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Middle Rio Grande CommunicationsHurricane Rita
RecoveryWebb County Communications
Technology Assistance Division Project Summary
Middle Rio Grand Development Council Project The
vast Rio Grande region of Texas presents a number
of public safety challenges. Dispersed resources
and diverse constituencies make effective and
timely communication between public safety and
law enforcement agencies difficult. The Southwest
Public Safety Technology Center at the Sheriffs'
Association of Texas is developing a regional
public safety radio communications system that
will ultimately provide improved coverage for and
interoperability between participating public
safety service providers across the entire nine
county region of the Middle Rio Grande
Development Council. The system proposed by the
SWTC Technology Assistance Division will provide
improved radio communications for local, tribal,
state and federal public safety providers across
the region. To date, 24 regional agencies are
actively contributing to the plan. The system
design phase has been completed, the
infrastructure vendor has been selected and a
detailed design review and Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) licensing are currently
underway. The first phase of infrastructure
deployment is scheduled for the end of 2005.
Contingent on further successful spectrum
acquisition and licensing, and continued funding,
it is anticipated the project will be completed
in early 2008. Hurricane Rita Recovery The SWTC
Technology Assistance Division provided
technology support to public safety providers in
the Southeast Texas area during the Hurricane
Rita recovery. The Technology Assistance
Division transmitted emails and Texas Law
Enforcement Telecommunications System (TLETS)
messages to all 254 Sheriffs offices across the
state soliciting manpower and equipment support
for those counties suffering the most severe
damage. The resulting offers of assistance were
logged then dispatched as requested by officials
in the affected counties. Additionally, the
Technology Assistance Division arranged for the
acquisition and deployment of four radio
communications gateways in the affected area to
provide interoperable public safety
communications in the affected region. The
Technology Assistance Division also coordinated
with the National Law Enforcement and Corrections
Technology Center-Southeast to have a
communications engineer travel to the affected
region to assist state and local law enforcement
agencies restore damaged or destroyed
communications systems and to provide support for
the communications gateways deployed to the
region. Further, the Technology Assistance
Division coordinated with the National Institute
of Justice and arranged for the deployment of two
powered parachutes for use in search and rescue
in the region. Additionally, the Technology
Assistance Division coordinated the deployment of
a team from the National Institute of Justice to
provide disaster mapping in the affected region.
Technology Assistance Division staff also
provided liaison between local officials
requesting equipment, such as generators, and
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
personnel who could provide such equipment.
Webb County Project The Technology Assistance
Division is currently acting on a request by the
Webb County, Texas, Sheriff and the Webb County
Commissioners Court to assist them in making cost
effective decisions regarding potential public
safety communications improvements in the Webb
County region. The Technology Assistance
Division requested that the Southeast Center
assign an engineer to provide an initial
infrastructure analysis and propagation studies
comparing system requirements for both a VHF
infrastructure and an 800 MHz infrastructure.
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09/18/2006
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