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Thursday, January 24, 2002
El Segundo leaving South Bay [Source: SoCalScan] By Darryl Washburn, Culver City Fire Dept. Communications Division El Segundo decided that they would rather do their own dispatching. There was a rub with the Chief of Police when he asked South Bay to continue service until their new facility was completed which would run around two months over their then current contract. South Bay demanded that El Segundo pay for another full year and that was the straw that broke El Segundo's back. El Segundos Police Chief asked Culver Cities Police Chief if Culver could take over Dispatch Operations for their Police and Fire Departments for two months while they completed construction of their new (and awesome) Dispatch Center. Culver City agreed to this (Mutual Aid) request and plugged El Segundos new radio system and 911 lines into their Dispatch Console System. Culver Dispatched for El Segundo for two and a half months and also remained "on-line" for an additional month in case the new system crashed. Their new system did and is working well. El Segundo is operating on two UHFpairs that were "loaned" to them for a two year period by the LA Sheriff's Dept. The deadline for giving the channels back is approaching. El Segundo is currently looking at options, one of which is to indeed extend Culver Cities trunked system into El Segundo by simulcasting our six channel Smartnet system and carrying their traffic as well as our current loading.
Officers ready to try civilian life [Source: Ventura County Star] LONG CAREERS: Jon Ainsworth and Dick Thomas have served city since early '70s. By Roberta Freeman Two veteran members of the Simi Valley Police Department, Lt. Dick Thomas and Lt. Jon Ainsworth, are closing long and eventful chapters of their lives Friday, trading in their badges for civilian life. With 30 years on the Simi Valley Police Department under his belt, Thomas has explored nearly every job the department has to offer. Thomas, 59, who along with Sgt. Fred James founded the department in 1971, is retiring to explore what the rest of life has to offer. While he embraces the opportunity to go fishing, learn downhill skiing and maybe launch a teaching career, leaving is bittersweet. "I have been here more than half of my life," Thomas said, recounting the career he's found to be interesting, challenging and meaningful. Thomas echoes the sentiments of many police officers who say they love the job for the variety it offers and the chance to make a difference in people's lives. He finds it equally satisfying to get criminals off the street. Ainsworth shares in the round of farewells this week. He joined the department in 1972, working as a night reserve officer while working days as a science teacher for the Simi Valley Unified School District. In 1973, he joined the department full time, and enjoyed a reputation for a time as a rather aggressive law enforcer. Ainsworth and Thomas recall the early days when they would ride around on patrol together. Their careers since have run similarly parallel. The two achieved rank of lieutenant early on and say throughout the years they have traded jobs ranging from traffic, to detectives and special operations. Ainsworth, who has taught part time for many years while on the department, said he wants to get back into teaching full time. "I left teaching because I thought I needed some more life experience to be a better teacher. I think I've got that now," Ainsworth said. Joining the department in its formative years was a benefit, he believes. He turns 55 Friday, his last day with the department. "It has been gratifying to see changes made for the good and to have a part in the development of a young community," Ainsworth said. The boisterous and jovial Thomas becomes emotional when he recalls one of the more painful memories of his career. He was the department's S.W.A.T. team commander in 1995 when the call came in about downed officer Michael Clark, the only Simi officer to be killed in the line of duty. Clark and two other officers had responded to a residence to check on the well-being of a 47-year-old man reportedly abusing drugs and alcohol. Without warning, the man drew a large caliber pistol and shot Clark twice. Lt. Anthony Anzilotti, who now works for Thomas in the traffic division, recalls that day when Thomas, clad in jeans and a yellow polo shirt, sped to the scene in the armored S.W.A.T. vehicle, rammed the house and assisted in retrieving the fatally wounded Clark while the armed suspect was still in the house. Clark did not survive his injuries, and left behind his wife Jenifer and son Bayley who was 5-months old at the time. Thomas earned the 1996 Medal of Merit from the Peace Officers Association of Ventura County for his role in Clark's rescue. On leaving the department, Thomas said, "I'm closing one chapter, but this could be the start of a whole new life." Thomas predicts that within the next five years, a majority of the management at the Simi Police Department will be opting for retirement, which opens up opportunities for up and coming officers. "We have some extraordinarily qualified members on the department. They are more professional and higher educated than ever before," Thomas said. Sunday, January 20, 2002
