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APCO was quick to form a committee to study how 311 would affect public safety comm centers (Project 35). Did you know they also wanted to close the project after its research was over, figuring the final report was enough. It took a bit of convincing to keep the project flying, since 311 is being considered by more and more agencies, and questions are still being raised.

Who was pushing the buttons to change slides for Cindy Cline's presentation? It was trainer Kevin Willett of PSTC, a nice guy who's also mastered the art of getting an audio recorder, computer and video projector to work together.

Conference chair Diana Borash revealed that her husband was the only person injured during Tuesday night's lumberjack show during MANAPCO night. She didn't describe the injury, but when chain saws are involved.....

New Life Member Phyllis Hull is married to Al Hull, making them the only husband-wife Life Members. The two met in Sacramento (Calif.) during the 1979 annual conference.

Banquet Closes Last Day

Cindy Cline's Advice For Next Critical Incident
Banquet Honors APCO's Heroes
EMS Day Brings Ambulance Display

by Gary Allen, Editor

The last day of the 1999 annual conference of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) was much quieter, with a shorter schedule of educational sessions and the association's closing banquet.

Among the many informative sessions was one by Jefferson County (Colo.) Sheriff's supervisor Cindy Cline, who has 25 years in public safety dispatching, the last 15 as a supervisor. In a packed meeting room, Cline told an incredible tale of how she and her co-workers moved to a new comm center and then, two weeks later, found themselves in the midst of the Columbine High School shootings.

Also today, a letter was distributed from the newly-formed Colorado Interoperability Task Force, which painted a rather pessimistic view of violence in America. It also explained the work the task force was doing to allow Colorado agencies to talk with one another on the radio.

At the banquet, the leadership of APCO changed as Jack Keating handed the presidential gavel to Joe Hanna. Other officers moved up towards the top spot, and newly-elected Thera Bradshaw jointed the executive board by becoming 2nd vice-president.

At 4 p.m., APCO volunteers began striping away logos, signs and other visible signs of the 65th conference, while convention workers began the task of converting the center to the next convention--Creative Memories. Within hours the center was ready for the next set of convention-goers wearing name badges.

Next Time, We Stay

There's no standard checklist for handling a disaster in your community, Pete Eggimann told a morning educational session. Instead, he told the group they would have to write their own rules for dealing with something like the flood that devastated Great Falls (ND) in 1996, where Eggimann works.

He said an above-average snowfall, then an April 5th ice storm set the stage for rising waters. The Weather Service predicted 49.5 feet, but the Red River (which flows northward) bested that estimate on Friday, April 18 at 4 a.m., when it crested a levee and flooded the unusually flat plain on both sides of the river. The water later crested at 54.5 feet, and flooded about two-thirds of the city of 50,000 in northeast North Dakota.

The water didn't affect operations in the ground floor comm center of the police department, but it flooded the basement equipment room, which included 911 and radio electronics. The police department relocated shortly after, and by Saturday afternoon, an electrical short in a downtown office building sparked a fire that firefighters couldn't reach, and which totally destroyed 11 buildings.

According to Eggimann, the water moved fast across town because it traveled through the storm drains, popping off manholes and access covers along the way. Power was shut off to prevent further fires, so residents couldn't pump out basements quickly enough. By Sunday, city officials ordered a general evacuation which, Eggimann said, helped reduce the number of incidents reported to the makeshift comm center.

What lessons did the city learn? Eggimann said to find out where your 911 calls can be re-routed before a disaster. Determine how responders can communicate among themselves if the comm center is relocated. And become a best buddy with your telephone company, which can help with communications in many ways.

Eggimann said in hindsight, he wouldn't have evacuated the comm center, but would have taken more extraordinary steps to keep the basement dry and the equipment operating. The process of moving, leaving behind necessary equipment and supplies wasted valuable energy, he said.

How do you keep the radio system operating? Great Falls was fortunate to use a state-wide radio system based in Bismarck. Non-emergency agencies were able to use a portable trunked system brought in from Atlanta by FEMA, which included 200 mobile radios. Eggimann said he didn't have schematics for his radio system, which made it more difficult to figure out how to keep it operating. He couldn't reach the city's radio tech for two days, because he was busy with other systems.

Compile a list of temporary resources that you might need--before you need them, including a mobile command post, rented equipment, mobile radios and power supplies, and cellular telephones. Lower the workload, Eggimann said, which means farming out some usual tasks to other agencies or jurisdictions. Check your insurance to make sure what is and is not covered, and what the limits are. As for recovery, he said to take early photos of damage and submit claims to your state agency or FEMA as soon as possible.

