COMMUNICATIONS - icma.org

VOLUME 32/ NUMBER 1 JANUARY 2000

INFORMATION ANDCOMMUNICATIONSTECHNOLOGY FORPUBLIC SAFETY

Few public services can be sothoroughly revolutionized by theadvent of high technology as publicsafety services. In all areas of publicsafety, from communications to recordkeeping to response planning andmanagement, new computer-basedtechnologies offer the potential formuch better service at greatly reducedcost.

Whether these technologies will beused to best effect depends largely onthe foresight and understanding of localappointed and elected officials. Thepromise of better service at lower cost isonly a promise unless basic practicesand procedures are adapted to takeadvantage of new ways of acquiring,sharing, and storing information.

This report describes information andtelecommunications technologies thathave applications for public safety anddiscusses implementation issues foreach. Case studies from the followingjurisdictions illustrate the benefits ofinteragency and interjurisdictionalcooperation:

• Oklahoma County, Oklahoma• Washington County, Oregon• Mankato, Minnesota, and

neighboring jurisdictions.

VOLUME 32 / NUMBER 1JANUARY 2000ITEM NUMBER E-43009

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Chesterfield County, Virginia

Information andCommunications

Technology for PublicSafety

Tim Dees, the author of this report, is a former police officerand college instructor in criminal justice. He has served as atrainer and consultant on technology issues to a number ofpublic and private concerns and writes a monthly column oncomputers and technology for Law and Order magazine.He is the author of a book on the use of the Internet in lawenforcement, Online Services for Law Enforcement (to bepublished by Prentice-Hall). He can be reached at 706/235-8104, or by e-mail at [email protected].

As the gatekeeper of the local government coffers,the city or county administrator is drawn in manydirections. Every department head has a list of ex-cellent, well-thought-out budget requests, many ofthem for technology. Because technology progressesso rapidly, it is almost a full-time job to keep up withwhat particular products can do. An uninformedmanager may find out many months down the con-tractual road that the purchased “asset” is not nearlyas suited to the task as was represented. Thousands,and possibly millions, of dollars are wasted, and thegoverning council or commission is unlikely to giveits blessing for another purchase. The phrase “goodmoney after bad” usually comes up sometime dur-ing this discussion. In short, knowing somethingabout available technology may be critical to the pro-fessional survival of a public administrator.

This report provides an overview of some of thetechnologies presently available, and on the horizon,for public safety applications. The report is intendedmainly for managers in small and medium-size lo-cal governments. Large governments often have full-time technology consultants available to them, andhave the budgetary clout to command that productsbe created especially for them. Most local govern-ments do not have these luxuries, and must dependon a biased vendor to tell them what might work andwhat might not (the latter almost always being thecompetitor’s product).

This report will address several of the technolo-gies and applications available to improve the qual-ity and efficiency of public safety operations,including

• Trunked radio systems• Global positioning satellite systems• Wireless data strategies• Cellular telephone technology• Digital records systems• Intelligence analysis and expert systems• Electronic and voice mail

The report also addresses the impact that tech-nology can have on the workforce, your most pre-cious and costly resource. A wise man once said“Computers work—people should think.” Technol-ogy will not do employees’ jobs for them, but it canhelp them to do their jobs better and more efficiently.

WHAT DO YOU NEED?

Community Profile

In choosing among technologies, the manager mustfirst consider the composition and situation of thecommunity. For instance, a coastal community thatis threatened by seasonal weather problems (hurri-canes, windstorms, floods) may be at greater risk oflosing electrical power for a prolonged period thanone in a suburban area. When power is lost, resourceson which public safety depends (communications,electrical gasoline pumps, lighting, heating and cool-ing, etc.) can become inoperable, and alternativeshave to be considered. Certain radio systems workbetter in rural environments than in dense, urbansettings. Communities that share borders with oneor more other communities may be able to pool re-sources to save costs, while more isolated communi-ties do not have this option.

The small community may be one ofthe best places to use technology toextend thin personnel resources.

In smaller communities, common objections totechnology acquisitions are that new “gimmicks”waste taxpayers’ money and that such innovationshave no place in a small town. In fact, the small com-munity may be one of the best places to use technol-ogy to extend what are usually thin personnelresources. Of the more than 17,000 law enforcement

2 Inquiry Service Report

agencies in the United States, 78 percent have fewerthan 24 officers, and over 1,000 of these have onlyone full-time or part-time officer. This means thatsome agencies are not able to provide patrol services24 hours a day, and when services are provided, onlyone officer is on the street.

In this scenario, it makes good sense to extendthat officer’s capabilities with state-of-the art com-munications and information processing technology,so that his or her time can be spent doing the job forwhich he or she is trained and qualified—not driv-ing to and from the station, filling out forms, or try-ing to obtain information. Technology cannot replacepeople, but it can greatly augment their capabilities.Moreover, technology is usually a one-time invest-ment, whereas manpower is a recurring cost that canquickly get out of control.

Public Safety Mission

The public safety mission varies from one commu-nity to another. Some communities, for instance,maintain their own professional emergency medicalservices (EMS), but others provide EMS through pri-vate agencies, a volunteer medic corps, or hospitalservices. Some communities may not have a law en-forcement component, replying on another govern-mental agency (such as a county sheriff ’s office) toprovide law and order functions. There really isn’tany such thing as a universal application for tech-nology, given the diversity in the makeup of publicsafety missions.

It is wise to assemble representativesfrom all public safety entities to reviewany proposed purchases of technology.

What is important is that public safety, howeverit is administered, be considered as a whole, ratherthan by its components. Sooner or later, the compo-nents have to work together, and incompatible sys-tems waste resources and lead to inefficiency. Thecurrent popular term for compatibility among sys-tems is “interoperability.” High-tech systems areplagued by a lack of interoperability, because theoperating systems and underlying infrastructuresoften represent years of costly research and devel-opment, and the firms that make the investment inthese projects want to protect their proprietary in-terests.

Because a new system that solves one problemmay create new problems if it is unable to share re-sources with an existing system, it is wise to assemblerepresentatives from all public safety entities to re-view any proposed purchases of technology, even ifthe purchase appears to affect only a single agency.For instance, an evidence tracking system for thepolice department might appear to affect only thatdepartment. However, if the fire department has a

role in bombing or arson investigations, fire person-nel may be involved in the collection or processingof evidence, or even have primary responsibility forarson investigations. Leaving the fire department outof the loop when obtaining a new evidence trackingsystem can be counterproductive.

Bringing representatives from different agenciesto the table to consider a major capital purchase oftechnology may actually build some bridges, as theycome to better understand one another’s missionsand problems.

Communications

Of all the areas where technology can be applied toenhance public safety, communication probably pro-vides the most “bang for the buck” and also the great-est number of options. Fifty years ago, two-way radiocommunication revolutionized the way that publicsafety providers did their jobs. No longer tied to thestation or to an inflexible signal box system to trans-mit information between headquarters and the field,police, firefighters and medics could dynamicallyredeploy at a moment’s notice, and could communi-cate with one another for mutual support.

In the early days, the person at the base stationend of the radio was frequently another officer,firefighter, or medic, who had little if any skill atmanaging units or communications traffic. Now, inmost places, the communications operator is a vitallink in the public safety community, and the job isoften a career choice. The use of technology in pub-lic safety communications has created a specializedniche for people proficient in the operation of radiotransmitters and receivers, computer databases, cri-sis and resource management, basic emergencymedical skills, and the complexities of computer-aided dispatch (CAD) software.

Because most public safety incidents begin witha message to the communications center, this is thelogical starting point for planning an informationdatabase. A truly integrated information system willrecord the data produced at the first call and passthat data on to the other components of the system.If this is not done, then there will inevitably be du-plication of data entry and the possibility of the in-troduction of errors.

Other technology applications that affect thecommunications function are global positioning sat-ellite (GPS) tools, trunked radio communicationssystems, internal communications systems (pagers,voice mail, e-mail), methods of geographically locat-ing callers using cellular phones, and voice data log-ging systems.

Public Safety Functions

Patrol/community policing. Few public safety em-ployees are as visible or as accessible as the uniformed

Information and Communications Technology for Public Safety 3

patrol officer. Recent innovations such as foot patrol,motorcycle patrol, bicycle patrol, mounted (horse-back) patrol, air support, waterborne patrol, and evenpatrol on in-line skates have been used to bring theofficer into closer contact with the community.

The basic equipment required to outfit a patrolcar used to be a two-way radio, a rotating or flash-ing warning light, a siren, and some distinctive mark-ings. These accessories alone add 10 to 25 percent tothe cost of the basic stock automobile, which is usu-ally a large-capacity “family” car with the largestengine and best cooling, braking, and electrical sys-tem available.

The modern patrol car still has all of these com-ponents, but often adds a traffic radar or laser sys-tem, a mobile data terminal (MDT), an in-car orofficer-borne video recording system, equipment tocontain hazardous materials spills, traffic cones and/or flares, a first aid kit, a fire extinguisher, night vi-sion equipment, a shotgun and/or patrol rifle, andother miscellaneous gear. The modern patrol car canrepresent an investment of well over $50,000 for thelocal government that owns it, and much of thatequipment can be destroyed if the car is wrecked, orstolen if the car is left unattended.

Officers who don’t patrol in vehicles also needequipment. A bicycle patrol officer may not be ableto carry a video recording system or a shotgun, butthere is technology available that can give him or hersome rudimentary benefits of an MDT, and there isno reason for any officer on duty to be out of com-munication at any time.

