Yikes! Who was the rude man who loudly answered his wireless phone during Giuliani's talk, had a conversation and read back a phone number? Hopefully we'll never know.

Baumgardner told the crowd that--strangely--a snake sunning itself on a nearby rock was burned to a cinder by the plane crash. Rescuers left the coiled remains on the rock during their weeks of work.

In the photos that Baumgardner showed: a sign saying, "Today is Tuesday." He said that after a few days, workers were numb to the time of day, or even day of the week.

Souder wore a red, white and blue tie to the Super Session-- the same tie he was wearing on Sept. 11th.

Souder said he counted 53 vendors at the trade show selling some type of interoperability products.

As is customary, the APCO executive board wore tuxedos for the closing banquet.

The entire NENA board showed up on the last day to meet with the APCO executive board and attend the closing banquet. New friendships?

Bradshaw introduced so many people in the audience during the closing banquet, one member quipped, "Who's next? Al Gore?"

When Bradshaw reached her final point in her speech, she said, "...and finally..." She was interrupted by applause.

After the speeches, the attendees were scared to death by the indoor fireworks on-stage!

2002 Annual Conference
Association of
Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO)

by Gary Allen

Tears, Stories and a White Paper

During the closing banquet, incoming president Thera Bradshaw made several announcements that signalled a larger national and international profile for the association.

What APCO called Super Sessions consumed the entire afternoon, leaving just three morning slots for educational sessions. The Biggie-Sized sessions included talks from dispatchers who handled the Flight 93 crash in Pennsylvania, the crash at the Pentagon in Virginia, and the dual crashes in New York City. Both sessions were packed very early in rooms set for 800 persons, and the crowd was both attentive and generous with their applause. As with the first Super Session, the event began with a country music video related to the terrorist attacks--in this case a Toby Keith song.

In the first session, Steve Souder of Arlington County's (Virg.) comm center recounted the Pentagon incident, and Alan Baumgardner of the Somerset County (Penn.) comm center discussed the crash of Flight 93 into his rural county. The were introduced by Thera Bradshaw, who said she felt a special connection to the Pentagon incident, since she was in Washington (DC) on association business when the attack occurred. She asked to introduced the session, and had tears in her eyes when she did it. She joked that she phoned Souder to offer her help, but he declined.

Baumgardner opened with humble thanks, and seemed to wonder why anyone would want to hear him speak. He said all the help offered by other comm centers and dispatch personnel was, "overwhelming to us." He said the notes, cards and gifts were in the hundreds, and that it was good to know that others were thinking of the dispatchers in Somerset County.

That morning, dispatchers in the center were watching TV and saw the coverage of the other attacks. The weather was good and activity was low. "Not much happens on a Tuesday morning," he said. Then they started receiving phone calls about a plane crash, but everyone believed it was a small plane. The center was at full staffing, but as the calls increased, additional dispatchers and police officers in the center began fielding calls.

He profiled the county: very rural with fields and some strip coal mines, 29 volunteer fire departments, 16 EMS agencies, 21 police agencies (only 5 with full-time employees). The center has 12 full-time and five part-time dispatchers to staff a four-position center, and handles 78,000 incidents a year over 1,085 square miles. He said the area has many overflights of aircraft, and that's it's common to see several vapor trails of planes in the sky.

The initial response to the report of a plan crash was eight police units, 7 EMS and 8 fire. They also notified the FBI, Salvation Army and even, later, Motorola. Baumgardner responded himself and arrived at the scene within 15 minutes to find an unbelievable scene: the destruction didn't match what had been reported--it was relatively small, with no large debris pieces and only smoldering. He said it just didn't register to him that this was where a 757 had crashed. The plane had crashed in a very rural area, but near a dirt road leading to a mine, so there was vehicle access.