He said that FEMA's Mobile Emergency Response Support (MERS) team is a "tremendous asset" during the early stages. The team is very experienced in all types of disasters and can give valuable advice and obtain necessar resources from anywhere in the country.

Eggimann advised there is never enough money, and that three to four weeks into the emergency, your chances of be reimbursed "go down dramatically." He said, "Whoever gets to the money people the quickest has the best change of getting cash."

Determine how you can mitigate the effects of a disaster. What can you move, install or modify to limit its damage by water, wind, earthmovement or other sources of damage?

Lastly, take care of your own staff. "The basics have be taken care of," Eggimann said. "Management has to be sensitive to that." He revealed that one supervisor did resign in the midst of the disaster, apparently not willing to work the mandatory 12-hour shifts. Eggimann said he accepted the resignation, but did not rehire the person when he asked for his job back some three weeks later.

Are You Ready For 311?

Two cities have implemented 311 during the past year, and several others are considering the non-emergency telephone service, according to Ralph Gould of the Grand Rapids (Mich.) police department. During his seminar, he outlined who's using 311, who may be next in line for the service, and how much it costs.

His presentation was headlined, "311..Can you avoid it?" He answered his own question with, "No." He said the impetus for 311 usually originates from city and county administrators rather than public safety communications officials. For that reason, you may find questions on your desk for which you have no answers.

Gould chairs APCO Project 35, which continues to grapple with the issues of 311. He said right now there are seven jurisdictions with 311:

• Baltimore--police calls
• Chicago--municipal
• Hampton (Virg.)--municipal
• Bethel (Alas.)--police
• Dallas--municipal
• San Jose (Calif.)--police
• Oklahoma State Universisty--general

He said on the "under consideration" list is:

Gould provided some very recent statistics on the Chicago operation, which uses city service operators to staff the 311 lines:

Gould said the costs for 311 break down as:

• one-time charge
• per month charge
• per call charge

He said the one-time and per month charges could vary inversely, depending upon how the telephone carrier feels it can make money on the service. He said a typical per call charge is 3 cents for calls under two minutes, and 5 cents for calls over two minutes.

Gould said he wasn't in the software promotion business, but knows of only one company marketing a program specifically for 911. It's SunTRACK--311 by Suncoast Scientific Inc. in Shalimar, Florida. Their product runs on Windows 95/98/NT. Contact them at (850) 651-6400 or on the Web.

Free Money

Can you come up with unique public safety project that other jurisdictions can also use to improve access to education or heath care, provide more effective community or public safety services, or improve communications? If so, the federal government may have up to $650,000 in matching grants for you. The money could be spent on new ways to communicate with neighboring agencies, ways of linking existing information or communications systems, or other communications projects.

Phil English, a program analyst with the Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP) told an afternoon seminar the requirements of the grant program and how local and state government can apply for the money. The agency is a unit of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and is now accepting applications for Year 2000 grants.

Grant projects can be in one of five areas: community-wide networking; education, culture and lifelong learning; health; public and community services; and public safety. Grants are for 50%, with the other half coming from the requesting agency either in cash or in-kind services, equipment or other materials.

• TIIAP won't fund one-way networks, single organization or content development project, hardware or software development or training projects. When evaluating a grant application, TIIAP considers:
• Project purpose
• Evaluation mechanisms
• Significance
• Project feasibility
• Community involvement
• Reducing disparities
• Documentation and dissemination

Contact English for more information, at (202) 482-2048, or e-mail at tiiap@ntia.doc.gov.

Over 200 Shots Fired

The most anticipated--and perhaps most compelling--session of the conference was given by 25 year dispatcher Cindy Cline, a supervisor at the Jefferson County (Colo.) Sheriff's Office, which had primary jurisdiction for the Columbine High School shooting. Cline's talk was detailed, comprehensive and, in an admirable show of fairness, gave equal emphasis--and took equal blame or credit--for things done correctly and things that went wrong.

The double-sized meeting room was packed when Cline began her talk by giving some facts about Jefferson County's 911 operation:

• 4 radio positions covering five law enforcement agencies, 11 volunteer fire departments and all other county departments
• 3 telephone positions to handle all incoming and outgoing phone calls
• Staffing on April 20th was one supervisor, four dispatchers, 1 emergency response specialist

Cline said the sheriff had moved into a new comm center just two weeks before the incident and everyone was battling minor equipment problems, and getting used to the adjustable furniture and switch from 15-inch to 21-inch video terminals. "It was a completely different world," Cline said.

She laid out the timeline of the incident:

• first call at 11:21 a.m. of explosion at an intersection near the school
• additional staff called in at 11:40 a.m.
• incident command bus on-scene at 12:00 p.m.

