Tactical Interoperable Communications Plan Greater Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington Urban Area Security Initiative Executive Summary North Central Texas Council of Governments
Tactical Interoperable Communications Plan Greater Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington Urban Area Security Initiative Executive Summary North Central Texas Council of Governments Cover design by Kristy Libotte Keener
TACTICAL INTEROPERABLE COMMUNICATIONS PLAN Greater Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington Urban Area Security Initiative NCTCOG EXECUTIVE BOARD EXECUTIVE BOARD AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS Wayne Gent, President County Judge, Kaufman County T. Oscar Trevino, P.E., Vice President Mayor, City of North Richland Hills Chad Adams, Secretary-Treasurer County Judge, Ellis County Bob Phelps, Past President Mayor, City of Farmers Branch Bill Blaydes Councilmember, City of Dallas Mike Cantrell Commissioner, Dallas County Bobbie Mitchell Commissioner, Denton County John Murphy Mayor Pro Tem, City of Richardson Chuck Silcox Mayor Pro Tem, City of Fort Worth Tom Vandergriff County Judge, Tarrant County Bobby Waddle Mayor Pro Tem, City of DeSoto Jerry Gilmore General Counsel Pat Evans Mayor, City of Plano Greg Hirsch Deputy Mayor Pro Tem, Town of Addison Mike Eastland Executive Director NCTCOG Fred Keithley Director of Community Services NCTCOG Jonathan Holt Coordinator of Public Safety Communications NCTCOG GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE Dan Scrivner, Chair Communications Architect City of Dallas Peter Ungar, Vice-Chair Chief CommunicationsOfficer, Asst. IT Director City of Fort Worth Gerard Eads, Technical Working Group Chair Communications Administrator City of Arlington Kelly King, Operations Working Group Chair Fire Chief & Emergency Manager City of Keller Technical Working Group Jim Baron Managing Consultant RCC Consultants, Inc. Bill Bowens Manager of ITS Programs DFW Airport Willie Cowart Sr. Tactical Communications Officer DHS/ U.S. Customs & Border Protection Gerard Eads Communications Services Administrator City of Arlington
Gary Gilbert Communications & Electronics Manager City of Irving Ron Goldsmith Radio System Manager City of Plano Harry Hettinger Communications Manager Denton Municipal Electric John Knight Communications Supervisor, Ellis County Robert Pletcher Chairman, Interagency Radio Working Group Texas Dept. of Public Safety Bill Rankin Telecommunications Manager DHS/ U.S. Secret Service Dan Scrivner Communications Architect City of Dallas Brad Simpkins Assistant Emergency Manager Denton County Peter Ungar Chief Communications Officer City of Fort Worth Mark Weathersby Communications Manager Dallas County Alan Williams Technical Services Manager Denton County Operations Working Group David Abernathy Fire Services Coordinator Texas Forest Service Wayne Barber Technical Enforcement Agent U.S. Dept. Of Homeland Security Charles Cinquemani Assistant Vice-President, Communications DFW Airport Tom Cowan Police Chief City of Burleson Brian Cudaback Fire Company Commander City of Arlington Gregg Dawson Director of Emergency Management NCTCOG Jody Gonzalez Emergency Management Coordinator Denton County George Grant Emergency Management Coordinator City of Richardson Kevin Gregory Police Captain City of White Settlement Sam Greif Battalion Chief City of Fort Worth John Harazda Telecommunications Manager Bureau of Alcohol/Tobacco/Firearms & Explosives Phillip Herbst Regional Communications Supervisor Texas Dept. of Public Safety Mike Holley Telecommunications Manager FBI Jerry Holmes Telecommunications Manager FEMA Joe Kay Deputy Fire Chief City of Dallas Kelly King Fire Chief & Emergency Manager City of Keller Rick Lasky Fire Chief City of Lewisville Joel McKinney Disaster District Chair/DPS City of Fort Worth Pam Palmisano Captain Collin County Sheriff's Office Jim Pratt Radio Systems Coordinator Tarrant County Information Technology Randy Renois Fire Marshall Tarrant County Robie Robinson Security and Emergency Management Director Dallas County Jimmy Roland Deputy Fire Chief City of Mesquite Theodore Schwarz NASJRB, Recovery Les Smith Criminal Justice Manager Tarrant County Kelley Stone Director of Emergency Management Collin County
George Teague Fire Chief/Emergency Manager City of Weatherford Rick Throckmorton Postal Inspector U.S. Postal Inspection Services J.D. Tiwater, Jr. Operations Supervisor City of Fort Worth Police Dept. Harland Westmoreland Assistant Chief of Police City of Euless URBAN AREA SECURITY INITIATIVE REPRESENTATIVES Rocky Vaz UASI Fund Development Manager City of Dallas Juan Ortiz Emergency Management Coordinator City of Fort Worth Don Crowson Assistant Fire Chief City of Arlington CONSULTANT RCC Consultants, Inc. Jim Baron P.E. Director, Western Region Tim Driscoll Senior Consultant
Greater UASI Region
Executive Summary This Executive Summary is submitted to the North Central Texas Council of Governments Executive Board at the request of the Tactical Interoperable Communications Plan Governance Committee. The Committee has overseen the Plan s development and recommends approval by the Board this day of April 27, 2006. The Plan was developed to satisfy the requirements of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Domestic Preparedness, Information Bulletin 158, April 1, 2005, for Urban Area Security Initiative jurisdictions, including those in Collin, Dallas, Denton, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, and Wise Counties. The full Plan may be viewed by the Board, or other authorized persons. The following is a brief summary of the Plan. The Event The next paragraph briefly describes the event that will be tested as an exercise in 2006. The exercise will identify the TIC Plan s strengths and weaknesses so that remedial action may be taken. A terrorist organization is determined to make a statement in the home state of President George W. Bush, and has selected, as its target, the highly urbanized area of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Their plan calls for the detonation of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) at a sports venue populated with a large number of fans and athletes. The Response The scenario presented here requires a rapid response from local, state and federal agencies and includes the participation of law enforcement, fire, and emergency medical departments and agencies. A wide range of interoperable communications assets that include cache radios, shared channels and talk-groups, gateways, and shared systems will be used. A location that lies in the heart of the Greater Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington UASI area will be the site of the scenario. The map below provides an idea of the location of the initial incident, which may, due the nature of the device, extend its affects to a much greater area depending upon a number of factors, weather conditions being one. 1