Over the next hours and days, all sorts of assistance arrived, including Fayette County's mobile command bus, a medical station for workers, a temporary morgue, a Motorola portable radio system complete with base, portables and repeater (used for the Atlanta Olympic Games), temporary cellular sites and antennas, a press compound, and a critical incident stress management team from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Back in the comm center, dispatchers were working 16-20 a day. But Baumgardner said training and dedication got them through the incident. He thanked the audience again, and also for all the support the center received. "We appreciate all your prayers and thoughts," he said.

Saw The Smoke

Souder, then manager of the Arlington County (Virg.) center, was putting in his office on, "the most incredibly beautiful day," when he was notified of the New York City incident. A hush fell across the comm center as the dispatchers watched the TV coverage--and as they thought of victims, first responders and their colleagues in other comm centers. "They could easily imagine what the dispatchers in New York City were going through," he said, and the types of telephone calls they were handling.

After the second plane crashed into the towers, Souder said it became apparent that Arlington County might also become a target. The county include Reagan National Airport, the Pentagon and the city of Alexandria. He said at that moment he heard the sound of a very low plane--"justs so unusual." He then heard an explosion and felt a rumble. "I got this chill up my spine." Through the window so the comm center Souder and other dispatchers could see smoke coming from the area of the Pentagon, just one mile away. He said they handled the incident through, "coincidence, good fortune and perhaps some humor."

He profiled the county: 27 square miles and a population of 190,000. About 15% of the county is occupied by the airport, Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon. The county fire department has 10 engines, 2 trucks and 2 rescue units, while the county police have 350 officers.

He said that ironically, a fire had been reported at a 30-story high rise building just 60 seconds before the Pentagon crash. That sent fire units from all over the county racing to the scene, and some right by the Pentagon. The high-rise fire was shortly reported as extinguished, so the on-the-road fire units were quickly diverted to the Pentagon. He said the comm center staff quickly realized the incident would outpace their county's resources, and so they immediately notified adjacent agencies to say they needed help. He credits the staff's initiative and ingenuity in helping handle the incident.

Souder said that as a result of a 1982 airliner crash into the Potomac river, the county installed an 800 MHz trunked radio system that ties all public safety agencies. He said 900 users were logged on to the system during that day.

Souder said that interoperability is as much planning, procedures and strategy as anything.

A year after the attacks, Souder said, and some of the most unsung heroes are dispatchers, who are the "first, first responders."

Incredibly, he said his agency received nearly 7,000 forms of thoughtfulness and encouragement, in the form of letters, food and items of all types. He explained two in particular: they received a quite heavy package from Palm Beach (Fla.) dispatchers, and opened it to find 50 bags of beach sand, 50 bottles of suntan lotion and 50 little tiny umbrellas. A note said, "Since you can come to Florida, Florida came to you."

Another "heavy, heavy" package arrived from dispatchers in Coos Bay (Ore.). Inside were 50 cans of tuna. He said they tried to send a personal thank-you note to every single person who sent something.

Souder said there were some challenges bringing federal agencies into the communications system. But he added that it speaks to the nature of APCO, dispatchers and commercial vendors that everything worked.

"I see lots of good coming from it," he said of the terrorist attacks. But it will take time. He said the federal government is already moving to consolidate all their now-separate interoperability efforts.

In response to a question from the audience, both Baumgardner and Souder said they had lost "a couple" of dispatchers since Sept. 11th, but none left as a result of the incidents.

Souder said they never experienced a "busy" signal on their trunked radio system, which he attributed to excellent radio discipline. He noted that the dispatchers working the incident had "pride of ownership," and were reluctant to give up their positions, even for necessary breaks. So they set up a "talker-typer" situation for the radio dispatcher, and eventually moved the "typer" into the "talker" position to allow the talker to take a break.

Souder said the comm center received a lot of food--the dispatchers should have weighed in before the incident and weighed out afterwards. He told how his assistant came into his office and said, "The White House is on the phone." He revealed that no one from the White House had ever called him before. He took the call, and spoke to the White House Chief of Protocol, who explained that state dinner had been cancelled. Could they bring the food from the dinner over to the comm center? "No more Wendy's!" said Souder.

