Aurora Illinois--Active Shooter at the Henry Pratt Bldg 2/15/19

[ipfd320]

All Over the News that There is an Active Shooter at the Henry Pratt Facility--i Dont have anything Further--Just Putting it Out there for You to Pick Up

Active Shooter At Henry Pratt Building In Aurora: Cops

 

[RF-Guy-El-Loco]

RFGuy's radio comms (post debriefing) message here. Nearly ALL of the real action heard took place on Kane Co Sheriff of 159.1500mhz. Just about everything from the start of this incident to the end. It was their incident. I was monitoring them and SDRTrunk for the whole time. ISP D15 sent the South Unit Cars to handle it and then they needed to put the "non incident South D15 cars" elsewhere. So they setup TG #2028 Toll/Central OPS as the "main" TG for this incident, with the ISP D15 South Cars to Stay on South TG #9099. But the SWAT team didn't have TG #2028 available in their radios, so they couldn't talk to ISP D15. So ISP Oakbrook decided to put the "Incident" onto TG #9099 South and switch all the ISP D15 other cars onto TG #2028 Ops. Then they realized that not all the "South Cars" would have TG #2028 in their radios, either. Uh, huh. Well, it sort of worked out. I saw the D15 radio techs TG #2038 light up a few times too, to help out. I would've loved to have been at ISP command right then, but SDRTrunk was doing an incredible job, probably most of what they were seeing.

I heard the ISP Omaha? helicopter find thier way onto 159.1500mhz too, hey hey. Plus some DU-Meg heard and some ITTF TGs, but not all that much action heard on Starcom. The Kane Sheriff had Command Control and most of it was just there. I was watching the Starcom TGs scrolling IDs and I didn't see much DU-Meg, either, but some of it might not have been "On" the Kane site (026-1A #140). I only monitor that and the McHenry site. FYI.

 

[VASCAR2]

So much for interoperability of trunked systems. Still when ISP command is not familar with communications equipment and delegate decisions to others the outcome is not surprising.

I’ve never heard Omaha used in any ISP identifying numbers. The ISP currently only has five fixed wing single engine Cessna aircraft which use L-Lincoln designator. I’ve seen where the Drug Task Force has used Homeland Security H125 (formerly known as AS350) helicopter for joint operations in the District 16 area. I’m unsure what call sign Chicago Air assests utilize.

I just read where the joint Law Enforcement helicopter unit Air One has disbanded due to lack of funding. Other than Federal Agencies I’m unsure of any other assests in northen Illinois. At one time the ISP utilized helicopters operated by the Illinois Dept. of Transportation. I don’t know if DOT currently operates helicopters. I also read several years ago where the Illinois Tollway sold it’s helicopter.

 

[MikeyC]

I didn't get a chance to hear the traffic but I logged a lot of hits on ITTF North A on StarCom during the incident.

As far as ISP air operations go, I believe L units are the personnel and P units are the actual aircraft (P-4 in Whiteside County, P-5 in Southern IL, P-6 in Springfield, P-7 & P-8 in DuPage County). When I live in Southern California "Omaha" were airships used by Border Patrol and Customs which I think would be all encompassed by "ICE" now.

AIR ONE shutting down would explain why it's been a very long time since I heard them on the ILEAS talkgroup I used to hear helicopters with IDs in the ISP range and IDoT range on the IEMA 1 talkgroup but it's been awhile since I heard them there.

 

[RoninJoliet]

We all know that Aurora uses a strange system and "ENC" which makes things awkward for interoperability .....Here in Joliet when outside towns need there help they have to tell there dispatchers to TX them.....

 

[VASCAR2]

I did some checking in FAA data base and the only helicopter I can find registered to the State of Illinois is the Sikorsky S-76 which was used to transfer the Governor.


Your correct that the ISP aircraft currently use a P-Paul designator. Back in the 70’s and 80’s the aircraft used the L designation. The ISP used the aircraft for air speed details but I haven’t heard any ISP aircraft radio traffic in years.