1 General Location of Event Agency Assets The expected responders to the incident include. The City of Arlington Police and Fire Departments The City of Fort Worth Police Department The City of Fort Worth Fire Department City of Dallas Fire/Rescue Department The City of Grand Prairie Fire Department The City of Irving Fire Department MedStar and CareFlite Medical Transport Regional Hospitals Fort Worth and Arlington Texas Department of Public Safety Federal Bureau of Investigation Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives 2
Communications Assets A wide range of radio bands and radio system technologies will be exercised as part of the scenario, including the VHF radio band, with both analog and P25 systems; the UHF band, which is used by the City of Dallas, the 800 MHz band with both M/A-Com and Motorola 800 MHz trunked equipment being employed, as well as the 800 MHz conventional mutual aid channels. The list below identifies the systems and other interoperability assets that can be utilized in the scenario. The City of Arlington shared 800 MHz Motorola trunked radio system. The City of Fort Worth shared 800 MHz Motorola analog trunked system. The 800 MHz NSPAC mutual aid radio channels. The Department of Justice Project 25 VHF interoperability system. The State of Texas VHF interoperability channels. Console and Mobile/Transportable Gateway equipment DFW Airport, the City of Irving, the City of Fort Worth and the City of Arlington. Radio caches Fort Worth. What is Interoperable Radio Communications? Effective interoperable communications is the ability of public safety service and support providers law enforcement, firefighters, EMS, emergency management, public utilities, transportation, and others to communicate among themselves, to exchange voice, data, and video communications on demand and in real time. It is the term that describes how radio communication systems should operate between and among agencies, and jurisdictions that respond to common and emergencies. It is a common misconception that public safety responders can communicate efficiently and effectively in times of crisis. In many cases, public safety officers do not possess reliable radio communication systems that allow them to talk to their own agencies. Equally critical as interoperability is the need for basic communications within public safety agencies. When the issue of interoperability is raised, some public safety officials respond that they are unable to even talk to their own personnel. The first priority must be to provide public safety with mission-critical radio communication systems that provide reliable agency-specific law enforcement, fire, EMS communications. As jurisdictions build or upgrade current systems, that priority should be expanded to include the provision of reliable and interoperable local and regional communications, and, ultimately reliable and interoperable local, State, and Federal communications. The Tactical Interoperable Communications Plan (TICP) is a project coordinated by the North Central Texas Council of Government for agencies within the Greater Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington Urban Areas. This Plan, a requirement of the Office for Domestic Preparedness (now Office of Grants and Training) 2005 Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grant program, establishes a Tactical Interoperable Communications Plan for the 3
Greater Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington Urban Area, inclusive of Texas Homeland Security Region 4. The TIC Plan is intended to document what interoperable communications resources are available within the designated area, who controls each resource, and what rules of use or operational procedures exist for the activation and deactivation of each resource. The TIC Plan is primarily directed towards the public safety sector, but it also recognizes the need for other entities to be involved in the planning process. It is important to note that although the cities of Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington are designated Urban Area Security Initiative members, the UASI umbrella extends to other designated public safety agencies located in Collin, Dallas, Denton, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant and Wise Counties. The nine-county UASI region is illustrated below. Greater UASI Region The Plan directly affects interoperable response capabilities of the UASI region by providing, identifying, and categorizing all interoperable assets in one document. Given the need for a multiple agency response, interagency communications is essential to allocating resources, securing the scene, caring for victims, requesting assistance, and mitigating the potential loss of property or life. Related Information In May 2004, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched the RapidCom initiative to help improve capabilities for immediate, tactical-level interoperable communications in ten high-threat urban areas. The Office of Interoperability and Compatibility (OIC) SAFECOM program, and Department of Homeland Security s 4
