The cost of interoperability

[trauma74 111]

Every time you look at a PD/FD or EMS related magazine you see many articles about interoperability. Along with these articles you see a wide assortment of devices that can be deployed in the field for interoperabilty. These devices can range anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. It is quite obvious to me that the companies manufactoring this devices are capitalizing on the big inter-ops push coming from the Federal Government.

I will be the first to admit that I am an avid radio buff and I have been in favor of these devices for a long time. I think that these tour bus style mobile command centers are awesome and I would love to see a few more of these around.

I have been a PD/FD/EMS dispatcher for 9 years in addition to holding the position of Communications Officer for my FD and my VAC. I have learned that many people in the Public Safety field have no clue about communications in general. With that being said, these same people have no clue about interoperability.

Most dispatch consoles have the ability to cross patch different frequencies together as well as the ability to simulcast on multiple frequencies at the same time. Some dispatchers do not know the full capabilities of their consoles and they fail to properly link two agencies together. I have seen and heard of incidents where main dispatch frequencies for multiple agencies were patched together creating havoc over the air. All of the radio happy people out in the field felt the need talk non-stop. The ICs at these incidents should have never let this happen and they really should be ashamed of their actions.

Is is really necessary for everyone to talk to each other at every scene? The answer to this is an obvious "NO". At the majority of incidents the ICs of the various agencies working on the scene should really be the only ones communicating with each other. Interop Communications between the various ICs should be done on fireground or tac channels and not on main dispatch channels.

Long before 9/11 and the Interop push from the Feds the PD, FD & EMS in my Town were interoperating. This was accomplished by the FD Chiefs getting VHF mobile and portable radios to talk to PD & EMS and by EMS Line Officers having UHF portable and mobile radios in their vehicles. For the one in a thousand chance that all of the PD officers on the scene needed to talk all of the firefighters or EMS personnel on the scene, this would be easily accomplished thru the use of a few RICK or Pyramid in-vehicle repeaters. This solution is pretty inexpensive compared to purchasing an expensive device to perform these functions. I know that some of you will say that our system works well for when all of the agencies from a single Town are working together, but we also have the ability to communicate with all of our neighboring agencies if needed.

[AFS1970 504]

I had to laugh at the remark about dispatchers not knowing the capabilities of their console, because it is sadly true. When we got the our current radio system, we were given a 2 hour class in how the console works, from the vendor. All subsequent training is done by senior dispatchers, many of who either don't remember or never learned some of the less frequently used functions & channels. Thus new dispatchers never learn some of these functions.

We have had the State Police Helicopter come to town for joint operations a few times. The first time we were looking for a joint channel to work on. Since we use a trunked system, and they can only program a conventional channel into their radios. They sugested an I-Tac channel, which seemed like a good idea. The supervisor didn't think we had that one, asked a couple of dispatchers who agreed we didn't have it and they were all set to try and dispatch over a portable radio. It was interesting to see the looks when one person on the floor said we did have the channel and set it up on a console. For the one or two times we actually had to talk with Trooper One it worked fine.

As for true interoperability, our current Trunked system allows for that but only on limited groups. No radio has all the channels. We do a large Parade every fall & a large fireworks event in the summer and each service uses their own channel due to high traffic volume. EMS chooses not to use the Trunked system at all and used a Med Channel. So a Police Officer on the Parade Route still needs to call the command post, ask for EMS and then the two command posts talk to each other and EMS is dispatched out. So Interoperability is not used at our large events.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

Is it necessary for everyone to talk to each other on a scene?

Absolutely not in my opinion. Interoperability is a phrase that is tossed around in many articles and after action reports but not something that is brought down to a level that can be understood. To me certain functions/positions need interoperability. Interoperability also gives you redundency in a communications system in the event one goes down. You need to speak to other agencies when you are involved in complex operations where everyone is on the same task, but operating on different frequencies. This brings information immediately and should reduce the chances of one agency knowing info that could impact everyone performing similiar functions/tasks under different agencies.

One way of good interoperability is a good OEM. Unfortunately some look at it as big brother and fear of the unknown that they will tell them how to run things, when they are there to assist you with getting an incident to run smoother and free up certain aspects of an operation and with your dispatching.

Look at most major incidents and in every after action report the lack of common frequencies hampered efforts and created significant operational safety issues.