ICOM Public Safety Dispatch Interconnect

The San Juan County Sheriff’s Department and County Council will celebrate a new level of security for County residents as it completes the Sheriff’s dispatch center’s connection with the Island County Emergency Services Command Center (ICOM). With the completion of extensive equipment and communication systems updates the two systems will be completely compatible and capable of backing each other up on a moment’s notice.

“Should we have a communications or equipment failure in our dispatch center, calls can instantly be routed to ICOM and their personnel will be able to temporarily dispatch fire, emergency medical and law enforcement resources seamlessly,” said Sheriff Ron Krebs.

System updates were begun in the San Juan County Enhanced 911 dispatch center in late 2013, after the Sheriff’s office received a grant to replace obsolete equipment. The program was expanded when the failure of a CenturyLink underwater cable showed the vulnerability of both the 911 dispatch and government telecommunications systems.

“We saw it as absolutely as a life safety issue and made it a budget priority,” said County Council Chair Bob Jarman.

In 2013 and 2014, both the 911 dispatch and County government telecommunications systems were replaced with new state-of-the-art systems. The County worked in close cooperation with ICOM to insure that compatibility between the two dispatch centers.

“Our goal was to set up the systems so that a dispatcher from San Juan County could walk into ICOM’s dispatch center on Whidbey Island, sit down at the console have it look, feel and operate just like their own system,” said ICOM Director Tom Shaughnessy. ICOM technicians did much of the radio installation work and the two agencies have signed a cooperation agreement that provides for mutual support.

The County technology department, has spent much of this year working with non-CenturyLink vendors to provide redundant microwave and cable data connections, to insure that failure of a single system will not disrupt electronic communications with the mainland as it did in 2013. In late August of this year, the vulnerability was again driven home when a car crashed into a utility pole in Anacortes and knocked out more than half of the County Government’s and county residents’ data and voice communications for several hours.

The County has since established an additional secure data route through Bellingham and ICOM and the San Juan County Dispatch Center have been given top priority to insure that its interconnection does not share single points of failure with existing systems.

“This Interconnect isn’t just a one-way street,” said San Juan County Sheriff Ron Krebs. “And it doesn’t just benefit us when there is an emergency. The cooperative agreement strengthens us both, enables us to take advantage of training opportunities, and to share technology on a continuous basis.”

Over the past 2-and-a-half years, the San Juan County Council has approved the expenditure of nearly $200,000 to replace obsolete and unreliable technology and to set up the infrastructure for the interconnect. In reviewing the project, Council Chair Jarman commented,

“It’s no exaggeration to say that because of what we’ve done, the citizens of San Juan County are safer and more secure than they were a few months ago.”

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