Some departments equip police officers withcommunication devices that they can use while offduty. Police officers usually have the option of be-ing armed while off duty, and they may elect (or beexpected) to intervene in crime situations that theyhappen to witness while not on duty. When this oc-curs, the officer is at a profound disadvantage if hedoes not have the resources of his patrol car avail-able, and can’t communicate with the dispatch cen-ter and other on-duty officers. If the officer intervenesin a way that results in injury or death to a suspector bystander, then the local government will almostcertainly be the defendant in a costly civil action. Off-duty communication devices don’t eliminate thisrisk, but they can provide officers with an alterna-tive to using force when intervening in an incident.

Criminal investigation. The criminal investigationfunction varies significantly from one law enforce-ment agency to another. Some law enforcement agen-cies have only one or two people assigned to thisfunction, and it may be a collateral duty merged withsupervision or patrol. In these agencies, the sametechnology that can augment the patrol function isgenerally applicable to investigations. When thereare many investigators, or when investigations spanseveral agencies, or when investigations are complex,criminal intelligence software can be very useful.

Internal communications systems, such as electronicmail, pagers, and voice mail, can also help in theseenvironments.

Corrections. Software for managing the correctionsfunction, especially when it is integrated with othersystems and components, can reduce the liabilitypotential for local governments by more fully docu-menting the intake, care, movement, and custody ofinmates. The same software can increase the safetymargin for correctional personnel, by making moreinformation, and more current information, concern-ing inmates immediately available.

Fire prevention and suppression. In most commu-nities, the fire department is responsible not only forfire suppression, but also for rescue work, gettingpeople out of wrecked cars and collapsed structures,responding to hazardous materials spills, and some-times for emergency medical services. A fire com-pany responding to an alarm has little time to findout what materials may be located inside the burn-ing structure, and the lack of that information canbe disastrous. Some materials react with water toproduce noxious gases or explosions, and firefighterswho enter a burning structure where chemicals arestored may be quickly overcome if they are not wear-ing the appropriate protective gear.

Most fire agencies do an admirable job of train-ing their employees in the handling of hazardousmaterials, but they may not always know wherethose materials are stored in their communities. Mo-bile data terminals like those in patrol cars can dis-play information from databases of hazardousmaterials storage, as well as contact names and num-bers for the people responsible for these materials.These same terminals can display floor plans ofbuildings to help firefighters search efficiently forcitizens and special hazards.

Emergency medical services (EMS). The model forinformation and communications technology forEMS is very similar to that for fire services. EMS per-sonnel have to respond to locations rapidly and at amoment’s notice, and often they will be workingclosely with police and fire units. Hazardous mate-rials issues are important for EMS workers, for theirown protection as well as for the protection of theirpatients (who may include the fire and police re-sponders). EMS units can also use mapping and rout-ing software to help them respond to incidents andfloor plans to locate a particular office or room in astructure. Both volunteer firefighters and volunteerEMS units need similar technologies.

Disaster management. Local governments cannotdo much to prevent a disaster, but they can minimizeits impact by preparing for it and managing the dam-age once “the dust is in the air,” as the professionalslike to say. Disaster management requires that the


planners assume any commonly available resourcemay become unavailable, and allow for reserve sup-plies or contingency plans. Computer software cansimulate the spread of a chemical, biological, or ra-diological agent in the atmosphere or inside a struc-ture, and show the propagation of the toxic “plume”under the effects of wind, rain, application of fireretardant, or some other effect that could speed orslow the spread of the agent. Other software pack-ages allow an incident commander to track and logthe activities of response units so that they aren’toverlooked, and provide a record for documentationand training purposes later.

INTEGRATED PUBLIC SAFETY SYSTEMS

“Integrated” information systems that track incidentsand data from the start of an incident until the clo-sure of the case, and share data between governmen-tal entities, have many advantages. First, because anintegrated system pulls data from multiple sources,many of the problems caused by duplication of ef-fort and noncommunication are avoided. When in-formation is disseminated informally within a publicsafety agency, the process is inefficient and there isalways someone who doesn’t get the word.

Information is available to everyonewho needs it as soon as it has beenentered into the system.

Commonly, information about a single person,place, or event is entered at several locations, by dif-ferent persons, and at different times. Computersread data literally and can’t associate “Bill Green”with ‘William Green,” “Billy Green,” “Wm. Green,”or “W.M. Green,” as a person might. Criminals of-ten change their names, dates of birth, and social se-curity numbers slightly with each police contact, sothat outstanding warrants, probation violations, andprior convictions won’t be detected. Fingerprints willidentify individuals positively, but most agencies use“inked” fingerprint cards (called ten-print cards, be-cause the impressions of all ten fingers are taken),which have to be mailed off to the state or federalrecords repository, classified, and matched with ex-isting records. Only then can the law enforcementagency that submitted the ten-print cards be advisedof the true identity of the person arrested, and thisprocess routinely takes three months or more. By thattime, the subject has been released from jail, and ifhe is smart, he is long gone.

An arrestee’s identifying information (name,date of birth, social security number) may be enteredinto various terminals many times during the pro-gress of his case through the police department, jail,

and court systems. With each entry, there is the po-tential for a typographical error, a misstatement ofinformation, or some other error that will cause therecords to be mismatched. Mismatched records leadto missed court appearances, accidental release ofinmates, and wasted time and effort for everyone.

Integrated systems also reduce the amount ofpaperwork created, which reduces costs. It may costas much as two dollars to handle a paper form.1 Anintegrated system eliminates most of the paper formsaltogether, and keeps data from initial entry, pass-ing information along from one step to the next.

Another significant advantage of an integratedsystem is that information is available to everyonewho needs it as soon as it has been entered into thesystem. The chief of police and the public informa-tion officer don’t have to wait for the records bureauto make a copy of the arrest report to see what hasgone on—they can pull the information up directly.

Just as important, while everyone who needs ac-cess to the information can get it, those who don’thave the proper authorization can’t get access. If cer-tain data must be kept confidential, there is no needto cover portions of a form before a copy is made, orread information to a third party from a computerscreen. Custom reports containing the informationthat each user wants and needs can be created forevery level of authorization. A record can be createdfor every access of any information, to discourageor detect subversion or misuse of the system.

Despite these advantages, two factors weighagainst integrated systems: money and politics.These systems don’t come cheap. A network infra-structure has to be built if it is not already in place,hardware has to be purchased, and the software hasto be customized for the purchaser. The potential forlong-term savings is good but the initial price tag ishigh.

A second obstacle to an integrated system canbe organizational conflict or hostility. There can alsobe significant infighting over who is going to be “incharge” of the project, and subordinate agencies mayfear that they will be denied some advantage.

Some funding issues may be ameliorated withfederal grants. Grants available through the U.S.Department of Justice are addressing cooperationand communication among public safety agencies,particularly those in rural areas with the objectiveof helping them prepare for terrorist threats. If theentities involved in an integrated system can cometogether to apply for one of these grants, they mayhave a much better chance of getting funding thanthey would if they apply for funding as individualagencies. Integrated systems that enhance the abil-ity of agencies to work together across jurisdictionsand “turf” are far more likely to be funded thanstand-alone systems that serve a single agency (seethe sidebar on page 7).


Integrated justice information system

Oklahoma County had a problem. The county,which is Oklahoma’s most populous and includesOklahoma City, was using mainframe, COBOL-based systems that weren’t Y2K compliant for theirpublic safety functions, and it looked as though itwould be prohibitively costly to upgrade them.Moreover, systems and data were fragmented, sothat employees couldn’t readily access informa-tion that they needed to work safely andefficiently.

For example, the sheriff’s office had no quickway of determining whether an inmate due forrelease had new arrest warrants outstanding, be-cause the court, prosecutor’s office, and jail sys-tems couldn’t “talk” to each other. Employees atthe reception desk, fielding calls and visits frominmates’ family members and bail bondsmen, hadto telephone other employees to determine thestatus of an inmate, and sometimes several callswere required to get all of the information re-quired.

The county looked at integrated systems in thepublic safety marketplace and chose E*JusticeSystem™, a TRW product that had been success-fully implemented in McLean County(Bloomington), Illinois, and offered interoperabilitybetween agencies.

Commenting on the organizational barriers thatoften make it difficult to adopt one system to serveseveral political entities, John Whetsel, sheriff ofOklahoma County, said, “The cost savings benefitswere obvious from the beginning, and that madesense to every administrator involved in theproject. The biggest concerns were voiced by theMIS people, who were concerned with access andsecurity issues. Once they saw the product, theywere fully supportive.”

Like most integrated systems, E*Justice empha-sizes modularity, so that customers don’t have tobuy functionality that they don’t need or can’tafford. As needs and budgets evolve, more mod-ules can be added, with very few changes or inter-ruptions for ongoing users.

Conversion of existing data to a format thatE*Justice could handle proved to be the biggestchallenge during implementation in OklahomaCounty. It took nine months of work with thecounty’s various databases to get them into aconsistent format. A mobile data capability wasadded to the system in a second phase, allowingincident reports to be filed directly from the patrolcars in the field and permitting computer-assisteddispatching functions from the car-based laptopsas well as access to the message switches for thecounty, state, and national criminal justice informa-tion databases.

In Oklahoma County, the emphasis in installingthe new system has been on improving communi-cation between the sheriff’s office, theprosecutor’s office, and the courts. For instance,

inmate tracking had been a problem, becauseof the inmates’ practice of impersonating oneanother to gain release or privileges. Deputies incharge of releasing inmates now see a mug shot ofthe inmate displayed on a terminal while complet-ing the release information, reducing the likelihoodthat the wrong inmate will be discharged. The infor-mation system automatically checks with the courtand prosecutor’s databases to ensure that thereare no holds on the inmate that might have beencreated while he was in custody.

