By Jeremy Zollo, Deputy Director of Consultation

Despite a looming hurricane landfall and flooding throughout the state, nearly 110 public safety stakeholders came together for the Virginia Initial Consultation meeting held last year in Richmond. The day's proceedings began with welcoming remarks from Brian Moran, Virginia Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security (PSHS), and Adam Thiel, state Single Point of Contact (SPOC) and PSHS Deputy Secretary.

Discussion throughout the day focused on the Commonwealth's existing communications infrastructure and how FirstNet might augment it with a dedicated public safety broadband network. Virginia representatives' use case presentations involved looking at specific data capabilities utilized by some of the major public safety disciplines, including a number of preplanning efforts, information coordination platforms, and even a drone.

Use Case – Fire/EMS
Mike Cox, Assistant Chief of Operations, Henrico County Division of Fire
Assistant Chief Cox talked about the Henrico County Division of Fire's focus on efficiency when looking at new technologies. During a recent re-accreditation, the department was able to look closely at its data use and improve their operations. One of the major steps was reclassifying every property location in the county with a risk level that reflected structure size, water sources, and other important factors. Assistant Chief Cox talked specifically about pre-planning for events at the Richmond International Raceway, which can bring in 98,000 spectators and require more than 1,200 public safety personnel from more than 50 agencies. Officials have used the ArcGIS mapping platform tool to coordinate information, operate a cloud-based dispatch system, and track resources at these types of events with great success, but it requires significant amounts of data. The county's goal is to use this tool more in daily operations and incident response.

Use Case – Emergency Management
Jim Junkins, Director of Emergency Communications, Harrisonburg-Rockingham ECM; and Wes Rogers, Lieutenant, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue
Mr. Junkins and Lieutenant Rogers gave a thorough presentation on the Virginia Communications Cache (VCC), an initiative that placed thousands of portable radios, repeaters, radio gateways, deployable towers and masts, and satellite communications equipment in five geographically strategic locations across the Commonwealth for use by local responders. With the large number of devices being handed out to local responders when the VCC is mobilized, an asset tracking system was developed to help with the important task of demobilization. During a highly publicized search for a missing young woman in and around Charlottesville in September 2014, the VCC provided more than 400 portable radios to thousands of personnel and acted as a dispatch center for over 32 hours to keep Virginia's Statewide Agencies Radio System (STARS) unburdened and able to maintain normal local operations. The encrypted radios were able to be used as the search turned more investigative, and not a single radio was lost in the demobilization process.

Use Case – Law Enforcement
Captain Lee Miller, Virginia State Police
Captain Miller gave overviews of two incidents in which the Virginia State Police would have benefitted from a robust public safety broadband system. The first was an August 2014 fighter jet crash, which involved about 150 search personnel from approximately 30 agencies. Despite no Internet or cellular service in the rural area where the jet went down, Virginia agencies on scene were able to communicate through the STARS network, though there was no interoperability with other agencies. The second case study focused on the Lockn' Music Festival. While the State Police had planned for a unified command post and traffic cameras in the area, severe storms caused a delayed opening and massive traffic congestion, which in turn concentrated Internet traffic and degraded network performance. The command post lost internet service and had to set up an emergency purchase through a local provider. Captain Miller stressed that, in both instances, there was a critical need for a public safety grade broadband network.

Use Case – Hazmat
Steven Ferguson, Fire Chief, City of Lynchburg
Chief Ferguson gave an overview of the April 2014 derailment of a CSX crude oil train along the James River in downtown Lynchburg, during which 17 cars derailed (three went into the river). First responders had to establish a half-mile evacuation zone due to the ensuing oil spill and fire. Despite prompting a large and tricky first response, as well as garnering significant media coverage, no one was injured and the spilled oil quickly burned off. What was interesting about the firefighting operations and hazmat response, according to Chief Ferguson, was the role technology played in augmenting situational awareness and disseminating information. A local man was in the area flying a drone with a camera over the derailment and uploaded the video to YouTube. The video provided responders with the best picture of the incident, though lack of bandwidth kept officials from using the resource to its full advantage. In addition, thermal cameras were used to determine which cars were empty and which were loaded with oil, and the WebEOC incident management application helped with data sharing. Chief Ferguson said that another lesson learned from the incident was the impact that social media can have in gathering and disseminating information.

I want to thank SPOC Adam Thiel, Homeland Security and Resilience Staff Director Shawn Talmadge, and Interoperability Program Assistant Priscilla Wilinski for organizing an interesting and engaging consultation meeting, and to all of the other Commonwealth of Virginia stakeholders for their participation. We at FirstNet look forward to continuing our work together setting the stage for the nationwide public safety broadband network.

Thanks,
-Jeremy