By Dave Buchanan, FirstNet Director of State Consultation

Members of FirstNet’s consultation team recently traveled to Baton Rouge, LA, for the state’s initial consultation meeting, which included about 90 state and local representatives from the Bayou State. Christopher Guilbeaux, who is Deputy Director of the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) and Louisiana’s Statewide Interoperability Coordinator, kicked off the meeting and set the stage for a lively, engaging, and productive dialogue between FirstNet and Louisiana’s public safety community.

In their opening remarks, Deputy Director Guilbeaux and Colonel Michael Edmonson, Louisiana’s Single Point of Contact (SPOC), talked about lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina and described Louisiana’s proactive approach to public safety communications. They highlighted Louisiana’s achievement in establishing interoperable public safety communications statewide through the Louisiana Wireless Information Network (LWIN). They also discussed the promise of FirstNet, emphasizing the importance of having a dedicated public safety broadband network.

Allison McLeary, who is the Program Manager for the State and Local Implementation Grant Program, provided an update on FirstNet-related efforts in Louisiana. To support the program, Ms. McLeary and her team conduct outreach through first responder meetings, member associations, group conferences, tribal meetings, the Louisiana FirstNet website, and Twitter. The state’s team is committed to having at least one meeting in each one of Louisiana’s 64 parishes by the end of 2015. As of the day of our consultation meeting, the team had already engaged with more than 560 stakeholders at ten meetings so far this year.

My FirstNet colleagues then described the consultation process and how FirstNet seeks to work with Louisiana to ensure the nationwide public safety broadband network (NPSBN) meets the state’s unique public safety communications needs. An engaging dialogue about coverage objectives ensued, with Christina Dayries, Chief of Staff and Deputy Director of Grants and Administration at GOHSEP, sharing valuable lessons learned from the build-out of LWIN.

Louisiana’s public safety leaders presented some informative and unique use cases. Lloyd Miller, who is a Communications Planner for Calcasieu Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, discussed a use case involving a hurricane. With the large number of agencies involved in hurricane response, interoperability can often be a major problem. Additionally, wide area damage can inhibit normal communications, requiring redundancy to get the systems functioning. There was discussion about how a dedicated public safety network would improve network reliability and expand the range of communications capabilities available to first responders.

We then heard a joint presentation by Aaron Miller, Interim Director of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, and Major Carl Saizan, Louisiana State Police Region I Command Inspector, detailing the challenges and intricacies of emergency communications planning for Mardi Gras. The two-week celebration brings more than one million visitors to the city, producing an overwhelming number of calls for service from medical, police, and fire professionals. Public safety personnel use shared networks to communicate between the command post and mobile data terminals; monitor wireless real-time streaming video from the Department of Transportation and Development; assess incoming and outgoing traffic flow; monitor parade routes; and identify problems and redirect traffic. During the Q&A sessions, we learned more about the relationship between Louisiana’s public safety agencies and commercial broadband providers in the state.

I would like to thank Louisiana SPOC Colonel Edmonson and his team for organizing the consultation meeting. I would also like to thank the presenters for sharing information about how the NPSBN will help improve their public safety data capabilities. Echoing what I said in my concluding remarks at the meeting, FirstNet looks forward to further collaboration with Louisiana and building a relationship that will extend far beyond the consultation phase of network development.

Thanks again,
Dave