New radio device puts public safety agencies on same wavelength [Source: The Mercury News] By Chuck Carroll Even in tech-savvy Santa Clara County, police, fire and emergency medical personnel can't radio one another at the scene of a major disaster because each agency is on a separate frequency, wasting precious minutes and endangering lives. But that will change this summer, when officials expect to begin rolling out a device developed a decade ago for intelligence and military uses. Santa Clara County, along with the Washington, D.C., region, is leading the country in using this technology to solve the communications problem -- which federal officials said they hope will be significantly reduced within five years. In typical Silicon Valley tradition, innovative local police techies figured out how to use the ``cross-band wireless voice switch'' in everyday operations and to handle data in real time, and not merely to improve voice communications at the scene of a disaster, as originally conceived by the vendor. The system will allow the 18 participating jurisdictions in the county to talk to one another instantly -- and without having to trash the existing network of radios, phones, transmitters, repeaters and other equipment and start over from the ground up, as other locales are doing. Originally, officials thought they would have to design and build the system from scratch, which would have cost millions. The first phase, which will allow public safety agencies to seamlessly handle up to four incidents anywhere in the county simultaneously, should be online by summer. The second phase, a series of regional hubs that will link the agencies for everyday uses, should be up and running by year's end, if all goes as planned. The second phase would allow officers involved in a car chase, for example, to talk directly to cops in the neighboring town as the suspect approached the second town, without having to switch channels or go through dispatch centers. Limited bandwidth The lack of ``radio interoperability'' has plagued emergency response efforts everywhere for years, but it came to the fore in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, the Columbine High School shootings and the Oakland hills fire. It's especially acute in the Bay Area, where so many jurisdictions are close to one another that there isn't enough bandwidth to go around. New urgency infused the public safety community after Sept. 11, when New York officials were largely unable to get evacuation orders out to people inside the second tower of the World Trade Center after the first tower collapsed. ``The ability to immediately get new information about the event to everybody on the scene at the same time is critical,'' said Bill Weisgerber, chief of police in Milpitas and a member of the Santa Clara County task force that's been working on the problem for three years. Like Virginia and Maryland, California is also making plans for a seamless statewide radio link. But the California system is expected to cost $2.5 billion over the next 15 years, said state interoperability program manager Scoop Sairanen. How the county stumbled upon the solution is an interesting story in itself. Change in plans The task force was put together about three years ago by the city managers and police and fire chiefs in the county. They scraped together enough money to hire a consultant, who helped them sketch out the issues and goals. From there, they expected to have to design and build the system from scratch, and probably to have to scrap virtually every piece of equipment currently in use. They expected to have to borrow at least $20 million to get the job done -- in several years. But in August, task force co-leader Sheryl Cantois of the Palo Alto Police Department was at a convention in Salt Lake City when she heard that JPS Communications of Raleigh, N.C., claimed to have an off-the-shelf solution. At first she was skeptical, but then saw a product demonstration. It was almost too good to be true. It could not only do everything the county wanted but also at a fraction of the anticipated cost and be online far sooner. ``The clock's ticking, and it's only a matter of time,'' Cantois said, before the county has an incident that will require a multiagency response in which smooth communications might save lives. The consultant was let go, and the money will be used to deploy phase one if no grant can be secured. If a grant pays for phase one, the money could be used to set up phase two. JPS founder Don Scott said his equipment has already been used in the public safety arena, including the Super Bowl, the national political conventions and President George W. Bush's inauguration. But Santa Clara County is the first to figure out a way to use it in everyday operations. © 2001 The Mercury News |