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Prepared Witness Testimony The House Committee on Energy and Commerce
The Spectrum Needs of Our Nation's First Responders.
Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet
Mr. James E. Tamlyn
Introduction Chairman Upton, Ranking Member Markey, Michigan's First Congressional District Representative, Bart Stupak, and other distinguished members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of CCE-911 on the subject of need for interoperable communications systems and increased radio frequency spectrum availability. To give you a little background on myself, my name is Jim Tamlyn, and I am the Chairman of the Emmet County Board of Commissioners in the great State of Michigan. I am also the Chairman of the Board for the Charlevoix-Cheboygan-Emmet (CCE) Central Dispatch Authority (a three county E-911 central dispatch consortium). I have served time in the United States Army, serving thirteen months as a medic in the DMZ of Korea. After my tour of duty, I have served my community in such capacities as firefighter, EMT basic, EMT Specialist, and EMT/Paramedic. In 1990 I was elected to the Emmet County Board of Commissioners, and have served seven years as the Chairman of that Board. I have also served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of our three county regional E911/Central Dispatch since its' inception, and was a driving force in developing this agency. TESTIMONY The Charlevoix-Cheboygan-Emmet (CCE) Central Dispatch Authority was born out of the needs of our tri-county region to develop a method to deliver Enhanced 911 service to our citizens. The three County Boards of commissioners came to realize that they could deliver a far better fully enhanced 911 service to the public and the first responders of the area by combining resources. This was not an easy task and involved many hurdles along the way. The bringing together of three counties along with the 62 individual units of governments (cities, villages, and townships) they represent, and over 50 first response agencies (which includes local, State, and Federal agencies) was monumental. To deliver a far-reaching interoperable radio communications and mobile data network to cover an area of just over 1,600 square miles (larger that the State of Rhode Island) with 200 miles of coastline on the Great Lakes was a major hurdle in itself. We were also faced with the issues of helping to secure the southern end of the Mackinac Bridge, one of the largest suspension bridges in the world, with its five million (5,000,000) vehicle crossings per year, and its great importance to interstate and international commerce. In the same vicinity as the Mackinac Bridge, are three large pipelines carrying crude oil, natural gas, and refined petroleum products across the Straits of Mackinac at a rate of almost two million five hundred thousand gallons per hour. Beaver Island being a part of Charlevoix County, but lying approximately twenty (20) miles offshore in Lake Michigan presented a very unique logistical situation as well. Also sitting on the shores of Lake Michigan is the decommissioned Big Rock Nuclear Plant with its spent fuel still on site. With our geographic proximity to our good neighbor Canada being only 50 miles to the north and east we were also presented with an added layer of issues such as frequency coordination and clearance between our two countries, limits on broadcasting power (wattage), and tower heights to eliminate interference on similar frequencies. In building our new dispatch center we pooled all available resources in our three county area. All radio frequencies owned by all the individual agencies were moved into a central pool. What came out of this pool is a system where all police agencies (two state police posts, three sheriff departments, and eight local police agencies) talk to each other on common frequencies. Also, in each patrol car we added in-car LEIN (Law Enforcement Information Network). This in-car computer hooks directly to the state's database in Lansing (200 miles away). An officer may run file checks on individuals or car plates in under sixty seconds, far quicker and more accurately than was ever done by voice communication. Also added to patrol cars were AVL (automatic vehicle locators) which allows dispatchers to constantly monitor car locations using the GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) for officer safety. Our new software installed this spring is giving our AVL system fits and we are working to get this resolved. We have 28 fire departments (almost 1000 firefighters - both paid full time and volunteer) and 8 emergency medical service agencies. The fire departments also pooled their resources. Frequencies were set aside for dispatch, fire ground, and mutual aid. All 28 agencies can communicate with one another and EMS or go to individual fire ground frequencies. One frequency was set aside for police, fire, and EMS to talk to each other. To aid in the development of fully interoperable radio systems which will meet the needs for additional secure-encrypted channels needed by first responders today, additional radio spectrum is a priority no matter what range of frequencies (VHF-UHF-Microwave) is utilized locally. To plan as effectively as possible for the future, in 2002 CCE retained a radio consulting firm to evaluate our existing systems, the current and future needs of the responding agencies, as well as those of our dispatch facility. The consultants projected our needs at $15 million. As we redesign our radio systems, we will ultimately be using a mixture of different frequency ranges (microwave, UHF, VHF), with VHF (150-155 MHZ) ultimately being used to deliver the signal to first responders. We are currently not using 800 megahertz because it does not do voice paging for fire fighters, it does not support data transmission in our area, the