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As the Emergency Communications Manager for OCSD/Communications and Technology, these are some of the responsibilities of my position. 800 MHz CCCS Training 2
What we want to focus on today is Control One. Control One (along with the Sheriff Dispatch Center) is a unit of the ECB which is part of the OCSD/North Operations Division located at Loma Ridge. The same location also houses the Operational Area EOC, Emergency Management and the O.C. Intelligence Assessment Center which are part of the Homeland Security Division. 800 MHz CCCS Training 3
OC has a unique capability and that is a dedicated communication center for coordinating interoperability and other mutual aid type services. Control One has been a part of Orange County communications since 1934 when public safety communications began in Orange County. Control One is a 24/7 point of contact on the radio for all personnel who use the OC CCCS radio system. Control One is a dedicated point of contact (especially after-hours) for just about anyone involved in public safety or local government work in Orange County. 800 MHz CCCS Training 4
When you have a large incident that requires notification or callout response from HCA or other County, State and even Federal agencies, Control One is the place you might be calling to get the notifications started. As you can see, we have state-of-the-art equipment at our disposal! Control maintains a large number of call-out lists for just about anyone you might need to notify. Control also has access to every radio channel and talkgroup on our radio system as well as a multitude of interoperable radio channels. In addition to notifications, one of the more high-profile functions Control One performs is coordinating high speed police pursuits that result in multiple jurisdictions being involved. Here is a video clip of one of those pursuits to give you an idea of the seriousness of this work 800 MHz CCCS Training 5
The world news reports remind us of the uncertainty that awaits us each day. There is a disaster of some kind occurring every day somewhere in the world. Wildfires such as the recent Station Fire are a reminder of that truth for us in Southern California. Earthquakes, tsunamis, mass transit accidents and terrorist attacks are also very real threats. Whether a disaster is man made or natural, it usually occurs without warning and results in a great deal of confusion. To mitigate that confusion, we develop response and recovery plans and exercise those plans to be as prepared as possible for the inevitable. Radio communications are a vital resource in responding to any disaster situation and play an integral part in our disaster plans. The challenge is that radio communications in a disaster situation are not necessarily handled in the same manner that normal day-to-day radio communications are handled. There will likely be other agencies involved in the disaster response who will need to be involved in the communications plan. Radio system users should be asking themselves, What would we do if something like that happened here? Later in this presentation, I will present five questions that may assist you in preparing yourself to communicate in a disaster or other unusual situation. In Orange County, Control One will begin a structured notification process to ensure critical information gets to all personnel in the public safety and local government arena. 800 MHz CCCS Training 7
Control One has a book filled with SOPs for various incidents and this includes incident notification for a variety of possible incidents such as earthquakes, tsunamis, SONGS events, flash floods or other weather related issues and many others. 800 MHz CCCS Training 8
This is what a typical incident notification form looks like and it ensures that all field personnel and dispatch centers are getting notified in the most efficient and timely manner. Some are notified in person such as the DC and EOC staff. Others are multi-selected on various radio systems and channels. 800 MHz CCCS Training 9
We also have various data systems that allow us to notify law enforcement agencies and hospitals. 800 MHz CCCS Training 10
The notification form also includes notifying the public which can be done via EAS, press releases and PA systems. In OC radio station KWVE is the LP-1 for EAS messages but if they are not able to forward the message to the other radio stations, Control One is the LP-2 and can perform that function as well. 800 MHz CCCS Training 11
We also have a voice radio system that allows for communications to all of the city EOCs as well as schools and special district EOCs. 800 MHz CCCS Training 12
Since you have me here as a rep from the communications world, lets talk a little about why communications is always an issue during large and small events. Here are five common reasons for communications issues but there are plenty more reasons as well. 800 MHz CCCS Training 13
These are just a few of the radios used by various agencies within the Orange County system. There are literally hundreds of different radios that could be in use when multiple agencies come together on an incident. Most people are lucky if they fully understand how to use their primary radio, heaven help them if they are given a different agencies radio. 800 MHz CCCS Training 14
In Orange County, we have done our best to address the issue of radio familiarity through a variety of training programs, reference materials, presentations and publications. Many of these documents are customized for each agency to address their equipment and the channels they use. 800 MHz CCCS Training 15
If you don t have radios available in your agency, or you don t have enough, you might look into whether or not another agency has a cache of radios that could be borrowed when needed. In OC, we have a cache of about 350 radios available to CCCS users for events or emergencies. These radios are maintained by OCSD/Control One and they coordinate the loan process. 800 MHz CCCS Training 16
When your primary communications system fails, do you know if you have access to a back up communications system? What are your plans for communicating when your primary system has failed? OC s system has been built with a great deal of redundancy and designed to fail incrementally to allow the system to continue operating in some capacity when parts of the system have failed. System Watch engineers are immediately alerted electronically when there is a failure detected anywhere in the system. We also conduct failure communications training once each quarter to ensure the users know what to do when their primary system is unavailable. 800 MHz CCCS Training.17
