[Scan-DC] District Announces Contract for New Public Safety Radio System

[Alan Henney]

http://www.dc.gov/mayor/news/release.asp?id=431&mon=200212

News Release for Immediate Release
December 6, 2002
District Announces Contract for New Public Safety Radio System

(Washington, DC) City Administrator John Koskinen held a news conference
today along with DC Councilmember Kathy Patterson, Chief Technology Officer
Suzanne Peck, Deputy Mayor Margret Kellems, Fire and Emergency Medical
Services Acting Chief Adrian Thompson, President of DC Firefighters
Association Local #36 Lt. Ray Sneed, and Metropolitan Police Department
Chief Charles H. Ramsey to announce the contract for the District's public
safety radio system. The District has negotiated a $17 million contract with
Motorola for the principal components for the new radio system. The attached
fact sheet includes further details on the contract.

"Our singular goal is to advance the personal safety of every firefighter
and police officer as well as every resident and visitor in the city.
Today's announcement represents a significant step in that direction," said
Mr. Koskinen. "We will achieve dramatic improvements to our public safety
radio communications through this initiative."

Chief Thompson added, "Ensuring that our fire and EMS personnel can
communicate quickly is of paramount importance to performance and safety.
The technology that will improve our 800 MHz system is necessary to ensure
we have constant contact at the scene of a fire or other emergency. We also
need our EMS providers to have the ability to communicate with other units
and the hospitals when citizens are in crisis. The new wireless
communications system- to be developed in the coming months-will go a long
way to address these issues to the satisfaction of all concerned."

"The system will provide the District with the best and most comprehensive
public safety radio coverage of any municipality in the United States by
September 30, 2003," said Ms. Peck.

Click on the fact sheet below for more information.


Public Safety Radio System Fact Sheet*


Government of the District of Columbia Public Safety Radio System
Public Safety Radio Project Fact Sheet
The District is upgrading the radio system used
by its police, fire and emergency medical
services agencies.
The radio system upgrade:
. Will correct serious deficiencies in the
previous system and will provide the District
of Columbia the most complete public safety
radio coverage in the United States
. Will expand radio coverage into many new
areas of the city, and add new coverage in the
Metro subway
. Will meet critical, new emergency
preparedness needs that have emerged since
September 11, 2001
. Will allow District public safety personnel to
communicate with their counterparts in
neighboring jurisdictions in the event of a
significant public safety event
. Was qualified for federal emergency
preparedness funding, because of the
District's significant new regional and
national responsibilities (Congress
appropriated a total of $45.5MM to
emergency information technology (IT)
initiatives for the District.)
. Is proceeding on schedule and within
budget
. Is cost efficient: the hours spent by our
internal team to plan, analyze, design,
procure and implement the system is far less
than it would cost to use an external vendor
to perform these same tasks
. Is timely: through extensive discussions with
Motorola, the delivery of the system is
promised by Motorola in the summer of
2003
. Applies a well-planned implementation
methodology, to meet the project's goals: a
careful seven-month design, technical
planning, requirements definition, and
technical analysis phase preceded the
District's public safety radio project
implementation (This analysis phase ensured
that we solved the right radio problems, in
the right way, and at the right price.)
. Utilizes a thoughtful and deliberate approach
to project procurement: to maintain the
District's investment in an extensive base of
installed Motorola 800 MHz and 460 MHz
radio equipment, and for interoperability
purposes, OCTO continued to look to
Motorola for new radio equipment (Over
several months, we've conducted and
concluded successful negotiations with
Motorola.)
. Procures all system components from the
most cost-effective vendors: building
construction components, for example, are
normally contracted through the radio system
supplier (In our case, construction of new
radio rooms at the city's 10 transceiver sites
was designed and procured separately in a
competitive process.)
. Has made significant progress in obtaining
"leases" for the 10 transceiver sites: we
already have written approval from owners
of a majority of the sites
. Has involved our key project stakeholders,
including the Police, Fire/EMS, and
emergency management personnel
. Provides communications between Police
and Fire/EMS: the District's integration of
the city's 800MHz and 460 MHz radio
systems will provide a seamless
communications network between Police,
Fire/EMS and EMA, and will ensure that no
public safety officer is ever in harm's way
because of an inability to communicate
. Has a team that takes tremendous pride in
advancing the personal safety of every
District firefighter and sworn police officer
through this project: we're achieving
dramatically better, nation-class results in
public safety radio communications with this
initiative, and we're simultaneously
positioning the District for contiguous, wideband
(700-800 MHz) radio communications
in the near future
Please direct any inquiries to Ms. Linda Argo,
Chief of Staff and Public Info. Officer, Office of
the Chief Technology Officer, (202) 727-2277.