Los Angeles region.

Calling the communications grant “a big down payment on a safer future,” United States Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-CA), joined by Los Angeles County Supervisors Gloria Molina, Mike Antonovich and Zev Yaroslavsky, Sheriff Lee Baca, Chief Executive Officer Bill Fujioka, Los Angeles City Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and other emergency service leaders, explained that the award was a vital first step toward the completion of the National Broadband System. Congresswoman Harman stressed that the grant would “dramatically enhance emergency services’ ability to react, respond, and rescue” through the use of interoperable communications.

Supervisor Yaroslavsky noted that emergency responders in the Los Angeles region are the acknowledged leaders nationally in coordinating and supplying mutual aid in times of crisis such as earthquakes and wildfires. “Now we also have mutual communication," he said. He added, “Now, we are really on our way.”

"The communications revolution has provided us with tools to change the way we live and work and this large investment puts much needed 21st century technology in the hands of the men and women we entrust every day with our lives," Mayor Villaraigosa said. "LA-Safety Net--a high-speed, cutting edge, wireless data network--will become an invaluable asset, whether in day to day operations or during emergency events, making the entire LA Region safer and more prepared than ever before." CEO Fujioka stated that despite the record heat, “It is a great day for all of us.”

The $154.6 million federal grant is the largest ever awarded to upgrade emergency services communications. The grant will affect more than 80 public safety agencies and approximately 34,000 first responders working within the over 4,000 square miles of Los Angeles County. Emergency responders had long sought a solution to the problem of multiple agencies not being able to effectively communicate during the wide-ranging emergencies known to the area. Problematic cell phone usage and old-fashioned runners passing messages between command posts will be replaced by a new land mobile radio system (voice) being developed separately, as well as a new public safety broadband (data) system. The majority of funding for the broadband (data) system will come from this grant.

``Los Angeles County is home to 88 cities, 134 incorporated communities, 50 law enforcement agencies and 31 fire service agencies,'' said Supervisor Antonovich, ``this system will enable agencies to communicate across different jurisdictions with one voice.''

Echoing the theme of many of the speakers, Sheriff Baca stated “there are a lot of congratulations due to many of the people up here next to me. This grant shows that when we all work together, unified leadership can solve unifying problems.” Supervisor Molina hailed the grant as giving Los Angeles County “one communication system with one voice.”

The new LA-Safety Net that has now been funded, is the new public safety broadband (data) system:

· Enable computer-aided dispatch, rapid law-enforcement queries, real-time video streaming, medical telemetry and patient tracking, geographic information systems services for first responders, and many other broadband-specific applications.

· Law enforcement officers will be able to send and receive photos of suspects and transmit video to supervisors.

· Paramedics will be able to instantly transmit vital patient information to emergency room doctors.

· Firefighters will be able to send real-time fire video to a command post and incident commanders can automatically monitor the deployment of resources around a fire.

This network will be a significant step in improving the ability of first responders to protect the lives and property of our residents

For more information, visit LA RICS





Board of Directors -

Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System Authority



1. William T Fujioka, Chair, CEO, County of Los Angeles

2. Charles L. Beck, Vice Chair, Police Chief, City of Los Angeles

3. Mark R. Alexander, City Manager, representing California Contract Cities Association

4. Leroy D. Baca, Sheriff, County of Los Angeles

5. Michael J. Bowman, Police Chief, Los Angeles Unified School District

6. P. Michael Freeman, Fire Chief, County of Los Angeles

7. Reginald Harrison, Deputy City Manager, City of Long Beach

8. LeRoy J. Jackson, City Manager, City of Torrance, representing At Large Seat

9. Gerry Miller, Chief Legislative Analyst, City of Los Angeles

10. Millage Peaks, Fire Chief, City of Los Angeles

11. Donald Pedersen, Police Chief, City of Culver City, representing At Large Seat

12. Scott Pickwith, Police Chief, representing the Los Angeles County Police Chiefs Association

13. Kim Raney, Police Chief, City of Covina, representing At Large Seat

14. Alex Rodriguez, Fire Chief, representing the Los Angeles Area Fire Chiefs Association

15. Miguel Santana, CAO, City of Los Angeles

16. John Schunhoff, Interim Director, DHS, County of Los Angeles

17. Gregory Simay, Assistant General Manager, City of Burbank Water & Power


Officers


1. Scott Poster, Task Force Leader

2. John Radeleff, Deputy Task Force Leader

3. Wendy L. Watanabe, County of Los Angeles Auditor-Controller

4. Mark J. Saladino, County of Los Angeles Treasurer and Tax Collector

***


Members

The following entities are members of the LA-RICS Joint Powers Authority:

