Missouri Interoperability Initiative Update
December 2011 Update
On Nov. 21, the Missouri Interoperability Center and the Missouri Department of Public Safety held a MOSWIN Informational Session and demonstration of the system in Sikeston for about 90 people. Attendees included people from fire, law enforcement, health/EMS and public works and they represented local, state and federal agencies.
Kurt Rellergert, an engineer with Motorola, provided an overview of what trunking is and how it is being implemented in the state of Missouri. Sikeston Department of Public Safety Chief Drew Juden discussed how MOSWIN is already enhancing communications in his community, including demonstrating the ability to contact Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop E Headquarters in Popular Bluff and Troop I Headquarters in Rolla from Sikeston. He also demonstrated Sikeston’s ability to directly contact the State Emergency Operations Center in Jefferson City. He then provided a demonstration of how a conventional, non-trunked radio frequency (police mutual aid 155.475 MHz) could be patched into the MOSWIN system to allow non-trunked and trunked users to communicate.
The multiple ways in which an agency could access the MOSWIN system were discussed since an agency is not required to be either entirely “on” the system or entirely “off” the system. There are many ways in which an agency can partially utilize the system in its day-to-day activities and meet its interoperable needs. An agency might decide to allow its command and control staff to have a talk group on the statewide network while maintaining day to day operations on its conventional system. This option would allow the command and control staff to have a multi-discipline talk group for a coordinated response to a multi-discipline event.
The process was also explained in which 24/7 communication centers will be receiving a control station, allowing access to MOSWIN, and how the state envisions those stations will work.
Similar informational meetings have also been held in Sedalia and Jefferson City. Additional informational meetings are scheduled for January 2012. A schedule of those meetings can be found in the Interoperable Communications Calendar, available at: http://dps.mo.gov/dir/programs/intercomm/default.asp
November 2011 Update
Missouri continues to make significant progress developing and building MOSWIN. MOSWIN is being developed in phases, with the Sikeston Department of Public Safety, in southeast Missouri, serving as the pilot program in Phase 1.
The pilot program is served by two sites, MOSWIN RF sites located at Bloomfield and Sikeston. Beginning July 15, 2011, Sikeston DPS switched all its communications to MOSWIN, allowing more than 200 fire, police and EMS personnel to access the wide-area network. The conversion from Sikeston’s legacy radio network is already paying dividends.
In August, with severe weather approaching and about 10,000 people in the stands at Sikeston’s annual Bootheel Rodeo, Sikeston DPS and users from nine other local agencies were all able to communicate directly with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which was able to provide real time weather radar updates to crews in the field.
In September, when law enforcement in southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas participated in “Operation Clean Sweep,” a multi-jurisdictional drug trafficking roundup, Sikeston officers in the field were able to communicate directly with officers from other agencies, including those from Arkansas law enforcement, because of the benefits of the MOSWIN interconnected network.
At the Missouri Homeland Security Advisory Council meeting in Jefferson City on Oct. 5, Sikeston DPS Director Drew Juden demonstrated how a handheld radio provided him with crystal clear communications with a dispatcher in Sikeston, about 200 miles away. This demonstrated the benefits of using an interconnected network and how multiple agencies accessing the network can lead to enhanced interoperable communications.