This is one of the primary reasons, nationwide, that interoperable communications do not occur. This table shows a few of the many agencies in Southern California that may interact with Orange County during an incident. You can see from the table that these agencies do not all use the same frequency band in their systems. The radios each of these agencies use will not allow them to talk on systems that t use frequencies outside their operating capability. That means that a Corona police officer using their VHF radio cannot talk to a Riverside police officer who is using their own UHF radio. How could this happen? In the past, every agency that could afford it, built out their own radio system and closely guarded access to it. They didn t want other agencies having access to their system. Things are different now, but the cost of building out a new radio system is astronomical and the politics involved in getting gthe various disciplines, agencies, cities & counties to agree on a system they would all share is an almost unattainable goal. It can be done, however, and is one of the crowning achievements of Orange County and all of the Cities within Orange County. 800 MHz CCCS Training.18
The Orange County system includes talkgroups and channels that are available to all system users. TAN is an example of this. These talkgroups/channels allow any user of the CCCS to talk to any other user on the CCCS regardless of what agency or discipline they belong to. This is generally done through a dedicated communications center who can bring both parties together on a common channel. The radio templates used in every radio on the OC system include certain zones (9-13) that are identical in every radio. This allows a police officer from one city to pick up a public works radio or fire radio in another city, and know that certain common talkgroups/channels like TAN will be in the same programming zone as their own radio. There are also conventional repeaters that are autonomous from the trunked system and provide access to OC users by non-cccs users who have 800 MHz radios on their own system. For instance, the Riverside Sheriff dept could respond into OC and contact OC law units on CLEMARS. We also have the ability to patch disparate radio systems together on our dispatch console at Control One. For instance, Corona PD pursuing a suspect into OC could switch to our OCACCESS channel and we could patch that VHF channel into our 800 MHz system. 800 MHz CCCS Training 19
The 800 MHz CCCS was designed for complete interoperability among all public safety agencies in Orange County while providing agency-specific communications for day-to-day operations. Every dispatch center has access to all department and disciplinespecific mutual aid/common talkgroups and conventional channels. Each mobile and portable radio has access to all department and discipline-specific mutual aid and common talkgroups and conventional channels. Control One/OCC is equipped to communicate on all trunked talkgroups, conventional 800 MHz repeaters, as well as other VHF and UHF radio systems utilized for public safety operations and coordination. All users of the 800 MHz CCCS system can reach Control One on a talkgroup called 9A-Tan-Call which is in every radio on our system. 800 MHz CCCS Training.20
All of the previous issues we ve discussed need to be addressed in a communications plan. The Federal Government now requires Operational Areas to submit a TICP that addresses all of the communications capabilities within that Operational Area and how they address interoperability. Each agency should also be addressing these questions and developing a plan for how they will communicate with the various entities they work with, and those they might only work with during a disaster. 800 MHz CCCS Training 21
This planning guide is from the Dept. of Homeland Security website and gives some guidance on how to plan for event communications. It can just as easily be used by your agency to put together a routine communications plan or a disaster communications plan. It simply lays out the steps to developing a communication plan specific to your needs. This includes getting all potential parties together to determine your requirements and what resources are available from each participant. From that information, a plan is developed followed by training and exercises to find out if the plan works. The training should ldhelp you find areas that twere not originally i addressed dso the plan can be modified and the process repeated. 800 MHz CCCS Training.22
Here are a few questions to consider if you plan to communicate during an incident, whether it be a disaster or routine incident. 800 MHz CCCS Training.23
Any user may call Control One on Tan-Call (Zone 9) or I-CALL- RP (Zone 12). Law enforcement users can call Control One on Red (Zone 1) or CLEMARS (Zone 14) with emergency traffic. 800 MHz CCCS Training 24
By use of a PATCH. This is a method of joining two dissimilar radio channels to allow communication with one another. In OC, Control One will set up a patch when requested. The requestor will need to supply Control One with the location and the channel the other agency will be using (e.g., OC Access etc.) so Control One can initiate the patch. 800 MHz CCCS Training.25
In Discipline - Public Works can communicate with other public works departments using the Brown talkgroups found in Zone 2. Law has access to the Orange, Gray, and Black talkgroups, and the statewide law enforcement coordination channel CLEMARS in Zone 14. Fire has access to all city and county fire talkgroups in Zones 2 through 5, as well as the statewide fire coordination channel FIREMARS in Zone 14. Lifeguard common talkgroups are Aqua-2 and Aqua-3. Outside Discipline - All users have access to the Tan talkgroups in Zone 9, the conventional repeater and talkaround I-TAC channels in Zone 12, and each city has its Pink talkgroup that allows communications between city specific disciplines. 800 MHz CCCS Training 26
A "real" failure could occur at any time. Damage to a radio site may also cause the system to fail, such as in a wildland fire or earthquake. Knowing your department s failure procedures will keep you in radio contact even if the system has partially or completely failed. Keep in mind that the commercial telephone system will likely be overwhelmed with calls and will not be reliable during a disaster. This includes wireless phones. You may have some success with text messaging but voice calls will likely be impossible. 800 MHz CCCS Training.27
1) Find out if you have access to any radios 2) Find out what channels are in the radios 3) Find out which channels you can use 4) Make a cheat sheet with this info 5) Plan & participate in a communication exercise 800 MHz CCCS Training.28
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