I'll temporarily remove my self-imposed gag order ;-)
KK5FM and I were talking at one point about how two-way interoperability (isn't that redundant?) might work, given current limitations. His thought involved using a new channel with a different PL tone to "activate" the link. My thought on that was that it wasn't practical, because even if you have this new "channel" for a outside agency's officer to switch to in order to activate the link, how would the system unlink? Would it be timed, and if so for how long? Would the EDACS system have the ability to "listen" for the new PL tone without using valuable resources? Even then, you still have the issue of other agencies not being able to hear OCPD dispatch, without spending money to get their own radios, which eliminates the need for the causeway. Unless you're talking about only buying one radio for your dispatcher, which still leaves the officer in the field at a disadvantage.
I'm rambling. Let me try to concisely list the options as I see them. First, and without giving my own opinions, let me qualify the following in that it applies only to police officers. The reason is, that in talking with both fire and police officials, it is fire's opinion that links do not need to be initiated by individual firefighters, and various police departments' opinions that individual officers need to both monitor and initiate communications between agencies. That said, here are the options:
- EDACS user creates link by switching to MA channel
- Link on all the time
- No link
- Link initiated by both EDACS user and Outside agency user
- Outside agencies purchase one EDACS radio for dispatch
- Outside agencies purchase individual radios for all officers
#1 - other agencies have said that they are concerned if they need the link created, that valuable time would be lost in expecting their dispatcher to place a phone call to OCPD dispatch to request the link, given that their dispatcher would likely be too busy to immediately place that call.
#2 - there is concern that this would, at best be a waste of system resources, and at worst that the system is not capable of the load.
#3 - No interoperability
#4 - OKC officials have said that this is not possible, and have down-played any such need.
#5 - Outside agencies have expressed logistical concerns, and have said that even this option does not satisfy the need for individual officers to keep their current ability to monitor OCPD dispatch traffic, and initiate communications.
#6 - Outside agencies have, without exception, said that they do not have the funds to purchase individual radios or to lease them. OKC says that there are federal funds available, but no one can point to where those funds might be available. Further, this option might be redundant to the State's initiative to give all first responders DPS system-capable radios through US Dept of Homeland Security grants.
Given that some have suggested there might be a conflict of interest with me expressing an opinion, I'll stick to logistical comments. Does anyone else have opinions on how to further improve law enforcement interoperability with the EDACS system?
**have I re-opened a can of worms?**