I know the ISP has used Army National Guard helicopters in man hunts. In one particular man hunt an OH-58 ANG was dispatched to Southern Illinois for a search of a felon that crashed after a pursuit. The ANG helicopter was on scene at daylight and did assist in the apprehension. This older ANG Bell was not equipped with thermal or night sun and the reason it arrived on scene at first light.

Back when DOT had a helicopter based in Williamson County it was utilized by ISP and in the early 2000’s the Bell 206L was equipped with FLIR and Night Sun.

 

[MikeyC]

The ISP used the aircraft for air speed details but I haven’t heard any ISP aircraft radio traffic in years.

I still hear them out here in Dist. 17 doing speed enforcement during the summer or for various searches for perps / missing people

 

[Blunt630]

Aurora and Napeville are on OpenSky which is an encrypted network. I am not sure if it is interoperabilty with StarCom21.

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=3240

 

[RF-Guy-El-Loco]

As far as the ISP Omaha helicopter, I've heard it only a few times before the last few years on Ispern, during an ISP related chase or incident. It could be ICE, or the Army National Guard. They called into Kane Sheriff freq as "Omaha helicopter is in the air now monitoring traffic on this frequency." For metro Chicago, I believe CPD has their own helicopter to use, I've heard them up on Citywide 1 a few times in incidents. But I have not heard from ISP Air One in a long time, so it is not being used.

Aurora is still on OpenSky, so you can't hear them. And not compatible with Starcom. Brilliant plan. Every agency needs to at least hear the "Command" frequency/system/talkgroup in a crisis so we don't have a "radio crisis" too. They (ISP) even tried to use an ITTF talkgroup, only to be told that "This talkgroup has traffic on it, please find another talkgroup." Starcom has plenty of talkgroups! They need to work out a plan for these events, reserve some "Critical Talkgroups" in every Starcom radio for this. Many have little or no use. They conduct Mabas tests monthly with all the agencies radios, well, hey here's an idea. Add in the regional ISPs, DHS, ICE, etc too, so we don't repeat this.

 

[VASCAR2]

Part of the problem in LE are individual personnel don’t use the radio features enough to know how to find/navigate to certain TG’s. When ISP transitioned to SC21 everyone was given a template of the TG’s and particular bank/location in the radio. These templates were made to fit on the sun visor. Very few personnel used the radios enough to navigate to the different TG’s. Each Bank with similar TG’s were in different Alphabetical bank/location. There was one bank that had every District A-Dispatch TG plus each District ISPERN TG. There was a bank that had all the ILEAS and nationwide TG’s. They even had simplex TG plus the IEMA TG’s. There are special events TG’s which are utilized during the State Fairs. There are encrypted command TG’s. I would assume the templates have changed with the new dual band APX series mobiles and portables. One disadvantage with the older Motorola SC21 radios you could not switch to other Districts and have access to the other Districts TG’s like Car to Car, Dispath B, C or detail TG’s.

There were Personnel who would not utilize the vehicular repeater because it was a hassle or they forgot how it worked. Many personnel don’t want to be bothered with more than adjusting the volume, hitting the PTT or Emergency button. These issue with personnel not wanting to learn radio equipment is not isolated to just one Agency but a common problem today. Instead of trying to navigate to different District TG when traveling out of District many personnel will turn their SC21 off and use their cell phone or IWIN.

Back when the Motorola Micor, Motrac, Syntor or GE Master series radios were used (simplex or duplex) most officers frequently used the frequencies and knew ISPERN was Frequency 1, 2 was the primary dispatch channel and 3 might have been car to car. With IWIN MDT’s and cell phones many of the two way radio features are not regularly utilized.

Many of the Command staff haven’t used the radio’s enough to instinctively know which is most suitable TG. There are usually a few Geeks who understand the communication equipment but they are in the minority.

There is a great deal of time being spent on training in Public safety but much of the training is primarily for Agency CYA or to meet a CALEA, State or Federal Training standard.

If the personnel utilize the equipment daily there usually very adept. During emergency situations it hinders the response if the equipment is to cumbersome for the responder to access quickly. Hopefully these issues will be discussed in after action debriefings.

