Chester County Department of Emergency Services

Chester CountyDepartment of Emergency Services

Mission

The Mission of the Department of Emergency Services is to Promote and Assist in Providing Safety and Security to Chester

County Citizens so they can Work, Live, and Grow in a Healthy and Safe Community.

Chester CountyDepartment of Emergency Services

Functions• Emergency Call Receipt, Interim Assistance, Response Coordination and

Responder Dispatch.

• Fire, Emergency Medical, Hazardous Material, and Rescue Training, Coordination and Administration.

• Disaster Response Planning, Coordination, Recovery and Mitigation.

• Hazardous Material Emergency Response.

• Fire Prevention and Investigation.

• Administer the Chester County Emergency Medical Services Region

Chester CountyDepartment of Emergency Services

Organization

Director

Administration 9-1-1 Operations

Platoons

Training

Technical

EmergencyManagement Field Service Fire Services

Law Enforcement

Services

Quality Executive Assistant

External Liaison

• All Emergency Calls• All Fire/EMS Dispatch• All Police Dispatch Except

– State Police– West Chester Borough– West Goshen Township

• Inbound Lines– 42 Inbound Ten Digit– 24 Inbound 9-1-1 Wire – 8 Inbound Phase II 9-1-1 Wireless

• About 25,000 Calls per Month

• 24/7 EOC Functionality• Foreign Language Capability• Hearing Impaired Service• Premise Information• Reverse 9-1-1• Roam Secure Alert Network• Public Education Team• Mobile Communications Unit• Staffing

– 4 Platoons– 12 Hour Shifts– PEMA/APCO Certified

9-1-1 Communications Center

Emergency Management

• Emergency Operations Center Ready• Southeast PA Regional Task Force• Coordination with Local Emergency Management

– Training– Planning– Communication

• Excellent Relationship with Red Cross• Strong Link with Local Emergency Planning Committee • Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act Planning

for 72 Sites • HazMat Team Trained and Ready• Outstanding ARES/RACES Organization (Independent

Back Up Comms)• Mitigation Committee• Citizen Corps• County Animal Response Team • Exercise Design Team

• Administers the Emergency Medical Services Region– Ambulance Licensure– Emergency Medical Technician Testing– Ambulance Quality Assurance – Continuing Education Processing– Certification Processing

• Operations– Mass Casualty – Regional Ambulance Strike Teams– SEPA RTF Work Group

Field Services

• Fire Marshal– 200+ Investigations per Year

• Local Support• State/Federal Cooperation• Arson Task Force

– 100+ Inspections per Year• County Owned/Leased Buildings• Group Care Facilities

– Juvenile Fire Setter• Training

– About 100 Courses Offered each Year– Almost 2,000 Graduates each Year

• Coordination• County Incident Support Team• SEPA RTF Work Group

Fire Services

• Training

• Coordination– 43 Municipal Departments– Federal and State Agencies– SEPA RTF Public Safety Workgroup– Police Chiefs Association

• Grant Research and Applications

• County Incident Support Team

• Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM)

Law Enforcement

Federal & State

Grants $1,052,2569-1-1 Fees

$6,836,424

Other $640,508

County Funding

$8,691,337

2015 Budget $17,220,525Sources

Uses by Program

Personnel $8,590,950

Federal & State Grants $1,052,256

Operating $7,238,951

Indirects & MLR $338,368

Uses by Category

Fire Services$856,495

9-1-1 $13,959,166

Emergency Management $1,568,556

EMS $399,195

PSTC $258,570

LE $178,543

Advanced Technology

Projects

A system of networks that enables the timely transmission of voice, data and video from

different types of communication devices

to the Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) and onto

emergency responder networks.

NG 9-1-1

• Virtually all calls are voice callers via telephones over analog lines.

• Data transferred via voice.

• Callers manually routed through legacy selective routers, limited forwarding / backup ability

• Limited ability to handle overflow situations.

9-1-1 Today

• Voice, text, or video information, from many types of communication devices, sent over IP networks.

• Advanced data sharing may be automatically performed

• Physical location of PSAP becomes immaterial, callers routed automatically based on geographic location, enhanced backup abilities and preplans.

• PSAPs able to control call congestion, including dynamically rerouting callers.

NG 9-1-1

• Capitalize on advances in technologies that provide:

• Quicker and more accurate information to responders.

• Better and more useful forms of information.

• More flexible, secure and robust PSAP operations.

Consensus within the 9-1-1 Community

• Access to emergency services will occur within a broader array of interconnected emergency networks.

• The system must support the transmission of voice, text, images and other data from all types of communication devices.

• Will build on existing IP-based functionality already inherent in the Internet and similar packet-based infrastructure.

NG 9-1-1 Initiative:Design Assumptions

NG 9-1-1 Design Infrastructure

• The ability to receive and coordinate additional data and information about an event.

• The ability to transfer data as needed to the appropriate person or agency.

• Fault tolerant, flexible infrastructure to support flow of multimedia forms of data and information from and to all types of devices.

NG 9-1-1 Initiative:Considerations

• Better use of information throughout the event.

• Ability to reduce received entry times for calls with language barriers.

• More elegant methods of data transfer between 9-1-1 centers.

• More flexible and robust disaster planning.

NG 9-1-1 Outcomes

• Ability to answer calls from any device on any communications system.

• Ability to transfer calls and associated data to any authorized receiver on any communications system.

• Ability to establish and operate Virtual PSAP(s).

• Ability to establish routing to meet operational needs.

• Ability to enhance system as technology advances.

