BOARD OF FIRE COMMISSIONERS 01rv oF Los ANGELES FIRE DEPARTMENT CALIFORNIA DALILA T. SOTELO WILLIAM R. BAMATTRE PRESIDENT FIRE CHIEF JILL FURILLO VICE PRESIDENT 200 NORTH MAIN STREET ANDREW FRIEDMAN LOS ANGELES, CA 90012 GENETHIA HUDLEY-HAYES CASIMIRO U. TOLENTINO (213) 978-3800 FAX: (213) 978-3815 hllp://www.lafd.org BLANCA GOMEZ-REVELLES EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT II ANTONIO R. VILLARAIGOSA MAYOR ~tfec{ !Yl ~ik November 10, 2005 u/;+/1?5 Honorable Jack Weiss Chair, Public Safety Committee Room 440, City Hall Dear Chair Weiss: Radio lnteroperability Radio interoperability among first responders is a critical public safety issue. Incidents such as the 2002 LAX El AI shooting, the Jewish Community Center shooting, and the 1994 Northridge Earthquake are obvious local examples. On 9/11, the lack of radio interoperability was a contributing factor in the lives lost at the World Trade Center. More recently, Hurricane Katrina rescue operations were hampered due to the lack of radio interoperability. Any incident requiring a coordinated emergency response is one that will benefit from improved communication interoperability. And today's environment of terrorism presents additional challenges that can be addressed more effectively through interoperable communications. The City of Los Angeles, through a Federal grant, has initiated a project with RCC Consultants to determine the feasibility, effectiveness, cost, and timeline of a new consolidated radio system to be operated and maintained jointly by the City of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles and other agencies that elect to participate. The new radio system would consolidate all public safety voice radio communications into a single radio system and all public safety data communications into a single system, separate from the voice system. A Radio lnteroperability Steering Committee (RISC) has been established to monitor and evaluate the RCC study. The RISC is comprised of the following members: • William Bamattre, Fire Department- City of Los Angeles • William Bratton, Police Department- City of Los Angeles • Thera Bradshaw, ITA- City of Los Angeles • William Fujioka, GAO- City of Los Angeles • P. Michael Freeman, Fire Department- County of Los Angeles AN EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY- AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER Chair Weiss November 10, 2005 Page 2 • Lee Baca, Sheriff's Department- County of Los Angeles • David Janssen, CAO- County of Los Angeles • Dave Lambertson, lSD- County of Los Angeles • Carol Meyer, DHS - County of Los Angeles • Randy Adams, Los Angeles County Police Chiefs Association • Mark Alexander, California Contract Cities Association • Fred Latham, Independent Cities Association • Mark Sauter, Los Angeles Area Fire Chiefs Association • David Singer, Los Angeles County Police Chiefs Association Attached for your review is a copy of the Needs Analysis Report, drafted by RCC Consultants; it will provide an update and insight into the interoperability project. If you or your staff has any questions or desire additional information, please contact Assistant Chief Roxanne Bercik at (213) 978-3857. Achieving radio interoperability is a high priority as the safety of first responders and the public is at stake. I appreciate your interest and commitment to this project and will be contacting your office to schedule a follow-up meeting concerning radio interoperability within the City of Los Angeles and -on a broader scope -throughout the County of Los Angeles. In closing, thank you for your time and I look forward to discussing this important concept with you in the near future. Sincerely, WILLIAM R. BAMATTRE Fire Chief WRB:rvb Attachment City of Los Angeles Public Safety Radio Communications lnteroperability Project Needs Analysis Report October 24, 2005 Prepared By: ~ ~cc RCC Consultants, Inc. City ofLos Angeles Public Safety Radio Communications Interoperability Project TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 2.0 NEEDS AND ISSUES -KEY FINDINGS FROM THE INTERVIEWS .............. 1 3.0 INTEROPERABILITY DEFINED ........................................................................ 3 4.0 STATUS OF CURRENT INTEROPERABILITY SOLUTIONS ......................... 6 4.1 Levell ..., Radio Swapping ................................................................................... 6 4.2 Level 2 - Gateways and Patch-Type Solutions ................................................... 7 4.3 Level 3 - Shared Channels .................................................................................. 7 4.4 Level4- Proprietary Shared Systems ................................................................. 