EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS QUARTERLY: SPRING/SUMMER 2009 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and Florida State Fire 2008 World Series and 2009 Super Bowl Marshals. “Because it was only about 20 people, we gave them Florida Responders Achieve Championship all radios from our [Pinellas] system,” says Montanari. “We set Emergency Communications up a talkgroup for traffic; we had a talkgroup for outside security, “Relationships are inside security, and medical. We everything, and we have a large system with over 53 While every baseball team starts the season with dreams of making channels, so we were able to use really couldn’t have it to the World Series, not every city plans to host it. “When the Rays our channels and issue radios to the agencies that came in.” better relationships entered the playoffs, we had no idea we would end up in the World Series,” says Pam Montanari, Radio and Data Systems Manager for As the team progressed to the World Series, Pinellas County also backstage.” Pinellas County Emergency Communications. But the Rays competed brought in radios for Major League Baseball (MLB) and the other in the World Series, and local authorities had to be ready with Federal agencies that support the biggest baseball games of the year. multiagency coordination, increased security, and a communications plan that an international event of that scale requires. Montanari stressed that the keys to their success were designating specific talkgroups for different functions and having a large radio Fortunately, interoperable communications planning has long cache in Pinellas County, which enabled them to provide radios to been a part of the Tampa Bay Urban Area. Montanari credits the St. all Federal and State agencies and MLB personnel. Petersburg authorities who work the 81 regular season home games at Tropicana Field with providing a strong and experienced team at The Tampa Bay Rays lost the series to the Philadelphia Phillies, but the stadium. Montanari feels that the city of Tampa Bay had a winning emergency communications line up. “Going forward, we are very confident in “For the division playoffs, we had about three days to incorporate the communications interoperability that we have,” she said. the Federal agencies into our 205,” says Montanari referring to the Incident Command System Form 205 used to detail available Super Bowl: Super Planning communications resources and plan communications strategies. Unlike the location of the World Series, which is determined by “And then it kind of worked that way in the World Series, too.” the final teams’ locations, the NFL’s Super Bowl site is decided years Emergency in advance. So Tampa, Florida, another partner in the Tampa Bay Beginning withCommunications the division playoffs, the local authorities Urban Area, had plenty of time to prepare to host Super Bowl XLIII coordinated with Federal and State agencies, including the Florida on February 1, 2009. DepartmentQuarterly of Law Enforcement, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Continued on Page 5 Spring/Summer 2009 Director’s Message . 2 Inaugural Emergency Communications . 6 SCIP Implementation Workshops . 3 U.S. Virgin Islands Tabletop Exercise. 7 2010 Olympics . 3 About ECQ . 8 National Conference . 4 Calendar of Events . 8 Q&A . 5 Director’S Message Dedicated to Supporting SCIP Implementation Across the Nation, emergency responders and This fiscal year, OEC received TA requests from over goals for the IECGP in coordination with the Federal government officials are making great strides 98 percent of States and territories, resulting in 239 Emergency Management Agency Grant Programs toward achieving communications operability and individual requests. States may request up to five Directorate; and, establish a baseline to measure future interoperability in their offerings annually from OEC’s TA catalog, which progress within each State. States and territories. These includes support in the areas of Governance and unprecedented efforts are Standard Operating Procedures, Communications The National Summary of SCIPs, released by OEC in supported by the development Unit Training, Communications Operations, February of this year, provides the common themes, and implementation of Statewide Communications Systems Engineering, Tactical gaps, initiatives, and a sample of best practices identified Communication Interoperability Communications Enhancement, and Communication in the 56 SCIPs and updated SCIP Implementation Plans (SCIP), which are locally- Assets Survey and Mapping (CASM). OEC vets all TA Reports. States can use the information in the National driven, multi-jurisdictional, and requests, evaluating how they will address SCIP gaps, Summary of SCIPs to identify practices used by other multi-disciplinary statewide increase interoperable communications capabilities, States to overcome similar gaps and develop initiatives roadmaps for enhancing and mitigate risks. Requests are then prioritized to for future collaboration on statewide plans. emergency communications maximize the impact of the assistance. interoperability. Through TA, SCIP Implementation Workshops, OEC also offered States the opportunity to participate the National Summary of SCIPs, and the SCIP Chris Essid, Director Last year, the U.S. Department of in one-day SCIP Implementation Workshops to Implementation Reports, OEC supports and guides Office of Emergency Communications Homeland Security (DHS) approved bring together State and local representatives— States and territories as they work to implement their the SCIPs of all 56 States and across disciplines and regions—to discuss the State’s SCIPs. Progress will only come through the hard work territories. This amazing accomplishment represents communications gaps and SCIP initiatives. The first and dedication of stakeholders at all levels, and we are the culmination of dedicated efforts across the round of workshops was completed this June, with 49 committed to doing our part to facilitate and enable Federal, State, and local emergency communications of 56 States and territories participating. OEC worked each State’s and territory’s success. community. directly with Statewide Interoperability Coordinators and other stakeholders to design the workshops to meet For more information on OEC’s SCIP Implementation During SCIP development, DHS’s Office of Emergency each State’s needs. Support activities, visit http://www.safecomprogram. Communications (OEC) provided technical assistance gov/SAFECOM/statewideplanning/, or e-mail OEC at and guidance to the States and territories. OEC For each State and territory, OEC prepared a SCIP [email protected]. analyzed the SCIPs and incorporated those findings Implementation Report based on a comprehensive into the development of the National Emergency review of the State’s respective SCIP. The reports Communications Plan (NECP) and Interoperable provide a “snapshot” of the status of interoperabil- Emergency Communications Grant Program (IECGP) ity in each State and describe the current status of grant guidance. Now, as the States and territories communications interoperability across the lanes of work to implement their SCIPs, OEC is supporting the Interoperability Continuum to include capabilities, them by providing Technical Assistance (TA), offering interoperability gaps, strategic initiatives, and next SCIP Implementation Workshops, developing SCIP steps. The SCIP Implementation Reports help OEC Implementation Reports, and producing the National align resources and programs more effectively to meet Summary of SCIPs. identified State and territory needs; establish funding 2 – Emergency Communications Quarterly SCIP Implementation Workshops This June, the U.S. Department of Homeland In Guam, workshop participants developed an Similarly, the Puerto Rico workshop resulted in a Security’s (DHS) Office of Emergency Interoperable Communications Working Group shared understanding of the SCIP, updates to SCIP Communications (OEC) completed the first round charter that lays out the group’s purpose, scope, initiatives, and the development of project plans of Statewide Communication Interoperability Plan roles and responsibilities, membership, operating for prioritized initiatives. Overall, the workshops (SCIP) Implementation Workshops, held across the principles, and next steps. represented a valuable opportunity for collaboration Nation beginning in October 2008. In December and coordination for both OEC and territory 2008 and January 2009, OEC conducted workshops In CNMI, the workshop provided an opportunity representatives. in three of the U.S. territories: Puerto Rico, Guam, for participants from across the territory’s four and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana municipalities (Saipan, Rota, Tinian, and the For more information on SCIP Workshops or other Islands (CNMI). These workshops enabled face-to-face Northern Islands) to come together as a newly OEC initiatives, email [email protected]. interaction between OEC and the territories’ established SCIP Task Force. The workshop also emergency communications leaders—and provided provided an opportunity for them to increase their OEC with a greater awareness of the specific understanding of their SCIP, update it, and draft challenges the territories face. implementation plans for priority initiatives. 2010 Olympics: Effective Communications as the World Joins in Competition High profile public events present unique coordination and The CIWG is one of seven working groups created by the The Integrated Interoperable Communications