system was designed for mobile coverage not portable, and several cost issues; however, we are still looking at 800 as an option. This decision has been based upon several factors such as: better signal propagation with our greatly varied topography and foliage, the ability to efficiently deliver mobile data to onboard computers in response vehicles, and the ability to simulcast paging signals to fire and EMS personnel. The development of our radio system will ultimately mean the addition of more towers in order to get the desired level of coverage needed. This will be a pivotal point in the rebuilding of our radio system as we cannot build towers as tall as needed, or have as strong a signal output as could be delivered due our proximity to Canada. We have both an interoperable radio system that allows the first response agencies (law enforcement, fire, and EMS) to talk with one another during times of need, but also a three county shared database of records which has been instrumental in solving many crimes across jurisdictional boundaries since 1996. This has all been accomplished with local funding of over sixteen million dollars ($16,000,0000) in expenditures since 1994 until recently when an appropriation of seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000) was awarded to us through Congress in 2001 to replace our outdated computer software and hardware backbone. These system upgrades have been implemented recently, and we are beginning to see the benefits already. More data than ever is being shared among the law enforcement agencies in our area, with more to come in the future. This also has allowed us to become Phase II compliant for the delivery of wireless phone calls, and at this point are waiting for the cellular providers to complete their work. This appropriation has allowed us to do even more for the units in the field, however much more remains to be done to keep us moving forward to meet the needs of today. We need to provide better radio signal coverage, secure-encrypted radio channels, faster data bandwidth to the vehicles, and the ability to simulcast from multiple towers in order to begin meeting the needs of today's first responders. The three county Boards of Commissioners fund the operation and infrastructure needs of CCE. Lately, supply is having a hard time keeping up with demand. And, we will soon (early this summer) add a telephone surcharge. The funds raised will be used over the next three years to improve AVL and Mobile Data Transmission to police vehicles. We are also looking at the possibility of adding this technology to lead fire and EMS vehicles. This will be in addition to our operational and capital budgets which will also continue to increase. Still we find ourselves falling further behind. Our large rural topography versus our tax base makes rural communications very difficult to maintain. The responsibilities of local governments since 9/11 have also changed. Local public safety has taken on an added dimension as we now think national security in all of our planning. Coast Guard, FBI, Border Patrol, and Customs all have a presence in our area. All local governments partnered to provide state of the art, cost-effective communications to meet public safety needs. However, true regionalization of central dispatch should include partnering with federal law enforcement agencies. The closest backup to one of their officers is most likely one of ours. If they can't talk to each other they can't help each other. On June 4th, Representative Upton called for the development of an Enhanced E-911 office within the Homeland Security Department, and the development of a block grant program to assist state and local governments. We would support the development of a block grant program for such an effort, whether it is through the Department of Homeland Security, or the FCC with funding from auction of radio spectrum, or whatever other avenue is deemed appropriate. Additionally, On June 6th, President Bush issued a Presidential Memo regarding the formation of the White House Interagency Task Force and the Spectrum Policy Initiative to review and develop policies for the future of radio spectrum. This is a monumental step forward in assisting all users of radio communications. This will also be an incredible asset to rural first responders in assisting them with opening up additional spectrum for their needs. These two recent developments show a dedication and commitment to America's first responders by our President and Congress with the recognition for the need to assist them. We would like to thank them for their concern, assistance, and dedication, and wish them Godspeed in these endeavors. I would specifically like to thank Congressman Stupak for his continuing commitment to public safety. The need of America's first responders to be able to share communications and data both locally and on a national level will continue to grow in the future. To not allow for this ability because of issues such as limited radio spectrum and limited data bandwidth will place the safety of the first responders and the public we serve in jeopardy. In closing, I would like to say that the needs rural first responders face are similar to those of our nations urban areas regarding the limited amount of frequency spectrum available. But these issues are compounded even more so in rural areas given sheer size of the area we cover, topography, and the limited amount of resources available in manpower and funding we face. We must all work together to make more radio frequency spectrum and funding available for our nations first line of defense: our first responders. Thank you for giving me the opportunity today to share my views on the issue of spectrum availability for our nations first responders. I would be happy to take any questions that the committee may have.
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