Deputies supervising inmates in the housing unitscan look at a display of inmate names and mugshots that follows the layout of the housing units, tohelp them make sure that each inmate is in theright cell. When inmates are fingerprinted, using thecounty’s LiveScan/AFIS system, the scannedfingerprints are stored in the E*Justice system (thisinformation was kept in an entirely separate data-base previously).

A new enhancement to the system is portablefingerprint readers. The county has purchased sixportable fingerprint readers, and the software is infinal development. All fingerprints of current in-mates (who number approximately 2,200) will bedownloaded each day into the readers. When anymovement is made or medication given, afingerprint check will be made on the portablereaders, which will verify the identity of the inmate.There will be readers at the releasing window, courtsecurity, medical, and other critical places in thejail, and additional units will be added later.

The integrated justice information system mayincrease county revenues. Oklahoma County’s jail,like many other jails, houses inmates from otherjurisdictions when those agencies lack facilities orspace for detention. The county charges the con-tracting agency a boarding rate that varies withthe agency and the type of supervision required.E*Justice tracks these costs automatically and gen-erates bills for the sheriff’s office to send out to theircontractors. Inmates’ commissary trust accountsare also maintained, eliminating the need for in-mates to have cash or even credit certificates intheir control.

Several of the municipalities in Oklahoma Countyhave expressed interest in plugging in to the countysystem. They could then share data across thenetwork and integrate their public safety data withthe county’s, making local government operationseven more efficient. In this way, a state-of-the-artinformation system becomes accessible to smallgovernments that would never have considered itbecause of budgetary restrictions.

Sheriff Whetsel summed up the most importantfactor in implementing an integrated system acrossmultiple entities: “Support for the project has to beat the top. Once the top administrators are com-mitted to the project, everyone else will find a wayto make it happen.”


CHOOSING TECHNOLOGY

When the time comes to choose technology, you candevote yourself to the study of technology in the areaof your intended application, or you can hire a con-sultant to advise you in your acquisition and pur-chase. Other local governments that have madesimilar purchase decisions can provide informationabout consultants.

You should also ask your contacts in other localgovernments how they solved problems similar toyours. Most reputable vendors encourage you to dis-cuss their product with past and current customers.Several major vendors post lists of their customerson their Web site.

When a new information system must interfacewith existing information systems, the product’strack record is critical, and most public safety sys-tems are in this category. Every state has a statewidedatabase of criminal justice information that containsinformation on fugitives, criminal histories, firearmsregistrations, license and permit information, andother data necessary to day-to-day law enforcement.

You must see the system that you arepurchasing operating in a real-worldenvironment.

In addition to these databases (and often inte-grated with them), states maintain data on motorvehicle registrations and drivers license records,which are also critical to law enforcement operations.These state systems are constructed or configured ina variety of ways. One state lists all citizens who holdpermits to carry concealed firearms in a central da-tabase; another maintains these records only in thecourthouses of the county that issued the permit.Some states allow a search of the database to see whatmotor vehicles are registered to a particular person;others allow a search only by license plate or vehicleidentification number. The format of each report orresult is different. Although all these systems handlesimilar data, they are not configured with consis-tency.

Whatever method you choose to select a vendor,you must see the system that you are purchasingoperating in a real-world environment, in a settingas close as possible to the one in which you will useit. Systems developers often use their early custom-ers’ sites as test beds for new technology, and de-vote first payments to further research anddevelopment. You need to know if the system youare buying is tangible and working, or whether itexists only on the vendor’s drawing board.

Budgetary Considerations

New technology is always expensive, because devel-opers have to recoup the costs of their research and

development. The newer the technology, the moreexpensive it is. And, when a new system is intro-duced, the old system often has to be scrapped.You’re lucky if the old system is a box of file cards ora legal pad attached to a clipboard. More often, theold system is one that cost a great deal of moneywhen it was purchased, and at least one member ofthe city or county commission will remember justhow much the old system cost.

You must also consider the speed with whichtechnology changes, in budgeting for a major newsystem. Just as home computers become outdated insix months, so do cellular phones, radios, and soft-ware used in the public safety arena.

In addition, if the environment where the tech-nology is going to be used is likely to changesignificantly, then it may be necessary to upgrade orincrease the capacity of the system when needschange. For instance, if the size of your public safetyforce increases, you may have to add capacity to yourtrunked radio system or revamp the system. Long-term planning and realistic projections of growth areimportant in making a technology purchase.

Systems Integrators

A systems integrator selects components from sev-eral vendors and merges the components to producea complete system. The systems integrator may in-clude some of its own products in the final system,or it may not. For instance, when a county contractswith the XYZ Corporation for a countywide crimi-nal justice information system, XYZ may select awireless component for communication with unitsin the field from one vendor, fingerprint scannersfrom one hardware supplier, terminals and computerprocessors from another supplier, and software fromone or more software vendors. The finished system,with components from many vendors, carries thename of the XYZ Corporation on the faceplate. Moreimportant, the county’s check is written to the XYZCorporation.

Ideally, the systems integrator chooses the bestquality components from the best providers andmakes all of the components talk to each other. Ulti-mately, the systems integrator can be held respon-sible for the entire delivered product, relieving thecustomer from the unpleasant job of negotiating fixeswith each of the subcontractors.

If your project requires special expertise, thencontracting with a systems integrator may be a wisechoice. Just remember that a good systems integra-tor will charge a premium fee for doing these inter-mediary tasks.

Personnel Issues

Your employees have to learn to use the new tech-nology effectively if it is to be effective. Most lineemployees will support the acquisition of technol


ogy, because there is a general perception that tech-nology makes work easier and improves the statusof the job. Introducing technology into the workplacecan also be an acknowledgment by management thata job is difficult, and that the employee can benefitfrom some additional help.

Unfortunately, some employees feel threatenedby technology. An employee who sees the introduc-tion of new technology as shifting power, status, orauthority away from himself is likely to resist or sub-vert the project. For example, a new informationmanagement system can make the department lessdependent on the person who has been the primarykeeper of records and cause a perceived loss of sta-tus. Other employees may fear that they will not beable to master the new system, or that someone willhave a better command of the new technology thanthey have of the old.

To win the support of your work force, it is es-sential to involve the employees who will use thenew system and be affected by it, from the inceptionof the project. An advisory committee that has nodefinitive input into the planning and implementa-tion of the project is not enough. Line employeesneed to participate in every stage of the project witha voice equal to that of the most senior person in theprocess. The people who will use the system prob-ably know a lot more about the task than their man-agers. Even managers who come “up through theranks” tend to lose touch with the everyday demandsof the job. Line employees working at the job wherethe new system will be implemented will be the bestqualified to advise on parameters and requirementsfor the system when the request for proposals is be-ing created.

Some local governments identify an employeewith some computer expertise and assign him or herto use existing software and equipment to create alow-cost, homegrown database or other application.This is almost always a bad idea. People who are notprofessional software developers usually don’t docu-ment their work properly. They are then the onlypeople who can modify the code or repair a prob-lem, and they are the only ones who can modify thesystem to meet additional needs. The format of thedatabase may be non-standard, so that the existingdata will not export smoothly when a succeedingsystem is brought on line. Finally, the localgovernment’s information is in the hands of a singleindividual. Contented employees don’t always re-main contented, and people can commit rash actswhen they are angry, wiping out or altering recordson a whim. Don’t allow one person to hold all of yourinformation hostage.

On the positive side, employees who are in-volved in the planning, selection, and implementa-tion of a technology application will be the bestpossible cheerleaders for the new system. They willinform people about the capabilities and limitationsof the system, and they are probably the best choices

for peer “gurus” or trainers for other employees whowill need to learn to use the system.

Some employees are more technically orientedthan others. These employees usually identify them-selves by their hobbies, lifestyles, or backgrounds.The public manager can draw on these employeesto advise on technology acquisitions and to assist inintroducing other employees to the new systems. Theemployees best qualified for this kind of assignmentmay not be ideal employees from the conventionalpoint of view. People with strong technical skillssometimes relate better to machines than they do topeople and might not be as outgoing as some oth-ers, but bringing their interests and skills to bear onthe problem of acquiring new technology may be oneof the best ways to get them more involved (and ac-cepted) in the mainstream of the organization.

Technology changes the workplace in ways thatwe often fail to anticipate. At the start of the 1990s,no one would have understood the significance of aline of text at the bottom of an advertisement thatstarted out “www…” Electronic communicationdraws us closer together in many ways, but it alsoisolates us, since some employees now use e-mail tocommunicate with colleagues they would previouslytalk to at lunch. Be aware that new technologies willalso affect the way that your employees view theirjobs, and the way they view each other. Choose yourtools carefully.

AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGIES ANDWHAT THEY DO

Trunked Radio Systems

Public safety agencies are prolific users of the avail-able radio spectrum, and the demand for bandwidthhas increased substantially in the last 20 years. Ra-dio channels are used to transmit clear and encrypted

Federal funding

The federal government can provide substantialassistance in the form of grants for technologypurchases for public safety. At this writing, commu-nity responses to acts of terrorism, cooperationbetween local government agencies and federalentities, and domestic violence are “hot topics.”The Department of Justice’s National Law Enforce-ment and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC), has both a mailing list and a Web sitethat posts announcements of grant opportunitiesand hardware that can be transferred from federalto state ownership. Contact the Office of Scienceand Technology, National Institute of Justice, 8107th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20531; 202/307-0645; http://www.nlectc.org.


voice messages, digital data, pager messages, cellu-lar telephone traffic, and every other type of infor-mation conceivable. The frequency bands reservedfor these communications are increasingly crowded,and licenses for new channels are extremely difficultto obtain.

