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Interoperability for Intra-Agency Communication
 Raleigh, NC - First responders are frequently confronted with the risks that come into play when inadequate communications plague response efforts during critical incidences. On a daily basis they respond to calls that require them to exercise a precisely coordinated effort involving many agencies. Following September 11th, every agency in New York, and in the nation, began exploring new technologies and resources that would provide them with the ability to effectively respond to an incident. A priority became obtaining communications equipment that would aid first responders during mass casualty disasters and in their daily departmental operations. Communication is a vital component of coordinating an on-scene response yet, until recently the lack of technology forced agencies to rely on primitive methods to share vital information.
In New York City, the police department responds, on average, to two hostage situations a week. These situations range from a limited response to a large-scale incident involving participation from numerous specialized units. These larger scenarios require a coordinated response to effectively manage the on-scene demands. However, the department is greatly limited by their lack of ability to share real-time information. Previously, the commanding officers would crowd around a speaker located at the command post to monitor the progress of the on-scene negotiations. Radios were used to relay their individual interpretation of the negotiation to the responding officers but officers lacked the ability to listen first-hand to the perpetrator. This prevented the tactical officers from being able to determine the stability of the hostage-taker because they were not able hear voice tone and inflection. This method of relaying communications not only lacked efficiency, but it also placed officers and civilians at risk.
During a hostage response, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) simply lacked the ability to share information securely with the on-scene officers without the fear of media or civilians monitoring the transmissions. They needed a tactical communications solution that would allow the negotiations occurring on the hostage phone to be broadcasted over the response team's radios, but the NYPD did not want to create additional security risks by allowing those transmissions to be monitored and expose the negotiations.
Having been introduced to ACU technology in late 2001, the NYPD believed that the ACU-T, a smaller tactical package of the proven ACU-1000 interoperability technology, may provide them with the ability to connect the hostage phone to the ACU-T and rebroadcast the negotiation over the officers' encrypted radio. This would allow each officer to be able to listen, first hand, to the negotiations and provide them with real-time access to monitor the situation.
Recently, the NYPD decided to test the ACU-T in such an environment. A drill was staged involving a terrorist taking hostages on a ferryboat on the Hudson River during the rush-hour commute, where over 300 passengers would potentially be affected. This mock incident created a scenario that called on the expertise of various units within the NYPD including the Emergency Service Unit (ESU), Technical Assistance Response Unit (TARU), the Aviation Unit, the Harbor Unit, the Bomb Squad, and the Hostage Negotiation Team (HNT).
The rescue efforts began as each of the responding agencies arrived on the scene. The hostage negotiation team established their headquarters at the communications command post where the ACU-T had been connected to the departmental encrypted radio and the hostage phone. The negotiation team promptly established contact onboard the ferry and began negotiating. The ACU interconnect technology allowed each of the responding units to monitor the progress of the negotiations via their personal radio. The ACU-T took the negotiations audio that was being transmitted and received over the hostage phone and broadcasted it over the encrypted radio. The encrypted radio ensured that the negotiations were secure and could not be intercepted by non-law enforcement personnel.
The ACU-T provided the fielded officers with the real-time information they required for immediate response decisions, eliminating the delay incurred with relayed communication. "What was interesting was how the ACU technology not only provided interoperability with other agencies, but was also effective at an Intra-Agency capacity," commented Detective Stuart Goldstein, NYPD TARU. "Being involved in law enforcement for the past 17 years, I have learned that tactical officers in demanding situations (hostage, snipers, rescues) need to know what's going on when a third party is involved, such as a hostage taker. The ACU-T provided the tactical officers who were standing by the front door of the subject the important intelligence of what was going on in negotiations." Roman Kaluta, Manager of Public Safety Interoperability for Raytheon JPS added, "This is an excellent example of thinking 'outside of the box' to solve a critical tactical requirement encountered by law enforcement during hostage situations. By providing entry teams real-time information, this use of communications interoperability should help reduce the risk of harm to our citizens and law enforcement personnel."
Interoperability is not a new concept to public safety professionals. It has long sense plagued the coordinated response efforts between disparate agencies. However, the hostage scenario portrays an application where intra-agency communication is pivotal to mission success. The ACU technology proved to be a tool that can aid in any type of coordinated response effort, regardless if it is with a fellow officer or another member of the first responder community. The need to share real-time information is always going to be a requirement in tactical applications; now with the ACU-T, first responders have a tactical solution to meet the demands of critical incident management.
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