The Interagency Communications Interoperability System or ICIS (pronounced Isis like the Egyptian Goddess of fertility) is a cooperative effort by many of the independent cities in Los Angeles to share a common radio network. Currently these cities have but just the most limited of radio interoperability. Southern California isn't new to such cooperative systems, though they are rare in the County of Los Angeles. Orange County was one of the first such cooperative trunked radio systems in the nation and San Diego County with their multi-county radio system was not far behind.
ICIS will allow public-safety personnel to not only seamlessly talk with neighboring cities but will also allow them to venture farther from home while still maintaining communication with their home city. This is especially necessary in Southern California with it's police pursuit petry dish of freeway systems.
Many cities are already a part of ICIS with others having the option to join in the future. The following list of cities are ICIS cities or are in the process of joining ICIS.
Beverly Hills
Burbank
Chino*
Culver City
Glendale
Montclair*
Montebello
Ontario*
Pomona
Rancho Cucamonga*
Upland*
*West End Communications Authority Cities
I recently had the rare opportunity to tour the radio system before it
goes online, which is scheduled to start mid September 2003.
Glendale is both blessed and cursed by the many mountains that separate
parts of the city. The curse is obvious in that radio waves don't travel
well through mountains. The blessing is that these mountains provide
excellent radio coverage with their hill top transmitters, so much so that
the antennas on some sites must be pointed downward to provide radio service
below them.
While traveling up a canyon to one of the hill top sites I called a radio
tech at the civic center on the system. The audio quality was so good that I
had to ask if we were talking in analog or digital mode. The response was
Lima Charlie (Loud and Clear) "We are in digital-encrypted mode".
This proves that, contrary to popular belief, digital trunked radio systems can provide superior service if they are designed properly. There is no such thing as "over kill" when it come to designing systems that are used to save lives.
When the system goes live, it will take some time to convert all the radios. Glendale's Public-safety will not be the first to go online, they will follow a little later with less critical departments taking the first plunge.
When police radios are on the new system the dispatch talk group will, at least initially, remain in analog mode while the other talk groups will be digital with some sensitive talk groups also being encrypted. Current trunk tracking radio scanner will be able to monitor this system and current digital capable radio scanners will be able to decode the digital audio. Of course encrypted radio communications will be unmonitorable.
Along with the new trunked radio technology being deployed MDTs are also being deployed into the field. MDTs reduce the amount of radio traffic, especially by units who routinely request wants and warrant checks. I also inquired into the use of GPS on field units, but there are no plans as of yet.
Links of Interest
City of Glendale
Glendale Police
Department
Verdugo Fire Communications
Center
Western
City League of California Cities An online magazine article on ICIS
Radio
System Photos by Tracy Justus