One way to alleviate crowding on the radio spec-trum is to use trunked radio systems. A trunked ra-dio system is a computer-controlled network thatuses a range of channels reserved for the entire sys-tem. When a user presses the transmit button, theradio sends a signal to the base station that tells thesystem that this particular user wants to talk. Thesystem then searches for an available clear channeland routes the transmission to that channel. At thesame time, it sends a signal back to the user’s radio,which beeps to indicate that a channel has been lo-cated and is ready for the transmission. This entireprocess, in a well-designed system, takes place soquickly that it is nearly transparent to the user. Whenthe user pushes his transmit button, the radio beeps,and the user can begin to talk.

Most of these trunked systems operate in the 800MHz radio band, which is a fairly high frequency.The bands for public safety communications are VeryHigh Frequency–Low Band (VHF-Lo), Very HighFrequency–High Band (VHF-Hi), and Ultra HighFrequency (UHF). The 800 MHz frequencies liewithin the UHF band, which is more suitable forcommunication in urban environments than in ruralareas.

Trunked radio systems have a number of advan-tages. The biggest advantage is that a relatively smallnumber of channels can serve a large number of us-ers. In a typical non-trunked system, a different chan-nel is required for each operational unit or sub-unit.The law enforcement agency might need one or morechannels for patrol operations, plus an auxiliarychannel for running records checks and other lesscritical traffic, plus separate channels for specializedunits and covert operations. The fire department re-quires one or more operations channels, and EMSneeds their own, as well. Some of these channelsmight be silent much of the time (unless the fire de-partment or EMS is constantly running calls), butthey have to be kept in reserve because they couldbe needed at any moment. In a trunked system, it isonly the number of simultaneous transmissions thatis critical (the system can’t carry more simultaneousconversations than it has channels).

Another advantage of a trunked system is thatthe system administrator can create an unlimitednumber of “talk groups.” A “talk group” is theequivalent of a unit that would otherwise be givenits own channel to use. When a user is assigned to a“talk group,” he hears transmissions from othermembers of the talk group, and they can hear him,but he does not hear transmission from other talkgroups. Users can change talk groups by switchinga selector on their radio, similar to changing the

channel on a conventional radio. The talk groups arecreated at the base station (although some users maybe able to do this remotely from the field).

Each radio is identified by a digital code that issent each time the transmit key is pressed. This digi-tal code makes it possible to “lock out” a radio fromthe system if the radio is stolen or misplaced. Thesystem administrator can tell the system to stop rec-ognizing that radio’s digital code, and the radio be-comes incapable of sending or receiving traffic onthat network. The radio can be re-enrolled in the sys-tem if it is later recovered.

Another advantage of the digital coding is thatthe source of every transmission is identified as soonas the transmit key is pressed. This can be importantfor a police officer or firefighter who is able to keyhis radio but unable to speak for some reason (suchas being disabled or under duress). The identificationof the transmitter is displayed on the dispatcher’smonitor as the identifier sequence is received (if thecommunications center has this capability). From amanagement perspective, transmitter identificationhas the advantage of discouraging users from trans-mitting unauthorized traffic.

Some radio systems (not just those that aretrunked) can be encrypted selectively. Certain trans-mitters can be set to digitally encrypt transmissions,which are decrypted when they arrive at an autho-rized receiver with the proper decryption keys. Lis-teners without the decryption keys hear only noisewhen they try to listen in. Encryption is useful forcertain high-security operations, such as hostage cri-ses and search warrant executions. With some sys-tems, encryption decreases the range and clarity oftransmission, so it is important to check with the ra-dio manufacturer to see whether encryption will ad-versely impact the efficiency of your radio system.

Trunked radio systems can actually produce rev-enue. If the purchaser buys more channel capacitythan is needed for its operations, then the owner cansell the surplus capacity to anyone in the operationalzone. Thus, a county that purchases a trunked radiosystem with excess capacity can sell the extra capac-ity to local public works, public utilities, tow truckcompanies, ambulance services, or any other mobileradio user. The county maintains the network for itsown operations, and the only extra cost is for the ra-dios themselves, which would presumably be paidfor by the users. Renegotiating the sale of extra ca-pacity yearly allows the local government to re-as-sess its radio needs periodically to determine howmuch extra capacity it can sell. Sharing capacity inthis way also allows the local government to com-municate directly with other agencies in the eventof a local emergency, by adding them to one or morepublic safety talk groups.

In trunked radio systems, the central stationhousing the computer that controls the system be-comes a nerve center for all users. If this unit is de-stroyed, disabled, deprived of power, or otherwise


compromised, the system becomes all but useless.Conventional radio systems can still (under some cir-cumstances) communicate with one another to thelimit of the range of their portable transmitters, buttrunked systems are dependent on the network. It isvital that the facility that houses this resource be tar-get-hardened, and provided with its own power sup-ply, in case it should come under attack or bedeprived of normal utility support.

Global Positioning Satellite Systems

Global positioning satellite (GPS) technology allowsthe user to establish, to a very high degree of accu-racy, his or her location in three dimensions any-where on or above the surface of the earth. GPSsystems were extremely costly a few years ago, whenthe technology was new and development costs werebeing reclaimed. The newest GPS systems are not

only far cheaper, but they are also smaller—a GPSreceiver can be built into a wristwatch. These sys-tems have a number of applications in public safetybut they have some drawbacks as well—most ofthem based on the human factor.

The federal government has placed into orbit aconstellation of 24 global positioning satellites. Their11,000 mile-high orbits are coordinated so that atleast five are visible from any point on the planet atany time. A GPS receiver needs to be able to “see”only four satellites to establish an accurate location.GPS works marginally, if at all, when there is no clearview of the sky above the receiver. Thus, GPS receiv-ers do not work indoors, or where there is anythingoverhead more substantial than clouds.

GPS satellites are essentially highly accurateatomic clocks, mated with radio transmitters. Eachsatellite continuously broadcasts a unique digital sig-nal to the earth’s surface. The GPS receiver calculates

A countywide communications system

Washington County is one of three Oregon coun-ties making up the Greater Portland Metropolitanarea. The county seat, Hillsboro, is approximately20 miles west of downtown Portland. The countycovers 727 square miles, with a population of404,750.

The Washington County Consolidated Communi-cations Agency (WCCCA) provides all publicsafety communications for Washington County,Oregon. WCCCA serves 18 jurisdictions for 911 anddispatch services; 19 jurisdictions for computer-aided dispatch (CAD); and 25 departments orjurisdictions for 800 MHz radio or data services.Each city and fire district and the county are par-ties to an intergovernmental agreement for theentire county.

In 1991, WCCCA issued an RFP for an 800 MHztrunked simulcast communications system. Theobjective was to create interoperability throughoutthe county, regardless of jurisdiction or function. A$16.3 million levy approved by county voters paidfor the new system, which was purchased fromMotorola.

The operating costs of the system that was builtare shared on a per device basis, and the perdevice cost drops as more devices are added.Therefore, WCCCA has welcomed opportunities toadd users to the communications systems beyondtraditional public safety agencies. For example,over the past four years, three separate publicworks departments were added to the system, aswell as a sewer agency, the county’s juvenile de-partment, and a school district. As a result, the per-device cost has dropped from $183 to $112.

Adding non-public safety users has been a goodidea for several reasons. First, most of their activityhappens outside heavy dispatch peak times. Forexample, when the weather is bad, schools close.Second, having more eyes and ears connected to

the county’s public safety communications systemis invaluable in times of crisis. If the sewer employ-ees drive past an intersection on their way to checka plant and see that it is flooded, they can notifypublic safety or public works.

Another opportunity to reinforce the financialsecurity of the system arose when neighboringClackamas County began exploring ways of ob-taining access to public safety data. ClackamasCounty had a technology grant but could notafford to install a communications backbone. In-stead, in 1996 it installed WCCCA mobile dataterminals in its police vehicles and built twomountaintop sites to provide microwave links to theWCCCA system. In 1999, a 10-year contract wassigned by Clackamas County and the WCCCA tocontinue this successful business arrangement.

WCCCA is now investigating a partnership with asecond county, and is implementing an upgrade tosupport this expansion. The new system, calledSmartZone, adds digital capabilities and allows forcommunication between antennae at greaterdistances from one another.

WCCCA believes good business decisions arethose that enhance the systems you have andincrease interoperability among governmentalagencies. Equally important is the ability to lowercosts by sharing those costs among many users.While WCCCA has recognized the significant sav-ings technology can provide in lieu of personnelcosts, it has become increasingly clear that workingacross boundary lines for the sake of efficiency andcost effectiveness is another very good idea foreveryone.

For information about this countywide system,visit http://www.teleport.com/~wccca or contactRoxAnn Brown, director, WCCCA, 503/690-4911,ext. 206; [email protected].


Questionnaire for evaluating public safety radio communications

It is very likely that many public safety agencies in your region are contemplating replacement of their radio com-munications systems. The following questionnaire is intended to help elected and appointed officials and policymakers understand the current condition of public safety wireless communications and interoperability within theirjurisdiction, region, or state. These questions may also be useful in evaluating public safety communications sys-tems funding and development proposals.