8 5.0 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 10 5.1 Identified Needs ................................................................................................ 10 5.2 Potential Solutions ............................................................................................ 11 5.3 Possible Short-Term Trunked Radio System Scenarios ................................... 12 ~ __, ~CC RCC Consultants, Inc. Table of Contents City ofLos Angeles Public Safety Radio Communications Interoperability Project 1.0 INTRODUCTION RCC Consultants, Inc. (RCC) has been.engaged by the City of Los Angeles to study its needs for public safety radio communications interoperability. RCC will also determine and report on design options for upgrades to the City's radio systems to provide improved interoperability between the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD ), Port of Los Angeles Police, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) Police, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, Los Angeles County Fire Department, and other public safety agencies within the Los Angeles County area. RCC conducted interviews with fifty public safety agencies in the Los Angeles area, including LAFD, LAPD, Los Angeles General Services Police, Port of Los Angeles Police, LAWA Police, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department (LASD), Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD), Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (LACoDHS) and the police and fire departments of many of the Los Angeles area municipalities. The details of those interviews are contained in the previous report. This report analyzes the interviews and attempts to present a consolidated list of the most pressing needs expressed by the various agencies, and to recommend a course of action to meet those needs. 2.0 NEEDS AND ISSUES KEY FINDINGS FROM THE INTERVIEWS The following is an abbreviated list of the key findings from the Interview Findings Report: • Law Enforcement Interoperability is needed on an exception basis, rather than being routinely used. Uses of interoperability are generally infrequent, short duration, and usually only one channel is needed except for major incidents. • Fire Interoperability is used routinely. Uses of interoperability are frequent, long duration, with multiple channels needed based on the incident command structure of the particular incident. • Coverage of an ag~ncy 's primary radio system is a major issue for both Law Enforcement and Fire. For Fire, greater coverage would mean they would remain in coverage and maintain the emergency trigger functionality when ~ :> ~CC RCC Consultants, Inc. Page 1 of 14 City ofLos Angeles Public Safety Radio Communications Interoperability Project responding to mutual aid incidents 'far outside of their jurisdiction. For Law Enforcement, greater coverage would mean that officers involved in vehicle pursuits that led far outside their home jurisdiction would still have communications with their dispatcher, and contact could be maintained with surveillance teams outside the jurisdiction, as well. These advantages would apply to a mobile data system as well as voice. • Radio coverage is a major issue affecting interoperability. Coverage is a maJor factor that greatly complicates the implementation of patch-type solutions. For example, one of LAFD's 800 MHz channels cannot simply be patched to one of LACoFD's UHF channels to form a command channel because their coverage footprints are different, and either or both may not have good coverage at the incident scene. • A shortage of available frequencies is a serious issue for both Law Enforcement and Fire. LAPD, LAFD, LASD and numerous smaller jurisdictions stated that they needed more channels and none were available. • The currently available interoperability solutions are useful but are not sufficient. The process of swapping radios is inefficient. Distributing radios at an incident scene consumes time that could be better spent managing the incident. The use of multiple frequency bands makes shared channels useful for many, but not all agencies. Even for the agencies within a particular frequency band, differing coverage footprints limit the effectiveness of the shared channel concept. Patch-type solutions such as communications vans and LARTCS are not available immediately upon dispatch of an incident and are thus not useful for many new or rapidly developing incidents. Plus, a large incident may require more tactical channels than could be provided using patch-type solutions. • Emergency trigger functionality is lost in many mutual aid scenarios. Emergency trigger functionality is lost when a user is outside of their primary radio system's coverage footprint, or when using another agency's radio. • More training and familiarization is needed