1. City of Agoura Hills
2. City of Alhambra
3. City of Arcadia
4. City of Artesia
5. City of Avalon
6. City of Azusa
7. City of Baldwin Park
8. City of Bell
9. City of Bell Gardens
10. City of Bellflower
11. City of Beverly Hills
12. City of Bradbury
13. City of Burbank
14. City of Calabasas
15. City of Carson
16. City of Cerritos
17. City of Claremont
18. City of Commerce
19. City of Compton
20. City of Covina
21. City of Culver City
22. City of Downey
23. City of Duarte
24. City of El Monte
25. City of El Segundo
26. City of Gardena
27. City of Glendale
28. City of Glendora
29. City of Hawaiian Gardens
30. City of Hawthorne
31. City of Hermosa Beach
32. City of Hidden Hills
33. City of Huntington Park
34. City of Industry
35. City of Inglewood
36. City of Irwindale
37. City of La Cañada Flintridge
38. City of La Habra Heights
39. City of La Mirada
40. City of La Puente
41. City of La Verne
42. City of Lakewood
43. City of Lancaster
44. City of Lawndale
45. City of Long Beach
46. City of Los Angeles
47. City of Lynwood
48. City of Manhattan Beach
49. City of Maywood
50. City of Monrovia
51. City of Montebello
52. City of Monterey Park
53. City of Norwalk
54. City of Palmdale
55. City of Palos Verdes Estates
56. City of Paramount
57. City of Pasadena
58. City of Pico Rivera
59. City of Pomona
60. City of Rancho Palos Verdes
61. City of Redondo Beach
62. City of Rolling Hills Estates
63. City of Rosemead
64. City of San Dimas
65. City of San Fernando
66. City of San Gabriel
67. City of San Marino
68. City of Santa Clarita
69. City of Santa Fe Springs
70. City of Santa Monica
71. City of Sierra Madre
72. City of Signal Hill
73. City of South El Monte
74. City of South Gate
75. City of South Pasadena
76. City of Temple City
77. City of Torrance
78. City of Vernon
79. City of Walnut
80. City of West Covina
81. City of Westlake Village
82. City of Whittier
83. County of Los Angeles
84. Los Angeles Unified School District
85. UCLA






***********



BROADBAND USA

Connecting America's Communities


Organization:
Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System Authority (LA-RICS)

Project Name:
Los Angeles Public Safety Broadband Network: LA-SafetyNet

Project Type:
Comprehensive Community Infrastructure/Public Safety

State:
California

Federal Award:
$154,640,000





ABOUT THE PROJECT

With over 80 public safety agencies and approximately 34,000 first-responders, and encompassing a sprawling terrain of over 4,060 square miles that approximately 10 million people call home, the Los Angeles region seeks a modern interoperable public safety broadband network that allows multiple agencies to respond to the widest possible variety of emergencies. The Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System Authority (LA-RICS) is proposing to deploy a 700 MHz public safety mobile broadband network across all of Los Angeles County, featuring almost 300 wireless 700 MHz public safety broadband sites using new and existing infrastructure, fixed microwave backhaul rings , and 100-miles of high-capacity fiber backboneThe network would enable computer-aided dispatch, rapid law-enforcement queries, real-time video streaming, medical telemetry and patient tracking, geographic information systems services for first responders, and many other broadband-specific applications.

LA-SafetyNet also proposes to:

 Construct 176 new wireless sites and leverage 114 existing sites to serve greater Los Angeles and provide broadband access, equipment, and service to community anchor institutions across the region.

 Serve as a demonstration project for national implementation of 700 MHz interoperable public safety wireless broadband networks. The region is one of the most geographically diverse areas, consisting of mountains, deserts, valleys, and 70 miles of coastline. It also features both heavily urban and very rural communities.