Homeland Security

APCO used the session to introduce its Homeland Security White Paper, which is published as a 20-page, glossy page document. The Task Force that APCO formed to study the issues had several goals:

• Solicit further input from APCO members regarding perceived homeland security issues, threat and readiness.
• Build a comprehensive list of "best practices" utilizing the APCO White Paper as a springboard for discussion.
• Encourage partnerships with other organizations that share common Homeland Security goals.
• Work closely with membership and APCO Institute to identify related training needs and develop course and support material that addresses these specific goals.
• Increase awareness of Homeland Security through APCO's magazine, "Public Safety," APCO's web site, and other publications and events.

APCO pointed out they held a Homeland Security Summit last June to bring together all the stakeholders related to homeland security. The White Paper itself covered:

• radio spectrum
• interoperability
• planning
• survivability/redundancy
• security
• personnel/training

The first of the two topics seem to focus more on post-incident operations, while the others focus on pre-incident tasks. With a few exceptions, the White Paper doesn't deal with details, but rather only with upper-level considerations for each issue. The White Paper concludes, "Devising an effective approach to solving the issues in this white paper is a much greater task than APCO should attempt on its own." So the association is reaching out to other stakeholders for help.

The System Worked

The third Super Session featured speakers from the New York City police and fire departments, who outlined their operations during the World Trade Center attacks. None of the speakers was a calltaker or radio dispatcher, but rather were managers or administrators.

Nevertheless, there were many people dabbing their eyes as Insp. Charles Dowd played a video honoring the 34 NYPD officers who died in the incident. He introduced a group of 10 dispatchers who made the trip to Nashville, and they received a standing ovation.

He said the city was ironically going to celebrate handling the 250 millionth 911 call on Sept. 11th, as well as honor the dispatchers. Dowd said he came to work and first learned of the incident when he saw several command vehicle "screaming" out of the fire headquarters parking lot across from police headquarters.

He profiled the center: 1,153 police communication technicians, 128 supervisors, one police officer, one sergeant and five captains. He noted that despite the police involvement, "We don't run the place. They do." He said they usually handle 32,000 phone calls on an average day.

He said after the attacks, all administrative and training personnel were hustled onto the floor to handle incoming calls at the 105 consoles. The training consoles were reconfigured to handle calls, too. Within the first 13 minutes, they handled over 3,000 calls. By the end of the day, they had fielded 55,000 calls, about 10,000 more than the previous high volume day.

He cited the "tremendous courage" of the personnel who stepped up to handle the incident. He noted that the TV was reporting that other city government buildings were being evacuated, but the dispatchers knew they had to remain at their stations and handle the incident. The police department did assign extra personnel to protect the building, and borrowed concrete barricades from a nearby construction site to ring the building.

The 911 center was served by tandems at two switches in Manhattan and the Bronx. Shortly after the towers collapsed, Verizon notified the police department that the Manhattan switch, right across from the WTC, would shortly fail. The company then arranged to move all 911 traffic to the Bronx switch, and telephone service never stopped when the Manhattan switch failed at about 5 p.m.

Like the others centers, NYPD received thousands of letters, notes, photos and drawings, including from school children.

Dowd said that the city honored its dispatchers last April, and dispatcher Yvette Washington-Montague was individually honored as one of the "10 Remarkable Citizens of New York" by the A&E TV channel.

The more technical side of NYPD's response was then given by Capt. Kenny Weinberg and Det. Steven Ahmed, both of the Electronics Section of the Communications Division. The department has 63 voice and 32 digital radio channels formed into 35 patrol channels covering the 76 precincts. There is also a complex system of overlapping city-wide, patrol-wide and borough-wide radio channels that provide interoperability. There are 106 frequency pairs, all in the 470-480 MHz TV band.