In many respects I think Illinois had a very good system with ISPERN and IREACH in the days prior to the trunked networks and encryption. At least in those days if you grabbed the red Mic and hollered for help there was usually someone close enough to hear and respond.

 

[RoninJoliet]

Excellent written post, your very correct as i have family that use Scom radios , when they need to speak with adjacent citys on the same Scom tower they have no knowledge on there radio where to find them....More training needs to be done and interoperability would be alot more succesful....Plus now my county has a different trunked system than Scom, and my city is "ENC" which thru a big wrench in the mix....I been scanning 60 years and things were much simpler and worked better in my personnel opinion....Im sure most people will not agree with me but thats fine....

 

[FFPM571]

Audio of 911 calls and radio traffic... Be advised it is graphic ...

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=727424310984993

 

[RF-Guy-El-Loco]

Vascar2, thank you for this info. I really wanted to know how the personnel are trying to deal with these new radios. Very telling information. I had a feeling this was becoming a big issue. Sure, we are all mostly radio experts here on this site, but the Police were never meant to be, and their radio gear is getting much less user friendly. I see overly complicated radios with non compatibility issues & no easy solutions. Which is why they are using the cell phones more. CPD is still using mostly old analog, and it still seems to be working good. With no Enc.

Back in the day, I could recall every frequency for each town in my old 8 channel scanner, but with the talkgroups, I dunno one from the other anymore. I can't remember them, I too have to look them up. I can't dial one specific talkgroup up in a hurry in my scanners either. Too many menus to get thru. The Police have it the same as we do now. Programming a digital scanner now is akin to writing daily updates to your computer code. This is what I do now. Daily. Please take us back to the analog radio days of one frequency (a crystal) per channel and a labelled switch to use. The analog radio gear was much simpler and easier to use in an emergency when it didn't have digital menus. The police have no time to fiddle with it like we do either. (Ronin Joliet) you are so right.

 

[VASCAR2]

One thing which could be done is have a critical incident talk group in the bank where the Officer commonly communicates with their Dispatch. Prior to the APEX dual Band Radio the sequence on the Portable dial was ISPERN (Now Marked Priority).

Dispatch A

Dispatch B

Dispatch C

Car to Car

Detail A

Detail B

And then empty positions until you hit a stop where the final position was the vehicle mobile repeater.

It would make things much simpler to have a critical incident and mutual aid TG in the same dial without navigating to a different bank or consulting the template. There are critical incident TG set up by region depending on the location of the site controller, North (Chicago), Central (Springfield) South (Collinsville).

If a unit is dispatched outside of their region they should have time to consult the template to aquire the proper TG location.

With the older Motorola mobiles and portables the user could scan TG’s from different banks up to a total of eight TG’s if I remember correctly. The worst part of using the scanned TG is they have to be affiliated with the tower to receive any traffic. The only TG’s routinely broadcast on every tower/site is the Dispatch A ind ISPERN/Priority. A trunked system configured like SC21 makes it difficult to monitor Agencies which are not affiliated to the tower the user’s radio is voting. If the user needs to hear traffic from another agency on a different tower he can select that agency TG on his mobile or portable and thereby affiliate his radio to the TG if he has access.


Hopefully during any critical incident debrief, communications issues are discussed with all involved agencies so steps can be taken so the same problems don’t occur at later incidents. Gateways can be incorporated to link different systems and if the radios are P25 there is a great likely hood the mobile/portable having been programmed to give access to different systems should be able to communicate. This requires cooperation between multiple agencies and vendors which can be a challenge but not insurmountable.

 

[K9DAK]

FEMA report on Aurora warehouse shooting praises officers, notes communication issues

"Aurora and Naperville use a different style of digital radio systems than most of the other surrounding cities, including the Kane County sheriff’s office, blocking other departments from being able to hear radio communications and dispatch for Aurora. Being able to switch over and monitor Aurora’s communications would have been helpful for several agencies, the report stated..."

FEMA report on Aurora warehouse shooting praises officers, notes communication issues

A Federal Emergency Management Agency report praises Aurora police for its response to the mass shooting at the Henry Pratt Co. warehouse Feb. 15, but also notes communication and other issues could be improved.

www.chicagotribune.com