The number of major public safety incidents within the last year that required state and local public safety agen-cies to work together is ______.

The number of regional public safety employees has increased by _______ percent in the past five years.

The mission of public safety agencies in the region has changed in the following ways during the past five years:

The number of separate public safety wireless communications systems currently operating in the region is: (listindividual agencies)

The public safety radio systems operating in the region are _____ years old.

The following mission-critical requirements are not currently met by the existing systems:

• coverage• channel capacity• interoperability with state agencies• interoperability with local agencies• interoperability with federal agencies• data communications capabilities.

The following agencies are planning to upgrade or replace their systems in the next five years: (list individualagencies)

The replacement of these systems individually will cost approximately ______ million.

The amount of additional spectrum needed to support current and future public safety communications needsis _______________.

There (is/is not) _______ a person or office in the regional administration dedicated to public safety communica-tions issues.

My jurisdiction, region, or state has established the following criteria to evaluate proposed radio system replace-ments: (list)

There (is/is not) _________ a funding source available or one that can be targeted for public safety wireless com-munications.

The region has explored the following federal initiatives supporting public safety communications for support andpotential fiscal resources: (list)

Partnerships with the following local, regional, or state agencies have been explored for shared systems develop-ment: (list)

Source: Public Safety Wireless Network, “Public Safety Wireless Communications Systems—A Priority Investment forAmerica’s Future Safety,” Program Information Brief, 1999.


its distance from each individual satellite and com-pares distances from different satellites against analmanac programmed into it that tells it where eachsatellite will be at any time. The receiver can estab-lish its own location with an accuracy of a fewmeters. (An excellent online tutorial describing GPStechnology is available at http://www.trimble.com/gps/index.htm.) In fact, advanced techniques allowa location to be established to within a few centime-ters, but this kind of accuracy is usually unnecessaryfor public safety applications.

The most common use of GPS in public safety isto locate mobile assets from a central control station.A typical display map of a city’s police, fire, and EMSresources defines areas of responsibility (zones, sec-tors, commands, precincts, etc.), and possibly thelocation of a station or substation in each area, but itdoesn’t tell the viewer where the mobile units as-signed to those areas actually are. A unit may be atthe station, away from the station on a call, or in an-other area for backup. Officers may report their lo-cation inaccurately or ambiguously, or not at all.When a quick response is required, or when a unitrequests assistance without giving a location, a GPSsystem can be very useful.

A GPS system can also be useful in plotting mapsof incident locations over time. The tools that areused for this kind of analysis are collectively calleda geographic information system or GIS. GPS is usu-ally, though not always, mated with GIS to producethe data, which can be used for everything from pa-trol officer deployment to the siting of utility stations.A number of firms produce mapping software keyedto GPS-generated coordinates, but these maps sel-dom reflect the actual geography of the area. A largebuilding or complex, such as a hospital or highschool, will probably show on the map as a smalldot or single point, even though the facility coversmany acres. Most of these software maps allow forthe “drawing” of features on the map, but this canbe a costly and time-consuming task.

To build an accurate local map, local jurisdic-tions can contract for a “flyover” of the city or countyto create detailed aerial photographs. The photos areused to plot all structures and significant terrain fea-tures onto a map overlay, synchronized with latitudeand longitude data. It is even possible to embed intothese maps floor plans of buildings, so that fairlyprecise interior locations can be established on themap display. Tactical police and fire commandersfind this kind of information extremely useful forplanning and for incident management, but this levelof detail is costly.

A GPS can be used to track the movements of areceiver, or the vehicle on which it is mounted. Be-cause the GPS system updates the location of receiv-ers up to several times a second, direction of traveland speed can be tracked with high accuracy, andeither transmitted to a base station or stored for later

retrieval. This kind of information can be used toverify the speed of fire apparatus or a law enforce-ment vehicle en route to an incident, if needed. Itcan also track the movement of the vehicle during aduty shift, to investigate allegations of malingeringor misconduct.

It is even possible to embed into thesemaps floor plans of buildings, so thatfairly precise interior locations can beestablished on the map display.

This sort of “telltale” tracking is useful from amanagement standpoint, but public safety person-nel often resent it and go to considerable lengths tothwart the system. Law enforcement officers, in par-ticular, value the freedom to roam within their pa-trol areas and determine their own activities minuteby minute. GPS monitoring can be perceived as op-pressive and lead to conflicts with management. Inan early GPS trial, one state patrol agency mountedGPS receivers in their patrol vehicles. The receiverstransmitted the precise location of the vehicles when-ever the officer keyed the radio transmitter, or on acommand from the communications center. Officersreferred to the system as “Sergeant Hiding In Trunk”(or more commonly by the acronym that label cre-ated), and sometimes parked under freeway over-passes to block the signal from the overhead satellitesand momentarily disable the system.

The use of GPS technology has even found itsway into some employee labor contracts. In somejurisdictions, a GPS location signal can only be broad-cast from a patrol vehicle when the officer triggers itmanually, or remotely only during a verified emer-gency.

Wireless Data and Laptop Strategies

The evolution of the two-way radio has probably hada greater impact on the way that public safety per-sonnel work than any other technology. Useful asthey are, traditional two-way radios transmit mainlyvoice traffic, and the communications operator is thecritical link between the field officer and all of theresources that he or she may call on. While no wire-less data solution can replace a good communicationsoperator, two-way radios that can transmit data cangreatly augment his capacities. The wireless systemcan connect the person in the field to the relevantdatabase so that he or she can get information di-rectly, instead of waiting for it to be read by a dis-patcher. Bypassing the dispatcher makes for a moreefficient field force, and encourages greater use of theinformation systems.

Most mobile data applications are designed foruse in a car or truck, but there are now handheldpalmtop computers and two-way pagers that bring


mobile data capabilities to employees working frombicycles and motorcycles, on horseback, and even onfoot.

When police, fire, or EMS personnel have anefficient mobile data system, information is sent tothem as text, in the same form that the dispatchersees. Frequently, emergency calls are still dispatchedby voice, so that all units on the network are awareof the incident, but the same information is availableon a mobile terminal in front of the field workers.Depending on the sophistication of the system, fieldworkers may be able to bring up diagrams or mapsof the area to which they are responding, researchthe system for previous calls to that area or address,and gather intelligence on the incident as they re-spond.

Law enforcement units make more use of thesesystems than do other public safety components,because they usually handle more and a greater va-riety of incidents than do fire and EMS personnel. Inagencies where mobile data systems have been in-troduced, there is an almost universal trend: the rateof recovery of stolen cars increases, as does the num-bers of arrests for outstanding warrants. Whenofficers can make these inquiries quickly and easily,they make more of them.

Field workers may be able to bring updiagrams or maps of the area . . . andgather intelligence on the incident asthey respond.

There is also a common downside to installationof MDTs in vehicles, particularly in police vehicles:accidents involving patrol cars tend to increase. Ev-ery MDT manufacturer and local government agencythat uses MDTs has a policy that warns the operatorof the vehicle not to use the MDT while the vehicleis in motion. Unfortunately, when officers know theyhave information at their fingertips, they want to useit as much as possible, and they don’t want to pullto the side of the road to do it.

A voice interface option for the MDT may reducethis problem, if not eliminate it. One vendor nowoffers a voice recognition interface that allows amobile operator to make inquiries and receive repliesto those inquires without taking his or her eyes fromthe road. The voice interface system works with mostof the wireless data equipment marketed to publicsafety.

Mobile data terminals. There are two types of MDTsmounted in vehicles:

• “Dumb terminals,” capable of interacting withthe wireless network, sending and receivingmessages, and performing common dispatchfunctions

• Laptop computers that incorporate all the capa-

bilities of the “dumb terminal,” but add theflexibility of a computer to run word processing,database, mapping, and other software.

When laptops were a lot bigger, more expensive,and fragile, the “dumb terminal” solution was by farthe most popular. However, now that laptop com-puters have evolved and decreased in price, far moreagencies use laptops, or some other configuration ofa full-fledged computer, as the hardware platformfor a wireless data system.

Some companies have developed fully capable“laptop” computers especially for use in mobile en-vironments. The word “laptop” is in quotes here be-cause these machines would be very difficult to useon one’s lap. The display, keyboard/input device,and central processing units (CPU) are all mountedseparately. These hardware designs are more expen-sive than an off-the-shelf laptop, and generally theycan’t be taken out of the car for use elsewhere. How-ever, they give more flexibility with regard to mount-ing in the car, and they tend to be more durable.

The mounting of equipment in emergency ve-hicles has become an important issue as passengercompartments have gotten smaller, and equipmenthas to be kept clear of the deployment zone of thecar’s air bags. Radios, siren and emergency light con-trol panels, radar units, mobile video recorders, mo-bile data terminals, and rifle/shotgun racks allcompete for space with the driver and passenger.

Laptop displays aren’t generally intended to beused in mobile environments, and it shows. In thedaytime, they are often too dim to be read clearly indirect sunlight, and at night, their glare may impairthe driver’s night vision. The screen brightness ofsome modular displays, like those described above,is adjustable over a wide range, so that they can beread during the day or at night without strain.

Many of these displays are also touchscreen-sen-sitive, so that the operator can click buttons and makeshort text entries without using a keyboard. This isoften useful for pre-programmed functions, such asadvising of arrival at an incident, signaling a trafficstop, or calling for help in an emergency. When theoperator needs to make a more complex text entry,he can use a conventional keyboard, which might bestowed beneath other equipment on the floor, or insome other less obtrusive location.

Laptops are most often damaged whenthey are taken out of the car.