The scope of the system is huge: each zone has eight receiver sites, main and back-up transmitters. The system is built with a 25% overlap so the failure of any zone will not put it out of range of adjacent zones. Overall, there are 146 voice transmitters and 32 mobile data base stations. There are 1,264 satellite receivers at 300 sites. There are more than 2,500 telephone lines supporting the radio system, as well as a digital microwave system.

The redundancy is also complex: the system can be remotely reconfigured if any component fails, and can be operated from any of 63 emergency control stations located at precinct stations.

Interestingly, the only piece of radio system gear at the World Trade Center was a transmitter for a city-wide interoperability channel. When that transmitter was destroyed, the nearby backup transmitter easily picked up the load.

The department has 28,000 portable radios, and had 1,800 extra they pressed into service after the attacks.

Despite the technology, Weinberg said, "It's the people" to explain why everything worked correctly. He credited 18-year veteran Ahmed with designing and configuring the system to keep working. "The best equipment put together by the best people," he said.

Almost Killed

Asst. Fire Commissioner Steve Gregory was in his office when the first reports of the terrorist attacks occurred. He immediately responded--he was probably one of the chiefs Dowd saw leaving the headquarters. Ironically, he had a 10 a.m. meeting to discuss new CAD software for the comm centers.

He profiled the FDNY comm operation: they have centers in each of the five boroughs. The department is organized into nine divisions, 49 battalions with 203 engines and 143 trucks. Altogether, they have 479 units. The comm center employs 500 persons working 12-hour tours. There is usually six dispatchers and a supervisor on-duty at the Manhattan center.

Units in the field gave the first reports of the plane crash. Gregory played audio logging tapes of radio transmissions, and they were quite dramatic. He said that multiple alarms were quickly sounded, until 225 units were operating on a single radio channel--the normal load is 90 units. The radio dispatcher working that channel--a dispatcher who just graduated from radio training, and was on his first tour of duty in that capacity. Gregory said the phone--literally--never stopped ringing.

And the calls the fire dispatchers handled were unimaginable--from wired and wireless phones, including from persons trapped within the WTC towers. Callers wanted advice and information, and asked the dispatchers to make final calls to their friends or relatives. "In many cases," Gregory said, "the dispatchers were the last voice the callers heard."

Gregory listened to one call later, and heard a caller tell the dispatcher that other people were breaking out the windows, as if to get more air. As Gregory continued listening, the caller asked the dispatcher what she should do. Gregory thought the caller was asking for routine fire safety advice. But then he realized--the woman wanted to know if she should jump from the window or not.

On the tapes Gregory played, you could hear the dispatchers relaying information about civilians trapped in the towers to firefighters. The dispatchers were desperately trying to establish some type of priorities for the rescues, but it seemed futile. A dispatcher told a caller, "Stay strong. We'll get you out as soon as we can."

The dispatchers sounded 17 alarms and sent 225 units to the incident. "Their professionalism did not surprise me," Gregory said. He called the dispatchers the "unseen, silent heroes" of the incident. Despite the horrendous situation, "They moved on to handle an indescribable situation in a humane and compassionate manner."

At the end of his talk, Gregory played a tape made by a British video crew at the base of the towers where Gregory was working. It showed Gregory coordinating units from a clipboard on the back of a car. The camera pans up suddenly to show the first tower collapsing. The camera swings away as the cameraman starts running. As the camera swings back and forth, there is one final view of the tower coming down. Then the camera apparently is knocked from the operator's hand as the picture goes upside down, and then goes black.

Gregory said he started as a dispatcher. "I know what your job is all about." He said that dispatchers are the ones that are protecting the officers, firefighters and citizens. With emotion in his voice, he told the attendees, "Stand tall, be proud of what you do, and God bless you."

