By Bill Schrier, FirstNet Senior Advisor

On Friday, November 4th, leaders in the Spokane, Washington public safety community met with FirstNet and Washington OneNet, which is the State of Washington’s program for FirstNet outreach and engagement. The meeting was arranged by Spokane Assistant Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer and involved about a dozen tribal, law enforcement, fire, emergency management and emergency medical services leaders from the region.

These leaders sketched a bold, pioneering vision of their hopes and needs for a future when the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (“FirstNet Network” or “Network”) is deployed in the region. This vision includes a variety of uses of mobile data communications that could improve the safety and quality of life for the people of Eastern Washington, and, indeed, the entire nation. The conversation ranged from “Smart Cities” to leading-edge apps to Next Generation 911 to wide-ranging engagement of volunteers and residents in building a resilient community.

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich described the active use of volunteers by his department and other public agencies. In Washington, Sheriffs’ offices manage a group of search-and-rescue volunteers to find lost hikers and skiers. Furthermore, SCOPE, the Sheriff’s Community Oriented Policing Effort, has 400 civilian volunteers. SCOPE members do the usual volunteer work – school and trail patrols, for example. But trained volunteers also direct traffic at events and during evacuations, search for latent fingerprints on stolen vehicles, are commissioned to tag, ticket and tow abandoned vehicles, and find violators who park in disabled parking spaces without authorization.

Spokane also has an active chapter of Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD) and is allied with the nationwide Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD), which has 100 member organizations. Some are well known such as the American Red Cross, but many others also provide volunteers who help rescue and rebuild communities after a disaster.

The implications for the FirstNet Network and volunteers are significant: during daily public safety incidents and after disasters, traditional first responder agencies will depend on legions of volunteers to help with many tasks. These volunteers may need access to the Network to communicate with 911 centers and other public safety agencies.

Lonnie Rash and Johnnie Sylvester of Spokane Fire District #4, a largely volunteer department, described how firefighting and emergency medical services operate in their suburban/rural and rugged district. They also defined a vision for a future “community paramedicine” function for their agency in which emergency medical technicians would actively visit people who frequently call 911 for health issues. The paramedics would also work with hospitals and other healthcare organizations to identify individuals recently discharged from a hospital who many need at-home medical support.

This proactive approach – a working partnership between physicians, hospitals, skilled nurses and paramedics – might reduce unnecessary calls to 911 and improve healthcare in rural areas, they said. Further, the FirstNet Network could support the community paramedic program by providing mobile access to healthcare records and voice/video communications between these partners.

Leaders of the Colville Indian Nation, including Larry Robinette and Susie and Larry Allen, made an hour-long drive to Spokane to attend this session. They described how wildfires ravaged their tribal lands this past year, and how cellular communications were unreliable due to lack of towers and coverage. They also suggested that FirstNet have a designated “seat at the table” in emergencies by staffing the Emergency Support Function 2 (ESF2) position at Emergency Operations Centers nationwide. Being in activated EOCs enables FirstNet and its future Network partner to directly support emergency managers during disasters.

City of Spokane Chief Innovation and Information Officer Eric Finch and Information Security Officer Dan Wardell, with Sheriff Knezovich, actively want Spokane on the leading edge of the “Smart Cities” movement. Finch represents the City in the Urbanova partnership, which includes Washington State University, a local energy utility, and other private sector partners. They discussed how the partners are working to create a living laboratory on 770 acres in Spokane’s University District. This partnership is already working on a smart and connected streetlight pilot program.

Further, this partnership will work to implement automated metering systems, traffic management, and similar capabilities. Sheriff Knezovich described how every street lamp could have sensors with audio and video capabilities, so that when an incident occurs or a 911 call comes in, deputies and firefighters would have instantaneous information to respond and investigate.

Spokane already is home for Regional Intelligence Group 9 (RIG 9), which is building a real-time analysis capability for 911 centers in the region. RIG 9 could analyze the many inputs from video cameras and other sensors deployed around the city. Other video and sensor feeds could come from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or “drones”), as well as transportation and parks departments. These feeds could be part of a next generation 911 deployment, with the resulting analyses rapidly forwarded via FirstNet to responders for real-time decision-making during a crisis.

It was evident during the meeting that public safety leaders in Spokane have a leading-edge vision for the future of technology in their region. FirstNet looks forward to helping to make that vision a reality by delivering a high-speed mobile communications capability to the public safety community. On behalf of the FirstNet team, I would like to thank Assistant Fire Chief Schaeffer for organizing the FirstNet engagement to discuss how innovation can support public safety in the Spokane region.

Thanks

-Bill