When buying conventional laptop computers foruse as mobile data hardware, a public safety agencygenerally has two choices. The agency can buy laptopcomputers of normal durability, and purchase extra,to be used as replacement units when the primaryunits are damaged or lost; or it can buy “ruggedized”laptops, which are more durable and will not needreplacement as often. The second choice usually in


cludes some wishful thinking. Even though someruggedized laptops can withstand being run over bya large truck, they will still break down, sooner orlater, and will have to be replaced.

Ruggedized laptops are heavily cushionedagainst shock, sealed against water and dust at ev-ery possible entry point, and insulated to be able tooperate in temperature extremes. Some of them willcontinue to function while immersed in water. Theyare generally heavier than standard models, slightlybulkier, and cost approximately 50 percent more thana non-ruggedized computer of comparable specifi-cations.

Experience has shown that laptops are most of-ten damaged when they are taken out of the car. Forexample, agencies that issue laptop computers toemployees at the beginning of each duty shift, in-tending that the employee should mount the laptopin the vehicle and then return it at the end of the day,find that the machines get left on the hoods of cars,fall off their mounts, and suffer other, similar abuse.Even when the laptop is in the car, it is subject toGagne’s First Law (named for Alec Gagne, a Mor-gan Hill, California, police officer): Any horizontalsurface in an emergency vehicle, no matter howcostly or delicate, will be used as a coffee cup holder.

Whatever strategy you choose, make sure thatyou have enough replacement units on the shelf toissue when primary units go down, as they inevita-bly will. To make the laptops last as long as possible,minimize the number of times that they are removedfrom their car mounts, through a combination of wiseequipment purchasing, good training, and judiciouspolicy formation and implementation.

Network infrastructure. A wireless data system re-quires a fairly complex network infrastructure. Aserver capable of interfacing with the local computer-assisted dispatch (CAD) system and with the wire-less “backbone” has to be in place, and the softwareon board the mobile units has to be compatible withthat server and with the databases that it will be ac-cessing.

There is also an issue with how the data will betransmitted. For many years, in order to have a wire-less data network, the user also needed to have ac-cess to one or more dedicated radio channels to carrythe data. As discussed previously, these radio chan-nels are increasingly difficult to obtain, as bandwidthbecomes more precious. Further, many local govern-ments provide services to areas where there is littleor no radio coverage.

Fortunately, cellular telephone networks can beused for public safety data communications, and pro-vide good security and relatively low cost. Evenwhere a public safety radio network has dead areas,cellular phone users can still communicate in all butthe most remote areas. The explosion of the cellulartelephone industry has provided the necessary capi-tal to erect cellular towers sufficient to ensure that

cellular customers are very seldom out of touch.The technology that makes cellular telecommu-

nication possible is called CDPD–cellular digitalpacket data. With CDPD, data are moved throughthe network in a way very similar to the way thatelectronic mail and other data are moved through theInternet. CDPD uses a similar scheme, but insteadof transmitting information over a hardwired net-work, the packets are converted into digital form andthen sent over the cellular bands (radio channelsdesignated for cellular traffic by the Federal Com-munications Commission). Depending on the systemin use, they can be sent over cellular channels not inuse at that moment, or interspersed with other regu-lar cellular traffic. As long as the user is within rangeof a cellular relay tower, the message has a high like-lihood of getting through intact. Approximately 85percent of the geographic area of the United States,and 99 percent of the population, has cellular cover-age.2

The advent of CDPD places the capability of awireless network within the reach of most local gov-ernments, regardless of size. Before CDPD, an orga-nization that wanted wireless data communicationshad to have the capital to build its own wireless in-frastructure, with relay stations, repeaters, and re-served radio channels, all of which was prohibitivelyexpensive for all but the largest local governments.CDPD eliminates the cost of having to build that in-frastructure, as it is already in place. A public safetyagency can also create a hybrid network, sendingdata over a cellular network where that network isavailable, and over a conventional radio channelwhere it is not.

CDPD places the capability of awireless network within the reach ofmost local governments.

One vendor is offering a turnkey MDT systemthat is based entirely on CDPD. For approximately$300 per month per terminal, the vendor providesall of the hardware, software, and support necessaryto establish wireless data capabilities. This mightseem to be a steep cost, but when one considers thecost of purchasing, configuring, and maintainingservers, software, data connections, and the otherinfrastructure associated with this project, $300 permonth can be a real bargain.

Gauging effectiveness. To measure the potentialeffectiveness of a wireless data system, a task analy-sis may be necessary. How much time is spent atheadquarters, completing tasks that could be accom-plished in the field with a wireless system? Howmany inquiries of databases are not made becausethe police officer in the field doesn’t want to take upvaluable airtime, or can’t get on the air because ofother traffic? Will the information supplied by a wire


less system allow your employees to complete all oftheir administrative tasks in the field? If there is evenone item of information that can’t be obtained in thefield, or one task that can’t be performed to completea process, then the trip to the station will have to bemade, anyway.

Organizational impact. Introduction of wireless sys-tems may require some re-education and organiza-tional change in order to make them effective. Publicsafety workers, like those in other industries, use theoffice or station as a social center, as well as a work-place. Employees return to headquarters to turn inreports and complete paperwork, and at the sametime, socialize, catch up on internal goings-on, usethe restroom, and perform other tasks, work-relatedand otherwise. Even if employees can perform allwork-related tasks in the field, they will still want toreturn to the home base. Although telecommuting isa popular option among many employees, they re-port that they miss out on a lot of the informal com-munication that takes place in the office. The samething is likely to happen when wireless data systemsallow public safety tasks to be completed in the field.

Cellular Telephone Applications

Cellular telephones are now so commonplace andrelatively inexpensive that many families have onefor every member. Cellular telephone technology canbe used to augment the capacity of public safetyworkers, but only with clear policies on use.

Any public safety worker may be called to dutyat any time to respond to a local emergency. Thesmaller the community, the more likely this is to hap-pen, as the available pool of personnel from whichto draw is small in small communities. Pager sys-tems can be used for one-way communication, butsome public safety workers may also need to initiatecommunication from the field. Firefighters and EMSpersonnel often intervene in accidents and other un-planned happenings, and they may need a way tocommunicate quickly with their home base and sum-mon additional help. How likely this is to happendepends largely on the makeup of the work force andyour policies regarding off-duty responses.

Law enforcement officers are even more at riskfor off-duty encounters, because many law enforce-ment officers routinely carry their badges, identifi-cation cards, and weapons while off duty. If they electto intervene in a crime that they observe while offduty, their options, absent a reliable means of com-munication with the dispatch center, are extremelylimited. If they decide to act in a law enforcementcapacity, the fact that the firearm is one of their fewdecisive force options may cause them to escalate asituation beyond what would be required if they hadall of the tools (including access to backup officers)normally available to them while on duty.

Some law enforcement agencies issue every

officer a portable radio that he or she can carry whileoff duty. While this is certainly desirable, it is animperfect option. First, even modern portable radiosare bulky and uncomfortable to carry while in streetclothes. Second, their range is limited, and outsideof the jurisdiction where the officer works, they areuseless, being beyond the reach of a base station ontheir frequency. Finally, if the officer needs to com-municate with someone other than the base stationdispatcher or another mobile unit (for example, atranslator), messages must be relayed through thedispatcher, which is inefficient and inconvenient.

Deploying cellular phones to employees on awholesale basis can invite misuse and public criti-cism. If employees are not required to account foruse of cellular airtime, they will quickly come to re-gard it as essentially free and use it indiscriminately.The key is to arrive at a method and policy that per-mits and encourages use of cellular phones for le-gitimate business, but makes the employeepersonally accountable for all other charges associ-ated with the cell phone.

The objective is to provide theemployee in the field with as manycommunications options as possible.

Cellular airtime bills generally account for ev-ery call, providing both the duration of the call andthe number of the telephone on the other end of thecall. The cellular service provider can often custom-ize billing to meet the needs of the local governmentthat needs this level of accounting. Bills can be sup-plied in computer-readable form, and calls made andreceived can be cross-indexed with indexes of tele-phone directories. Management services will performthis kind of analysis for a nominal fee, which isquickly recovered through the elimination of unnec-essary calls made at public expense. Employees canbe required to keep a log of calls made and received,and to reimburse the city or county for any calls thatare unrelated to official business. Just knowing thattheir call activity is being continuously monitoredwill keep many employees from using the phone forpersonal or otherwise unnecessary calls.

Another option might be to allow employees toobtain cellular service at the local government rate,which is often substantially cheaper than any avail-able to a business or individual user. The employeepays the monthly service fee and for any airtime us-age that is not attributable to official business. In thealternative, the employer could pay the monthly ser-vice fee, to overcome any resistance from individualemployees who don’t want to make a personal in-vestment in cellular service. This gives the employeethe benefit of having a cellular phone to use for anypurpose and gives the employer the benefit of hav-ing employees reachable by cell phone.

Many cellular phones can be configured to make


and receive calls from only certain predesignatednumbers, including 911, or some other programmedemergency number. Some law enforcement agenciesgive programmed phones to the victims of domesticviolence and stalking. The phones can be used onlyto summon help in an emergency, and thus have alow potential for abuse.

Whatever cellular telephone strategy you electto use, remember that the objective is to provide theemployee in the field with as many communicationsoptions as possible, so that they are not committedto a single, undesirable course of action in an emer-gency.

