September 2010 Public Safety Communications

September 2010 

Wireless E-911 Services Board's
PSAP Baseline Survey Information Available

The baseline survey was the first of five initiatives identified in the 2008 Statewide Comprehensive 911 plan. The goal of the baseline survey initiative was to create a comprehensive inventory of all assets, resources, services and capabilities of primary wireless PSAPs in the Commonwealth from which the resulting data would fulfill the following objectives:

• Serve as input for each of the remaining four initiatives in the plan

• Allow the Wireless E-911 Services Board and board staff to gain insight for strategic and tactical planning and decision making

• Allow PSAPs to view and query data, and to use the data to develop business cases for enhancing their operations

(Download full size PDF image)

Approximately 63% (79 out of 125) of primary wireless PSAPs participated in the survey.

The data elements captured in the survey have now been placed into a database where they can be queried and analyzed to show basic information or patterns and trends. The initial products derived from the survey data include reports showing salary ranges, and staffing schedules along with maps displaying wireless PSAP boundaries and CAD, CPE and Mapping software by vendor.

If you have feedback regarding the PSAP Baseline Survey, the products derived from the survey, or the path forward please feel free to share that with your Regional Coordinator and/or with the PSC Coordinator. Click here for more information on the Wireless E9-1-1 Services Board PSAP Baseline Survey.

Did You Know?

• At their September meeting, the WSB approved the priority 1 and 2 Continuity and Consolidation program grant requests for FY11. Official letters citing grant approval or denial are now being sent.

• The application window for the FY12 grant cycle will open soon. To help you prepare, a draft of the FY12 Grant Guidelines can be found here and the final guidelines will be released following the October Grant Committee meeting. In preparation for completing an application, you can begin preparing your narrative and budget statements now and simply copy them into the grant application when it is released by staff.

• The WSB voted to execute the FY11 Verizon billing agreement upon final legal review. After execution of the agreement, PSAPs will have a 15 day window when they can choose to "opt-out" of the agreement.

• Wireless Billing Agreements 2012 and Beyond. The consensus from the latest statewide PSAP meeting is that payment for the FY 2012 billing agreements should come "off the top" of the wireless fund before the 60/30/10 split occurs. This will require legislative change and staff will pursue that change in the upcoming session.

If you have questions on any of the above items please feel free to contact your regional coordinator.

Data Sharing and Integration in Region 3 (and beyond)

The Counties of Campbell, Amherst, Appomattox and Bedford and the City of Lynchburg are currently undertaking a data sharing and integration project. The goal of this project is to establish an automated process that will streamline the sharing of data between the participants' PSAPs and GIS Divisions, among the participants, and with the Commonwealth (VGIN). This project will enhance this regional project's participant's ability to provide emergency services by enhancing mutual aid, providing a backup for each other's critical data, and providing backup emergency dispatch capability. It will provide the capability to automatically share and use geospatial information in near-real time from the GIS to the PSAPs. With the utilization of replication the data sharing and transfer will be seamless and automated.

Project steps include: a current system requirements assessment, data standardization to support the PSAP mapping systems, replication workflow design and setup and, implementation, testing, training and documentation.