ORGANIZATION’S HISTORY

The Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS), formally launched in 2009, is a joint effort of the Los Angeles region’s public safety agencies to plan and deploy a regional, interoperable radio system enabling first responders to communicate with each other during routine and emergency operations. The planned network would consist of a modern, integrated wireless voice and data communications system capable of supporting more than 34,000 first responders and local mission-critical personnel within the region. LA-RICS is governed by a 17-member board of directors comprised of regional first-responder stakeholders.

PROJECT PARTNERS

 Los Angeles County

 Los Angeles City

 City of Long Beach

 Los Angeles Unified School District

 Los Angeles County Department of Health Services

 Los Angeles County Police Chief’s Association

 Los Angeles Area Fire Chiefs Association

 Contract Cities Association


LA RICS

 

[MtnBiker2005]

linking this topic to the Community Announcements and News Announcements topic.


RR Topic: http://forums.radioreference.com/co...l-gets-155m-federal-grant-communications.html

 

[karldotcom]

The combining of dispatch centers will be next...

 

[K6CDO]

The combining of dispatch centers will be next...

What does the JPA landing a grant for the development of a public safety broadband data system have to do with combining dispatch centers?

 

[spock00]

What does the JPA landing a grant for the development of a public safety broadband data system have to do with combining dispatch centers?

They are both part of a larger communications interoperability project in LA County....

 

[monitor142]

I'm with Don on this one, it has nothing to do with combining dispatch centers unless hell hits 32 degrees. This is federal broadband grant money that will be leveraged to work on the 700MHz mobile data portion of LA-RICS, aka safetynet. Other than possibily building out a new microwave/fiber backbone to handle backhaul for data (and maybe radio), it will have nothing to do with the voice radio portion of the project.

-M142

 

[KMA367]

Combined fire dispatch "easier" than police dispatch?

I'm with Don on this one, it has nothing to do with combining dispatch centers unless hell hits 32 degrees. This is federal broadband grant money that will be leveraged to work on the 700MHz mobile data portion of LA-RICS, aka safetynet. Other than possibily building out a new microwave/fiber backbone to handle backhaul for data (and maybe radio), it will have nothing to do with the voice radio portion of the project.

-M142

In the "original" Final Interoperability Report for the LA-RICS system, the idea of combined dispatch centers for police wasn't even addressed by the law enforcement people, though the existing ICIS and South Bay JPAs were alluded to in other contexts.

From the fire side, though, was this,

"The Los Angeles Area Fire Chiefs are in agreement with respect to developing a regional approach to dispatching based on six centers (Verdugo, Long Beach, Downey, LA County, LA City, and South Bay), with a common CAD system, or CAD systems networked together. This is seen as an important step in reducing response times...​

and

'Law Enforcement: Interoperability is needed on an exception basis, rather than being routinely used. Situations requiring interoperability are generally infrequent and of short duration. Moreover, usually only one channel is needed except for major incidents.

"Fire: Interoperability is used routinely. Incidents demanding interoperability are frequent, of long duration, usually requiring multiple channels (based on the incident command structure of the particular incident)."​

The idea of local control likely plays an important role in that too, as police procedures and priorities are very often under much closer scrutiny and sensitivity by the local citizenry and politicians than fire suppression. Not to deny the differences in capabilities and procedures of different fire departments, but as mentioned in the report, firefighters work together across boundaries all the time virtually seamlessly, and unless they look at the names on the apparatus doors, most folks neither know nor care whether it's their firefighters doing the work or someone from three cities away. But by nature, police interaction with the public can be much more personal and sensitive to local preferences.

At the one multi-city JPA I worked for, and another with which my wife was associated, by far the vast majority of complaints and disagreements - I'd say well over 90% - were either about or from the police side, and very, very seldom fire-department related. Each city seems to have very specific ways they want their police to handle things, and the first place that falls upon is the dispatch centers, where the personnel are often required to remember each city's idiosyncracies. As I've mentioned elsewhere, at South Bay we started on Day 1 in 1977 with all seven PDs having agreed on the entire book of dispatch procedures. It lasted about 15 minutes for the police before they started squealing about "we don't do it that way." Similarly the seven FDs had agreed on fire dispatch protocols, but the few significant hiccups with them were mostly technical issues that were quickly resolved.