Digital Record-Keeping Systems

Most of the records that local governments create arestill on paper. Managing all of that paper is an ex-pensive and perilous process. Digital imaging sys-tems allow paper records to be archived with built-inredundancy in the form of backup copies, and canprovide almost instant access to any record via aproperly networked system. Scanned copies of pa-per records can be interleaved and integrated withrecords that start out in digital form, such as dispatchlogs, voice recordings, and digital images.

Most of these records are stored on digital me-dia, such as CD-ROMs, which hold about 650 MB ofdata per disk. Not long ago, machines to create CD-ROMs from blank disks cost $10,000 or more. Today,they can be had for less than $200, and the blankdisks cost about a dollar a piece in bulk. Users canarchive their data inexpensively to a medium that isvery easy to access and make cheap redundant cop-ies for remote storage, to ensure that no single di-saster or theft can destroy the data. Because the shelflife of recordable CD-ROMs is relatively short (per-haps only ten years), a public agency must put inplace a long-term plan for upgrade and maintenanceif it chooses this medium for permanent storage.

At this writing, the equipment to create the muchhigher density DVD disks is still expensive, butprices for this equipment are likely to fall within afew years. This will allow storage of as much as 24times as much data on a single disk as is allowed byCD-ROM technology.

CD-ROMs are typically stored in a “jukebox”that allows disks to be shuffled in and out of a CD-ROM drive as needed. The number of disks that canbe accessed at one time is determined by the num-ber of active drives, and the storage capacity of thejukebox varies with the model. These systems arefairly large investments initially, but they can save agreat deal of money in the long run, supplanting theneed to store paper records, magnetic tapes, andother records, while at the same time ensuring thatthe information will remain available. Magnetic stor-age media, such as floppy disks, hard drives, andrecording tapes, can be erased with a strong mag-netic field or electronic pulse, and are thus fairly frag-

ile. Plastic CD-ROMs are not affected by magneticfields, and remain readable unless severely defacedor broken into pieces. It would be difficult to acci-dentally destroy an archive on a CD-ROM disk.

The transition from a paper to a digital archivingsystem is expensive. Each paper document must bescanned into digital form. Companies such as Xeroxand Bell and Howell sell equipment and services toexpedite this process, and service companies willcontract to scan documents. Only after the archivingprocess has been checked for completeness shouldthe original records be destroyed.

Intelligence Analysis and Expert SystemSoftware

Law enforcement investigators often have too muchrather than too little information, and must managethe information and make sense of it. For example,leads are often generated by a pen register, a device(more commonly now, a software program) thatrecords the numbers dialed from a telephone wherethe register is installed. Digital switches and otherinnovations of the telephone industry have made itpossible to capture the numbers of callers to that tele-phone, as well.

The investigator using this information is con-fronted with long lists of telephone numbers, withtime and duration of calls, and possibly gets thenames of the persons or companies who subscribeto those phone numbers. With this information, theinvestigator can find out who is in communicationwith the suspect, and what relationship the suspectmight have with each person or entity. In many cases,the majority of the calls are either legitimate or in-consequential and have no impact on the investiga-tion. Of course, the trick is to figure out which callsare important to the investigation.

Data mining involves searching hugerepositories of information for recordsrelevant to an investigation.

Narcotics, fraud, and vice investigations mostoften need to track calls, and they also tend to in-volve large numbers of people, both suspects andvictims. The classic analysis technique for this typeof data is the link chart. Each person, place, call, and/or event is written on a card, and the card is postedon a bulletin board. Lines are drawn between card(s)that involve the same communication or transaction.The center of the activity is usually found where thelines begin to converge.

As the number of people, calls, meetings, andtransactions increases, a bulletin board is inadequate.However, intelligence analysis software can easilykeep track of all of the relationships in an investiga-tion of this type, and display them in any number ofways. By accessing other databases and comparing


the information contained in them against that in theintelligence database, the investigator can associatepersons with businesses, vehicles, telephone num-bers, bank accounts, real estate and other items thatmay be fruits of a crime, or leads to other elementsin the enterprise.

A data mining utility or service is often usedwith intelligence analysis software. Lexis-Nexis andDBT Online are the two largest providers of this ser-vice to law enforcement. In this context, data min-ing involves searching huge repositories ofinformation for records relevant to an investigation.

Law enforcement databases can be searched, as wellas records maintained by the private sector, orrecords databases from non-law enforcement govern-mental sources. These records can include credit his-tories, records from licensure bureaus (professionallicenses, concealed weapons permits, disciplinaryrecords), tax assessor records, telephone numbers,city directories, and so on. Online searches can bedone cheaply and quickly, and they retrieve infor-mation that used to require weeks of sifting manu-ally through courthouse records to find. As with penregister records, these searches can yield an over

Sharing public safety records

In July 1998 law enforcement representatives fromseveral south-central Minnesota counties and citiesbegan a collaborative effort to share records andequipment and to control costs. Representativesfrom five counties and sixteen communities at-tended a meeting to discuss common concernsand opportunities:

• Present systems were at least 10 years old; mostdid not capture information for analysis ofcrime trends.

• Most databases were proprietary; informationcould not be easily formatted to allow sharingwith other systems.

• Modern dispatching requires fully functional,computer-assisted dispatch (CAD) systems—something no agency was using.

• The participating communities needed toimprove their ability to recover from natural orhuman-made disasters.

• Public safety officials were frustrated by theirinability to share information about personsand crimes with other agencies.

• Deputies and officers needed to be out in thecommunity and on the streets, rather than inthe office.

• Information from the very small policedepartments should be available at areasonable cost.

• Courts, corrections, and human services shouldbe able to integrate systems to allow seamlesstracking from point of contact throughsentencing and probation.

• A shared system should not preclude localcontrol of creation, modification, deletion,and/or dissemination of sensitive files.

The group discussed whether a system could bedesigned and implemented that solved all or mostof these issues while also linking together the manyagencies. Such a project would obviously presenttechnical challenges. But the real hurdles would bechanging the traditionally protective culture ofmany law enforcement agencies, and educatingelected officials about the viability and benefits ofa fully-shared records system.

As discussions progressed, the participating sher-iffs and police chiefs set aside any reservations they

held about developing a shared records systemand decided they needed a strategy that woulddevelop a “big picture.” This strategy would consistof information that could be analyzed to studycrime trends and assess the most effective re-sponses—starting at the time of roll call, crime de-tection, reporting and arrest, and concluding withsentencing and probation.

The integrated system was designed aroundenhanced computer-aided dispatching (CAD), anadvanced records management system (RMS),and a mobile digital computing (MDC) system.Other programs included in the system include jailrecords management, civil process, and photoimaging.

The city of Mankato and Blue Earth County hadrecently formed the Joint Services Bureau, a jointpowers entity, to oversee initiatives shared betweenthe two agencies. (Joint Services presently encom-passes dispatch operations, records functions, issu-ance of permits, and tobacco retailer licensing.)Mankato Deputy Director Jerry Huettl, who servesas administrator of the Joint Services Bureau, wasasked to oversee researching the many questionsassociated with a shared records system. Over thenext few months, the effort included evaluatingvendors, preparing budgets, holding meetings withelected officials, and presenting information to thevarious partners.

After a review of many possible venders, thegroup chose Computer Information Systems (CIS)for two major reasons. First, eighteen counties in thestate currently use the CIS system. Additionally, theMinnesota County Computer Cooperative (MCCC)recognized CIS as an approved vendor for this typeof records system. The system was implemented inlate December 1999. The leaders of the effort toshare public safety records management in south-central Minnesota believe that the single mostimportant element of success has been the coop-eration and buy-in of agency leaders and electedofficials.

Source: Based on an article by James Franklin and JerryHuettl titled “Sharing Records,” which appeared in theNovember 1999 issue of Minnesota Cities magazine, apublication of the League of Minnesota Cities.


whelming amount of information, but when used inconjunction with intelligence analysis software, theinformation can be managed and the relationshipsbetween subjects of interest can be made more ap-parent.

A homicide investigation can involve hundredsor thousands of interviews, each of them containinginformation about cars, people, animals, times, dates,and places. Some intelligence analysis packages can“mine” narrative reports for this information andcatalog it into the database. As a result, the chancethat a lead or relationship will go unnoticed is greatlyreduced, and a much greater percentage of cases aresolved and closed.

Expert system software uses a technique that issimilar, in that it brings to bear the skills of experi-enced investigators to analyze information. To cre-ate an expert system, the developer brings togetherpeople with substantial experience in the field andasks them to articulate the rules that they use to reachconclusions. Many experts aren’t aware that they userules, as they often work intuitively, rather than de-ductively. By asking, “How do you know this?” thedeveloper establishes the methods by which theyreason, and the assumptions they make.

The developer of an expert system incorporatesthousands of these methods and assumptions into amatrix. Improving the matrix tends to be a never-ending project, as methods and situations changeover time, and the confidence level of each assump-tion is likely to change. The best expert systems refinetheir own values, based on verification of accurateconclusions.

The investigator using an expert system fills outa questionnaire that captures relevant data from eachcase to be analyzed. Once the data are captured, theexpert system can produce a list of assumptionsabout the suspect(s), each with an assignedconfidence level. The result is essentially a profile ofthe most likely suspect(s) in this case. The result pro-vides the investigator with leads that he might notbe able to derive on his own. A system like the onedescribed here, targeted at career burglars, was in-strumental in reducing residential burglaries by 32percent over one year in Ottawa, Ontario.3

An expert system helps preserve the corporatememory in criminal investigations. The combinedknowledge and experience of the members of an or-ganization constitute its corporate memory. As in-vestigators are transferred, rotated, or promoted outof their assignments, taking with them the experi-ence that they gained in those positions, the expertsystem allows much of their expertise (and that ofother agencies) to be archived and used in the solu-tion of crimes that take place after the investigatorswho created the system are gone.