The comm center fielded 31 calls on 911 between 11:21 a.m. and noon, and 88 calls on 911 between noon and 1 p.m., and another 114 calls on 911 between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.. Cline said a later review of phone records showed there were no abandoned 911 calls during this period. She said the 911 system never failed, but the central office serving the area busied out, leaving callers with no dial tone for a period.

There was a long list of agencies who participated in the incident, and who offered their help for anything the Jefferson County comm center needed. Cline said they later found out that a West Metro Fire Protection District dispatcher was related to Dave Sanders, the teacher who was killed in the shoot-out.

She said all of the initial 911 calls required "heavy interviewing" to obtain the necessary information. She asked, "Who do you keep on the line? Who do you keep interviewing? Who do you let go?" In one case, a calltaker paced up and down in the comm center, talking to a student inside the school on a cellular phone.

Meanwhile, the center handled 181 non-emergency telephone calls between noon and 1 p.m., and only 15 of those calls were abandoned. She pointed out that just two persons handled all of those calls--quite a feat.

Cline said their success was in large part due to good phone and radio procedures, and doubling up at all seven consoles in the comm center. Cline played the audio logging tapes that have been released, and both demonstrated her point that the dispatchers had a calm and professional tone, and handled their tasks perfectly. In the background of the telephone call made from the school library, one could hear several shots being fire. In fact, in other portions of the tape, I learned that a total of 85 shots are audible, becoming louder as the two suspects walked closer to the library. Overall, 200 shots were fired by the suspects and over 63 explosive devices were found scattered around the school.

Cline said that they learned several lessons from the incident, including that their telephones could not dial international numbers, to return press calls. A fixed the problem within minutes once they identified the problem. "Dispatchers are adrenaline junkies," Cline said, so they instituted a system of forced relief for 15-20 minutes after two hours so dispatchers could recharge. They also had a peer counselor in the comm center almost immediately, and all the next day to make contact with each dispatcher, check if they were OK, and offer any assistance they needed.

Cline said the incident created long-term staffing issues, too. They needed relief for the working dispatchers, and for the two dispatchers sent with the command bus to the vicinity of the high school. All dispatchers were immediately put on 12-hour shifts (6a-6p), and there was not one complaint or unfilled overtime shift. "Nobody batted an eye," Cline said. "They just came in and did it."

She said it's important to remember that evacuation sites need to be adult-friendly--don't evacuate adults to an elementary school, whose furniture and facilities might not accommodate them. Also, it's essential to have a recording secretary to keep logs, and collect all the written notes, timecards and other materials that a critical incident generates.

Yes, there were unexpected surprises, Cline told the audience. The "Massage Guy" appeared in the comm center late on the first day, and gave the crew neck and back rubs. The "Pizza Guy" also became a fixture around the center for the next week, as he delivered pizza the dispatchers ordered, or delivered pizzas ordered by other agencies. The Pizza Guy also dropped by to deliver left-over pizzas.

The "Bag Lady" appeared in the doorway during the evening of the first day. Cline said the woman was a dispatcher at an adjacent agency, and brought a bag of sandwiches and drinks for the dispatchers, and then offered to stay and help answer phone calls (her agency's CAD was the same as JeffCo's).

Perhaps the most touching moment came when Cline described the overwhelming response from other agencies. She said they received calls, cards, flowers, candy, food, Beanie Babies and other stuffed animals, and music boxes from agencies around the world. They heard from 48 states, five Canadian provinces and nine foreign countries. One group of letters came from a second-grade class, thanking the dispatchers for keeping the officers safe at the scene. "You wouldn't believe the things that we got, totally unexpected, support gifts...an array of things people thought we needed to have."

"Just last week we got a card from the Kentucky Police Dispatchers Association, just checking up on us to see how we're doing," Cline said.

She was emphatic that everyone in the comm center should be trained in critical incident stress management. Supervisors should be trained to recognize the signs and symptoms of stress, and monitoring should continue well past post-incident to detect problems.

Teamwork is what the job is all about, Cline said. Dispatchers came in early without being called, she said. "Everything clicked. Everybody knew what was expected of them. There's not a comm center out there that doesn't have its petty differences between the dispatchers. None of that showed that day. Whatever somebody needed, they got." She said someone was always there to give a pat on the back, fill a coffee cup, relive a dispatcher from the console."

"There were a lot of tears shed in the comm center that evening," Cline said. "But nobody let it show on the phone or the radio."

She said they received many offers from dispatchers at other agencies to come in and work. "Professionalism really reigned that day. I'm really proud of Jefferson County."

Cline told the group, "You'll never be 100 percent prepared for the unknown situation--ever. So don't plan on it. It just won't happen." She advised them to take from what others have done, and learn from other people's mistakes. And never, ever say, 'This will never happen to me.'"