Gavel Passing

The day, and the conference, ended with a banquet where the associations new officers were sworn in. Outgoing president Glen Nash recounted his past year, and in-coming president Thera Bradshaw set her goals for the coming year.

Nash began by announcing a special leadership in public safety award to be bestowed upon Secretary of Transportation Norm Minetta, who he said had done many things for public safety.

Nash then introduced the most recent Life Members of the association:

Ralph Blount

Lynn Diebold

Rick Hessinger

Ken Mott

Michael Hogan

Nancy Pollock

Michael Mangini

Richard Roley

James Beutelspacher

Marshall Treado

Richard DeMello (posthumously)

Nash said he casted about for some good examples of previous "goodbye" speeches, including those from Lyndon Johnson and Gen. Douglas MacArthur. He asked if we truly communicate--talking and listening and understanding? The last task, he said, is the hardest, not only to determine what we heard, but also what the speaker meant to say. He noted that everyone sees things in a different way--and then told a 5-minute joke to illustrate the point.

He told new second vice-president Diana Borash that she will work with various people and boards in the coming years, all with different personalities and interactions. There are no obstacles, he advised, only challenges to overcome.

He said that the past year had certainly given him new knowledge. He challenged the audience to "reach beyond your own comfort zone" and explore all the possibilities. He thanked the board, executive director John Ramsey and the APCO staff. He also thanked his wife, and then turned to tell her, "Honey, I'm home!" However, she had disappeared from the dias.

Nash then administered the oath to the incoming executive board, and Thera Bradshaw talked to the crowd. She thanked Nash for guiding the association, "at a critical juncture of the organization," and during, "some pretty tough times."

She said the stakes are higher now, the world seems much smaller, and cooperation is more important than ever. She recalled the origin of APCO in the midst of World War II, back when public safety communications was unsophisticated. She said she has four visions for APCO in the coming year.

First, to expand the association's work internationally. She announced that APCO had recently filed the first papers to become an affiliate of the United Nations. She said the world's societies are linked now, but sometimes we let geographic boundaries limit us. APCO has members in 34 countries now, she said, and the association has the responsibility to assume a leadership role in public safety communications around the world.

APCO is also planning its first world congress to study homeland security issues, and to pursue public education in other countries. "APCO's new focus is as critical as any other goal," Bradshaw said to polite applause.

Secondly, she said the association should forge strong alliances with other groups. There is no room for old divisions and rivalries, she said. She noted that she assumed the presidency of NENA in this same hotel in 1995. A cornerstone of the future is to build bridges across organizations with common goals. She announced a retreat with NENA and APCO board members to pursue this goal. "There's a far greater impact if we work together," she said. She noted that the NENA board was in the audience.

She also announced that APCO has forged an alliance with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), and the incoming presidents of both organizations were in the audience (Chief Joseph Samuels, Richmond, Calif.) and Randy Bruegman (Milwaukie,Ore.). She said it was the first time that all three organizations had demonstrated joint support.

She noted that FEMA has asked APCO for its input and help in tackling public safety issues, which she said was an "awesome compliment." She said the association also had a close partnership with the Cellular Telephone and Internet Association (CTIA), and that the group's president, Tom Wheeler, was in the audience.

Thirdly, Bradshaw said that "APCO needs to start thinking like strategists." She said the group should participate in that process worldwide, all of the time, not some of the time. She then announced that APCO will open an office in Washington (DC) to increase its daily presence in the nation's capital. She said the organization must seize the opportunity to have its voice heard.

Fourthly, Bradshaw said that APCO needs to develop future leaders, to insure a continuous supply of knowledgeable candidates to lead the group into the future. APCO needs "smart, innovative" members, she said. The Virtual College is already providing one source of candidates for association projects and offices. It will also, "insure APCO has a much higher profile than in the past."

"Walk with me," she asked the crowd. "I know we will succeed."

You can obtain audio tapes of most conference sessions from the Fleetwood Onsite Conference Recording Web site.