Virginia Puts Interoperability Together

Like many other states, the Old Dominion works toward communications interoperability, with an eye on improving public safety.

By former Commonwealth Interoperability Coordinator, Chris Essid

Most citizens naturally assume that firefighters, law enforcement, and EMS responders can talk to each other during a crisis; public safety professionals know this isn’t necessarily the case.

Many vendors have the technology to make this happen, but technology alone will not solve the interoperability problem. In many localities, the lack of interoperability is due to insufficient coordination between state agencies, localities within the same region, and even public safety agencies within the same locality. This problem must be addressed before viable interoperability solutions will work.

Today, Virginia has a full-time interoperability coordinator, a statewide plan for communications interoperability, and a solid governance structure. This favorable interoperability environment did not appear overnight.

Background Info

A little more than a year ago, Virginia hired its first commonwealth interoperability coordinator. This full-time position was created to focus solely on interoperability planning, the result of a recommendation from local first responders to the Secure Virginia Panel, which is appointed by the governor.

The coordinator is part of the Office of the Secretary of Public Safety, but works across all levels of government to ensure a comprehensive approach. Virginia’s experience demonstrates the importance of making the position full time and locating it at a level that enables the coordinator to work with all agencies. Being able to work across government has been essential to Virginia’s current success with interoperability planning.

Prior to hiring an interoperability coordinator, the commonwealth had partnered with Safecom, a federal program managed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to design a locally driven strategic plan for enhancing communications interoperability. Together, Virginia and Safecom created the Commonwealth of Virginia Strategic Plan for Statewide Communications Interoperability, which was supported through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Commonwealth of Virginia, Safecom, and a grant from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). Virginia was the first state in the nation to adopt the Safecom process, and today is used as a best-practices model to assist other states with their interoperability planning efforts.

A distinct feature of Virginia’s process is its locally driven approach, which Safecom advocates. Who knows the communications needs and shortfalls better than the local public safety responders who depend upon these communications in life-and-death situations?

The Statewide Interoperability Plan

To ensure Virginia’s statewide plan was developed with the input of the local public safety community, the interoperability coordinator conducted six regional focus groups along with a strategic planning session. The purpose of the regional focus group sessions was to obtain perspectives from local public safety responders throughout the commonwealth as a basis for defining the mission, vision, and initiatives at the strategic planning session. More than 39 localities and representatives from local and regional fire, law enforcement, EMS, public health, hospitals, transportation, and other disciplines participated.
Each focus group session concentrated on the following agenda:

• The current state of local, regional, and statewide communications interoperability.
• Why it is critical that public safety communications be improved.
• The ideal future situation for the commonwealth’s public safety communications systems, processes, and procedures
• Recommended strategies for identifying specific and critical initiatives/projects to incrementally move the commonwealth from its current status to the future.
• Existing obstacles and challenges to achieve the recommended strategies for the future.

After these focus groups, the commonwealth held a strategic planning session to reach consensus on the mission, vision, and key initiatives to be included in the statewide plan. Because the regional focus groups were held in both rural and urban communities with a range of geographical differences, there were some differences in perspective and opinion. Overall, however, there was more consensus than anyone anticipated; in fact, representatives from each of the six focus groups attended the strategic planning session to ensure that regional differences were considered.

The statewide plan was signed by Gov. Mark Warner on Oct. 4, 2004, and officially released a couple of weeks later at the Statewide Interoperable Communications Conference in Richmond, which was attended by more than 275 people and featured 17 different technology exhibitors.

Governance Structure

After developing the statewide plan (which can be viewed at the Web site www.interoperability.publicsafety.virginia.gov), the interoperability coordinator was charged with creating a governance structure to coordinate the implementation of interoperable communications. The coordinator could not possibly coordinate and implement all of the initiatives contained in the new statewide plan alone, and the State Interoperability Executive Committee (SIEC) was created to serve as the steering group for the coordinator.

The SIEC evaluates the guidance and recommendations developed by the larger advisory committee, which is comprised of representatives from specific state agencies, various regional planning commissions, hospitals, public health, and other groups.

The SIEC, chaired by Charlottesville Deputy Fire Chief Charles Werner, works with the coordinator and the State Interoperability Advisory Committee to serve as the governance structure. The advisory committee is comprised of specific state agencies, regional planning districts, and other specifically focused associations; everyone involved in this governance structure assists the initiative action teams to ensure the initiatives listed under each goal, illustrated above, are implemented.

The SIEC and advisory committee purposely have a strong local contingency. This influence is integral to Safecom’s locally driven approach. Why not involve the organizations and associations that represent the local public safety responders who will assist with implementing the statewide plan? Any governance structure addressing interoperability should include local participation — this certainly will be one key to Virginia’s success.

Implementation Phase

Virginia has now moved from planning to implementation. The Commonwealth Preparedness Working Group recently allocated funding for the statewide plan. This marks the first time that Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP) funds have been used to implement a statewide interoperability program. First, Virginia established a program management office to coordinate the activities needed to drive the initiatives toward implementation. Additionally, the working group gave the SIEC $1.7 million in ODP funding to support local interoperability projects within the commonwealth. This will allow the SIEC to award 20 localities interoperability grants. A primary consideration for evaluating the proposals will be how well each submission supports the statewide plan.

The initiatives are designed to ensure the compatibility of existing and future communication purchases in the face of spectrum limitations. Virginia will never have all public safety in the same frequency band; it currently has 30 regional 800 MHz trunked systems and is building the Statewide Agencies Radio System (STARS) that will be used by more than 19 agencies.
STARS, a VHF digital highband system with 800 MHz vehicle repeaters, will allow for some direct interoperability with local and regional 800 MHz systems. Additionally, STARS will provide a patch to all 132 localities throughout Virginia, allowing them to communicate with each other regardless of which frequency band they use. Virginia also has NPSPAC channels, a lowband state interdepartmental radio system (SIRS), and various regional projects that address interoperability.

A Glimpse of the Future

The primary barrier to interoperability in Virginia has not been a lack of technology or communications systems, but a lack of coordination of these efforts. Careful planning was needed to maximize existing assets and future technology purchases. While there still is much to do, Virginia is well on its way to achieving interoperable communications and improving public safety. By working together, the executive and advisory committees and the public safety community have placed Virginia on a secure path to interoperability.

Chris Essid is the former interoperability coordinator for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Contact him at chris.essid@governor.virginia.gov. Reprinted from MissionCritical Communications magazine May 2005.

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