Cline read part of a letter written by Loveland Police Chief Thomas Wagner for National Telecommunicators Week. That letter ended with, "I admire you and thank you for the thankless job you do." To that, Cline added, "You are the heroes and I am proud to work with you. I am proud to know every one of you."

Cline concluded by acknowledging all of the dispatchers who wrote or contacted the Jefferson County center. "That was so appreciated by all of us," she said. "People will never how much that little call meant, or that little note that someone wrote. Thank you."

Cline passed out a letter signed by Patricia Reed, that explained that a state interoperability committee had been set up to find ways of communicating among all the agencies who were at the Columbine incident. The strangely-worded letter said, true enough, that, "Colorado's own Columbine High School shootings on April 20th of this year were a grim reminder to all of us that we live in a frightening and highly unpredictable era of violence."

But the letter then went on to say, "Nowhere is safe. The cities are small and large, rural and urban, rich and poor. The story unfolds in an all-too-familiar way. A major inter-jurisdictional incident explodes and multiple police, fire and EMS agencies scramble into action." Reed may have meant that no city in America is safe from the threat of a critical incident, but her words were more pessimistic than a warning.

Reed told the APCO attendees, "To the untrained observer, much is left to criticize and question. "Why didn't they...?" Why couldn't they...?" And yet to those of us actually in public safety professions, we marvel at the wonders accomplished in spite of antiquated and/or incompatible equipment, insufficient manpower and sometimes firepower, low or no funding for the resources we so desperately need, and even political barriers to inter-agency cooperation."

She said the Colorado Chapter of APCO, in cooperation with the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC)--Rocky Mountain Region, "has taken the initiative to reduce and eventually eliminate interoperability concerns for any and all public safety agencies in the state of Colorado."

She asked attendees to meet members from Colorado and to visit the Douglas County Sheriff's website (www.douglas.co.us/sheriff/citf) to learn more about the specific activities of the Colorado task force. [full text of letter]

New President

The closing banquet of the conference signals the end of the event, but also the beginning of a new administration. Hundreds of association members, dressed in everything from blue jeans to tuxedos, filled the ballroom, seated by chapter. The APCO board and their spouses were seated on stage, along with conference chair Diana Borash and executive director John Ramsey.

President Keating first introduced Michael Mangini, chair of next year's conference in Boston. Mangini said five states are within an hour's drive of Boston, and asked the members to "Come early and stay late." Next, Borash came to the microphone and asked how everyone enjoyed the "nutty walleye" on the night's menu. "The committee has been out since January fishing for this walleye!" she joked.

Keating presented her with a Presidential Award for her work, and she was obviously touched by the gesture. She asked all of the conference committee members to come to the front of the huge room, and then raised the plaque and told them, "This belongs to all of you. I love you."

Keating presented the Life Members voted by the membership on Tuesday:

• Emil Vogel, Atlantic Chapter
• William A Folski, Michigan
• Thera Bradshaw, Washington
• Chris Fischer, Washington
• Mildred Tirapelli
• Phyllis Hull

According to a press release seen later, Jack Keating was also awarded Life Membership.

Former APCO president J. Rhett McMillian contributed to the association in many ways, and was its first Executive Director in 1973. The group's most prestigious award is named for him and, in the words of Keating, "Is reserved for a very few that have distinguished themselves"--only four persons have received the award. This year the award was given to John Lane Esq., who served as APCO's senior counsel for over 20 years, and "tirelessly represented APCO with the FCC," Keating said. Lane accepted the award, and said, "I'm a very lucky individual that I knew J. Rhett McMillian, and lucky to represent APCO in several important matters."

Keating then told the audience, "Thank you for the honor of serving you," and then swore in the new officers. He read the oath of office, and then asked each officer individually, "Do you?" Each answered, "I do." Then, just seconds into his year of office, Joe Hanna stepped to the microphone--as two members of the Texas chapter ran back and forth in front of the stage waving a large Texas flag.

Hanna acknowledged all of the persons who helped, advised and supported his four-year move to the presidency. In particular, he thanked Keating and called him "a mentor, advisor and friend."

Hanna then turned to the coming year, saying, "During the past three years we have wrestled with change." He told how gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson had a majority of the law enforcement market in the 1970s, but then saw their share drop in the 1980s, even though their quality didn't decline. "Change, in and of itself, is not the issue," Hanna advised the audience. "Managing change is the issue."

He said, "Membership is not a spectator sport." He said his role in achieving the association's goals would be "relatively small." Instead, the members will be the ones to reach the goals. He then reiterated the goals previously set out at Tuesday's business meeting.

He concluded by repeating an old saying, "You can't control the wind, but you can change the shape of your sails."

copyright 1999, Allen Media