Expert systems are available for several types ofcriminal investigations, and others have been de-vised to predict police officer behavior and miscon-duct. Some systems work better than others, and each

has to be carefully evaluated before purchase, be-cause these systems tend to be very expensive. Thesoftware manufacturer has to invest thousands ofhours of research before it has a product to market,and the customer base is comparatively small. Whenexpert systems work, they can save many times theircost in losses that are avoided and manpower thatdoesn’t have to be deployed.

Both intelligence analysis and expert systemssoftware require that their users have a certainamount of expertise to use them effectively. The com-panies that make these systems always offer train-ing in the use of the software, and many sponsor auser’s group with periodic meetings. It is importantthat the people who will be using the software com-plete this training and stay current by attending theuser’s group meetings.

It is not uncommon for the chief executive or asenior manager from the agency making the pur-chase to reserve a training “seat” for him or herself,but unless the manager is going to be actually usingthe system, this is a waste of resources. More thanone user should be trained, so that at least one is al-ways available, but the manager who takes the train-ing and then does not use it regularly will notmaintain his or her skills. See that the training isgiven to the people who will make the greatest useof it.

Electronic and Voice Mail Applications

Because public safety is a 24-hour-a-day function,public safety employees’ schedules are often not inconcert with normal business hours. Employees haveto be rousted from much-needed sleep to answerquestions about operations from the previous dutytour, and meetings are difficult to arrange withoutpaying overtime and disrupting everyone’s sched-ule. Electronic and voice mail can be practical andrelatively inexpensive solutions.

Electronic mail. E-mail can be used to disseminateinformation that would normally be reserved forreal-time meetings. Face-to-face meetings have theadvantage of being more conducive to discussion,and some topics should be reserved for these, be-cause discussion can be a critical component of thecommunication for both management and labor.However, many routine communications can be sentby e-mail, saving valuable personnel time on bothsides of the management-labor fence.

Internal e-mail is a resource that has to be usedjudiciously. It is very easy to get carried away withthe ability to transmit information to every memberof your workforce at one time and saturate them withtoo much data. If the message isn’t important enoughto announce at an “all hands” meeting, it probablyshouldn’t go onto the e-mail system.

Making your e-mail system accessible from com-puters outside of the office is often convenient, be


cause employees can check e-mail from their homeswhile off duty, or from a hotel while on a vacationor business trip. However, this also opens a poten-tial point of entry to vandals or hackers/crackerswho may do damage to your network. If remote ac-cess is provided, it is critical that user names andpasswords be kept absolutely confidential andchanged frequently, and system administrators haveto be especially vigilant. Unless there is a clear needto provide remote access, it may be preferable to re-strict access to internal users only, or to forwarde-mail messages to a personal account temporarilywhen an employee is going to be away from the officefor an extended period.

If your e-mail system is configured to providesome or all employees with an e-mail account acces-sible from the Internet (e.g., [email protected]),then it is wise to put in place some well-defined poli-cies on how employees are to use this resource. Ascitizens gain access to the Internet and get used tousing e-mail as a routine and convenient form ofcommunication, they will begin sending direct ques-tions and comments to government employees, in-cluding public safety employees. Internet-basede-mail also provides a conduit for employees to net-work with their colleagues in other agencies and findnew ways to solve problems and access resources.Employees can subscribe to professionally orientedmailing lists and participate in online discussionsduring business hours. These, among other things,are the positive uses of electronic mail.

Employees can have little expectationof privacy on a computer network.

On the negative side, the Internet overflows withamusing but time-wasting features that can eat awayat employee efficiency. Joke lists, personal correspon-dence, commercial solicitations (a significant fractionof which are of a sexual or pornographic nature),hobby-oriented mailing lists, and other non-businessactivities have no place on the local government net-work. If the media discovers these activities, theyusually prove embarrassing for the employees thatuse the network. When employees use the networkfor recreational purposes, it also increases dramati-cally the likelihood that a computer virus will be in-troduced into the system, threatening all the data onthe network.

Statutory and case law is clear: employees canhave little expectation of privacy on a computer net-work, especially if the employer gives notice thatactivities conducted over the network will be moni-tored. It is important to make this policy known toall employees who use the network, and to followup by randomly inspecting network files and e-mailfolders to ensure compliance.

When relatively harmless unauthorized activity(such as personal correspondence with trivial con-tent) is found, a personal word to the employee isusually enough to halt the activity. Word of this kindof monitoring travels fast through the informal net-work, and it will quickly become clear that “bigbrother is watching.” Employees who wish to explorethe Internet for personal activities should be encour-aged to obtain their own e-mail accounts and do thison their own time. Those who can’t afford comput-ers of their own can usually find Internet access at alocal school, college, or library.

Voice mail. Voice mail systems are especially valu-able for public safety operations because employeeswork round-the-clock shifts and are frequently un-available during normal business hours. When man-agers, other employees, and citizens need to contactthese employees, they are often sleeping or pursu-ing personal activities. Electronic mail is an imper-fect solution to this problem, because e-mail requiresaccess to a computer on both ends of the communi-cation, and that is not always convenient. However,most people do have access to a telephone. Writtenphone messages are less reliable especially becauselaw enforcement employees, in particular, may be incontact with citizens who do not wish their namesto appear on a message slip where it can be read byanyone who happens to find it.

With any type of public safety switchboard, mes-sage center, or headquarters, there should always beready access to a human operator. Even though theremay be an emergency number (such as 911) desig-nated for emergencies, people frequently call non-emergency numbers with a request for immediateassistance. “Please hang up and call ____” is a highlyunsatisfactory response in this situation. One of thefirst options callers hear, if not the very first, shouldbe information on what key to push to immediatelytransfer to an emergency operator.

Most voice mail systems then allow the caller tohear the employee’s voice speaking his or her name,followed by the mailbox number. If possible, keyvoice mailbox numbers to a number associated withthe employee, such as a badge, commission, or pay-roll number, and put it on the employee’s businesscard.

Employees should be encouraged, if not re-quired, to update their greetings to reflect currentassignments, vacations, or other circumstances thatmight affect when their voice mail message will beretrieved and answered. For example,

”This is Paramedic John Smith, assigned toAnytown Fire Rescue Station Number Six dur-ing July. I will be attending in-service train-ing out of town during the second week ofJuly, and will retrieve my messages when Ireturn.”


This message alerts callers with an urgent needthat they need to direct their request elsewhere. Be-cause some employees may decide to get creativewith their outgoing messages (usually not a goodthing), supervisors should periodically monitor toensure compliance with voice mail procedures.

Some voice mail systems allow an “urgent” codeto be attached to a message. The “urgent” code hasthe effect of moving the message to the top of themessage queue when messages are replayed, and canalso cause an alert to be sent to the employee’s pageror other alerting device. It is usually best to keep thisoption available for internal use only. Citizens mayregard their request as urgent enough to disturb theemployee while he is off duty, when this decision isbetter left to an on-duty supervisor. As noted above,if the message is more urgent, the caller should bedirected to a human operator, who can either con-tact the employee personally, or refer the problem tosomeone who is on duty and able to respond to theproblem.

Employees should be able to retrieve messagesfrom any remote telephone. The retrieval access num-ber and retrieval codes should be held as confi-dential, and employees should be required to changetheir passwords frequently to avoid someone “hack-ing” the voice mail system. To ensure that employ-ees are monitoring and responding to voice mail, itmay be wise for supervisors to leave messages fromtime to time. Most systems allow authorized usersto leave a message in multiple voice mail boxes witha single call.

Voice mail is another form of asynchronous com-munication that can be very useful and user-friendly,if not misused. As with other systems, it requires thatsupervisors check for compliance with use guidelinesfrom time to time to ensure that the “face” youragency shows to the public via its voice mail systemis a professional one.

1 William Glanz, “Imaging Firm Battles Paper,” Baltimore Busi-ness Journal 16, 10 (July 10, 1998).

2 Cellular Telephone Industry Association, June 1999. 3 The Gazette, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (February 1998),

p.3.

For more information on radiocommunications interoperability

Public safety work requires effective coordination,communication, and sharing of information be-tween numerous criminal justice and public safetyagencies. However, many radio communicationssystems currently in use are technologically obso-lete and don’t have the capacity to serve theircommunity properly. In many communities, policeofficers, firefighters, and emergency medical ser-vice personnel responding to the same incidentcannot communicate with one another.

Recent high-profile public safety incidents havefocused attention on the critical role of publicsafety communications and the deficiencies ofexisting systems. But improving public safety com-munications is a complex undertaking. Local agen-cies will need funding, they will need access to theradio spectrum, they will need systems that caninteroperate with those of neighboring jurisdictionsand cooperating agencies, and they will need tobe able to protect their new systems against secu-rity threats.

To address these problems, the National Instituteof Justice (NIJ) has created a comprehensive pro-gram known as AGILE to pursue research, promotestandards for public safety communications sys-tems, evaluate systems, and provide informationand assistance to elected and appointed officialsto help promote informed decision making regard-ing issues of communications interoperability. Forinformation about the AGILE program and its freeservices, contact Mike McGee, AGILE EducationPrograms Director, 800/416-8086 [email protected].

Volume 32 / Number 1January 2000

E-43009

Information and CommunicationsTechnology for Public Safety

COMMUNICATIONS - icma.org

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