(DHS) Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP) worked in cooperation with federal partners to assure that incident commanders could communicate with assisting agencies within one hour of a major incident. The work done in these urban areas through RapidCom revealed interoperability issues consistent with those found by the National Task Force on Interoperability (NTFI), such as incompatibility of equipment, the need for a governance structure, and a lack of planning and coordination. In response to these findings, SAFECOM developed a framework called the Interoperability Continuum to graphically depict the five critical elements of success governance, standard operating procedures, technology, training and exercises, and usage of equipment that must be addressed to develop robust interoperability solutions. This continuum framework encourages a shift from a technology-centered focus to a comprehensive operational focus on the key interoperability success factors. While the development of tactical plans for incident management interoperability can provide an interim solution to an area s interoperability needs, such solutions should always be in support of long term interoperability by building upon or accelerating long term strategies and efforts. The Greater Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington UASI Region Tactical Interoperable Communications Plan makes strong and effective use of the North Central Texas Council of Governments Regional Interoperable Communications Initiative. This initiative, currently in the procurement phase across the region, will 5
utilize the Tactical Interoperable Communications Plan as a component of the Interoperability Initiative in furthering regional interoperability. The plan s development was undertaken on October 14, 2005, when representatives from the Office of Domestic Preparedness (now Office of Grants and Training) Interoperable Communications Technical Assistance Program (IC/TAP) met with UASI members to explain the requirements for Tactical Interoperable Communications Planning. The Value of a Tactical Interoperable Communications Plan The TIC Plan is a comprehensive document designed to prepare agencies for tactical interoperable communications during incidents involving multiple agencies responses. It provides a snapshot of what radio equipment and methods will soon be available and how those would be used in a tactical situation. When discussing tactical situations, this references street level or incident level operations. These operations are the very core of an incident and are directed to the incident commanders and response personnel who are on scene dealing with emergency situations. Communications at this level is of the utmost importance and a lack of it at the tactical level can be catastrophic. The tactical Interoperable Communications Plan identifies the resources available to the Incident commander, policies for use of these resources, and procedures involving the deployment and use of the assets. The TIC-Plan is a very detailed accounting of participating agencies existing and planned interoperable communications assets.. This plan follows a template developed by the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Domestic Preparedness (now Office of Grants and Training). RCC Consultants Inc was selected to prepare the plan using the template, and more importantly, input from all participating agencies within the UASI region. The TIC Plan is divided into six major sections as outlined in the DHS/ODP TIC-Plan template: Section 1 Urban Area Information. Section 2 Governance. Section 3 Interoperability Equipment and Resources. Section 4 - Policies and Procedures for Interoperability Equipment. Section 5 Plans for Tactical Communications During an Incident. Section 6 National Incident Management System Communications Unit Leader Training. Section 1 provides a high level overview of this region s demographics and lists the individual public safety agencies that are directly involved in the generation of the Plan. 6
Section 2 provides a description of the governing body that will be responsible for the Plan s management and maintenance. This section also defines the participating agencies responsibilities. The Governance structure is depicted below. Section 3 is a summary of the interoperability equipment and radio system resources that will be made available to support interoperable communications in the Greater Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington UASI region. The major items that are addressed include: Radio Caches - Many agencies maintain a set of radios that can be distributed to other agencies with incompatible radio equipment that are responding to an incident. Given the diversity of the region, there are many different types of radio systems that employ various radio frequency bands and/or operate disparate system technologies. Maintaining a cache of radios is one strategy that addresses supply and demand for compatible interoperable radio communications traffic. Shared Channels/Talkgroups Shared channels are those radio frequencies that are made available for use by agencies participating in a mutual aid response. Shared talkgroups refer to the virtual channels available on trunked radio systems. These resources are classified in the TIC-Plan as follows: o Local channels/talkgroups set aside by an agency for joint interoperable communications. o Regional designated radio channels available across a multi agency or multi-county area. o State specific radio channels designated by the State of Texas for mutual aid situations throughout the state. o National specific common radio channels designated for use nationwide. 7