Critical Success Factors

• Goal: Install a Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) compliant CADS that will be the foundation for:– Citizens to request emergency assistance via text– Dissemination of building plans, diagrams, and photographs

• Budget: $4,988,272 Expended: $3,276,113 (66%)

• Schedule: 53 Month Project (Extended from 48). 37 Months (70%) – Cutover: September 2015– System Acceptance: May 2016

• Project Tasks: 39% Complete

As of: 2 Mar 2015

Computer Aided Dispatch System (CADS)

• Data Network– Data transmission between CADS and emergency responder vehicles– Expected to be operational September 2016– $6.7M

• Text-to-9-1-1– Wireless customers– Phone must be activated– Call if you can, text if you must– Expected to be operational 2nd Quarter 2015

• 9-1-1 Legislation– Current law sunsets June 30, 2015– Critical situation for the 9-1-1 system

Where Chester County Stands with NG 9-1-1

• Current Voice Radio System supports over 5,000 Emergency Responders protecting the Citizens of Chester County– About 800 incidents and over 8,000 individual transmissions every day– Continuing, long-standing coverage problems– System is approaching end of factory support

• A modern system is needed to:– Support the “Ensure Safe Communities” Strategic Goal– Satisfy Emergency Responder requirements– Meet the National Interoperability Communications Goal

Voice Radio Background

• The system will meet or exceed the requirements defined by the Department of Emergency Services (DES) as coordinated with the Chester County Emergency Response Voice Radio System Design and Implementation Advisory Group for:– On-street and in-building coverage– Audio quality– System availability– Reliability– Maintainability– Usability – Communications security and emergency communications feature– Expandability and modernization– Interoperability

• Performance specifications based system

• Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) Project 25 compliant. 

• Pre-planned modernization and long-term maintenance plan. 

Project ObjectivesAdopted at 21 April 2010 Kickoff Meeting

Harris Digital System

• Design– 25 transmit and receive sites

• 11 site, 7 channel “East/Central” cell • 14 site, 6 channel “West” cell

– 2,750 Portables, 1,221 Mobiles and 132 Control Stations– P25 Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Phase 2 operation– Over the Air Programming (OTAP) for all radios– Encryption and Over the Air Re-keying for 250 law enforcement radios– Global Positioning System (GPS) in law enforcement portable radios– Interoperability

• Individually configure talk groups for seamless backwards compatibility to Phase 1• 3 x Inter Sub-System Interface (ISSI) connections to other P25 systems• 60 x “swap radio” channel patches

• Installation and Two Year Warranty: $27,436,173

• Pre-Planned hardware/software updates every 4 years

Contractually Guaranteed Coverage

Coverage Testing Plan

• Two independent pass/fail coverage tests: Rural and Urban– Pass Criteria is 97% Coverage at 3.4 DAQ– Provisions to minimize contiguous grid failures

• Each test is performed and scored on its own– Any inaccessible grids are removed from the percentage calculation– Two County representatives and one vendor representative on each team. Majority rules

• Rural test: ½ mile grids excluding designated urban areas• Urban Areas: ¼ mile grids with 12dB attenuation added to simulate in- building coverage• Additional Above the RFP Signal Strength Guarantees

Cutover

• Patch between EF Johnson and P25 system

• Process

– Build/Operate West 700 MHz Cell reducing traffic on EF Johnson system

– Build/Operate East 800 MHz Cell

– Department by department mobile and portable change out

• No change in antenna quantity on each tower during cutover. Net reduction of 1 antenna (from 3 to 2) on each tower after cutover

Voice Radio Project Selected Milestones

Task Planned Start

Planned Finish

Actual Start

Actual Finish

% Complete

Harris Project Work 26 Feb 13 21 Apr 16 26 Feb 13 75

Site Surveys 26 Feb 13 18 Mar 13 26 Feb 13 18 Mar 13 100

Design Review 12 Mar 13 4 Jul 13 12 Mar 13 25 Sep 13 100

Manufacturing 5 Jul 13 2 Sep 14 29 Jul 13 94

System Staging 7 Jan 14 14 Mar 14 7 Jan 14 14 Mar 14 100

Site Development 2 Jul 13 31 Dec 14 2 Jul 13 93

Install & Optimize 15 Sep 14 22 Jul 15 15 Sep 14 31

System Accept Test 14 Jul 15 23 Dec 15

Cutover 28 Dec 15 4 Jan 16

Program & Install 17 Jun 15 21 Apr 16

Final System Accept 21 Apr 16 21 Apr 16

As of: 2 March 2015

Based on new Rev8 Harris project schedule with additional detail added to the sections

System Service and Maintenance

• Metropolitan Communications will be the Service Provider

• Annual Preventative Maintenance on infrastructure system

• 24x7x365 with 2 hour response and 4 hour repair on infrastructure failures

• Installation and repair of mobile radios at the stations

• Portables returned to the maintenance facility for exchange

• Next business day replacement of portables and mobiles needing repair

• Repaired radios returned to the spares cache within 2 days

• Total Cost for 10 Year Pre-Planned Maintenance: $14,667,110

Public Safety Training Campus

• Orientation Map of Coatesville Area

Public Safety Training Campus

Academic Building

Training Room

Burn BuildingMiddle Tier Section of Tactical Village

Drill Tower/Scenario BuildingMiddle Tier Section of Tactical Village

Indoor Firing Range Building

Phased Schedule

• Phase 1: Academic Building– Dedication on 9 September 2012– Three classrooms in operation

• Phase 2: Tactical– Site development started in October 2012– Expect operations by April 2015

• Phase 3: Firing Range– $9.7 M Design Complete– Expect operations in December 2016

Questions?

Robert Kagel, Director rkagel@chesco.org 610-344-5092