o Federal specific federal National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) radio channels for the Greater Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington area made available for state and local government public safety use. Gateways The term gateway is a general classification of electronic hardware that allows the interconnection or patching of radio equipment that are operating on various radio frequency bands, same frequency bands, but on channels not normally available, and/or different system technologies. Gateways can be categorized in a number of ways including: 1. Fixed - the device is static and situated at a specific location there are two sub-classifications o Dedicated fixed gateway specifically used to patch radio resources. o Console gateway serves as main dispatch point, but can be used to patch radio resources for interoperability use. 2. Mobile - the device is installed in a vehicle and can be moved to an incident scene. 3. Transportable the device can be carried and placed in operation in a wide range of situations. Shared Systems Shared systems are those that provide radio communications on a day-to-day basis to two or more independent agencies. By their very nature, interoperable communications can be easily activated since multiple agencies share the same radio system architecture. Shared channels and talkgroups are generally available to other agencies that do not use the system for their primary communications. Section 4 provides polices and procedures in the application of the interoperability assets. Each participating agency s particular equipment and radio channel/talkgroup resources are defined along with the general Rules of Use, activation and deactivation procedures, and problem resolution methods. Section 5 outlines a scenario that requires a multiple agency response, and consequently, the activation and use of a wide range of interoperability resources. The scenario is one that will be exercised as the TIC-Plan is tested and validated. Section 6 defines the National Incident Command System (NIMS) Communications Unit Leader Training requirements, competency levels and certification. The Communications Unit Leader position is one of the key elements in the proper application of the TIC-Plan. The TIC-Plan includes a number of Appendices that contain additional information regarding each of the major subject areas such as: Point of Contact Information. 8
Lists of radio channels/talkgroups. List of interoperability hardware resources. Shared System listing. Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) data. Incident scenario description and information. Interoperable Communications System forms. Glossary. It is important to note that the Tactical Interoperable Communications Plan is a living document that will be updated, as needed. As agencies add or change radio equipment, types of systems, or protocols, the Plan will require changes. Plan Preparation and Review On October 14, 2005 representatives from the Office of Domestic Preparedness (now Office of Grants and Training) Interoperable Communications Technical Assistance Program met with UASI members to explain more about the development requirement of a Tactical Interoperability Communications Plan. One of the requirements was that a governing committee must be selected to oversee the TICP. The UASI leadership recommended that NCTCOG s Executive Board s Regional Interoperability Communications Committee serve in this role. The consultant selected for the Plan s development, RCC Consultants, Inc, met twice- January 10 and February 17, 2006- with the Governance Committee to determine the Committee s direction and to receive Committee input. The North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) coordinated development of the plan with assistance from the Governance Committee, RCC, and the Interoperable Communications Technical Assistance Program (IC/TAP). A meeting with the Governance Committee officers was held on March 24, during which they, Council of Governments staff, and the Office of Grants and Training Interoperable Communications Technical Assistance Program Staff, reviewed, page by page, the draft document. New suggestions and edits were incorporated before the semi-final draft was available for the Committee and the State Administrative Agency of Homeland Security, March 31. The Governance Committee provided their final comments and approval recommendation during the period March 31 to April 17, at which time RCC Consultants prepared the final document. With the Governance Committee s recommendation, and approval from NCTCOG s Executive Board, the Greater Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington UASI Tactical Interoperable Communications Plan was sent to the State Administrative Agency (SAA) May 1, 2006. Upon submittal by the SAA to the Office of Grants and Training, the OGT will provide copies of the Plan to the Peer Review Panel for evaluation. 9
Full Scale Exercise The final test of the TIC Plan will be to conduct a full scale exercise (FSE). The exercise is required to test the plan in its entirety to determine weaknesses, strengths, flaws, and to determine its overall effectiveness in a real world setting. The exercise planned for this region will test the interoperable communications abilities of several local, state and federal agencies. In addition, it will test equipment capabilities and procedures for largescale operations for the purpose of improving the Plan s effectiveness. The Office of Domestic Preparedness s Grants and Training will use the exercise to validate the plan. Initially, this exercise was to have been conducted within one year from the submission deadline, May 1, 2006. On March 23, 2006, the Office of Grants and Training notified all states that the timelines had been advanced. According to Office of Grants and Training s Information Bulletin, Number 205, March 23, 2006: In continuing recognition of the immediate and critical need to increase interoperable communications capabilities throughout the country, the deadline for validating the TICP through an FSE (previously established in the Fiscal Year [FY] 2005 Homeland Security Grant Program Guidance) has been accelerated. FSEs must be conducted by September 30, 2006. This adjusted timeline for FSEs will ensure that sufficient time is allocated to complete the After Action Report/Improvement Plan (AAR/IP) process. The validation process, including the final AAR/IP, must be completed by December 31, 2006. The exercise will be monitored by an Office of Grants and Training assessment team. 10