1www.vita.virginia.gov

The Future of 9-1-1 in Virginia

Dorothy Spears-Dean, PSC Coordinator

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Virtual USA• The need for real-time, actionable information is critical

during day-to-day and emergency response operations• Critical information is often trapped in silos and inaccessible

to those who need it the most• The concept behind Virtual USA is to create a cost-effective

nationwide capability that significantly improves information sharing and decision making during emergencies and day-to-day operations

• Core principles:– Integrates existing frameworks to establish seamless information

exchange among participants, as needed and as authorized– Builds on existing investments by leveraging a system of systems

model to permit both new and existing technologies and concepts to exchange information

– Draws on practitioner input at every step of the CCI project lifecycle– Employs a comprehensive approach by fostering dynamic information

sharing between all practitioners, not specific, fixed points

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APCO’s Project 42• Project 42 established to ensure that a national strategy

would be implemented for Situational Awareness that could be utilized by stakeholders at multiple levels of government

• PSAPs house the critical incident and response data elements within (CAD) that are necessary for Situation Awareness.

• These elements in conjunction with geospatial tools, bring together the components required to process common operating pictures of multi-jurisdictional events

• Fusion centers provide a variety of law enforcement and intelligence organizations with critical information

• Critical missing link in the ability of fusion centers to tap into the vast sources of information that are being collected by local and state emergency communication centers

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Project 42 in Virginia• Project 42 will involve the state EOC, but it is different from vUSA

because it is focuses on a different area –status of resources rather than dynamic information

• Bill Hobgood is working on a Virginia pilot project for APCO involving a proof on concept between City of Richmond and the State EOC to transfer HazMat information

• In addition to Richmond, Bill has also reached out to representatives at Norfolk, Fairfax County, York County, and Henrico County concerning their future potential participation in the Virginia pilot after the proof of concept has been accomplished between the State and the City of Richmond

• Currently, Richmond is passing traffic accident information for Richmond, Henrico and Chesterfield to VDEM as a GEORSS feed. 

• Any agencies in the audience that are currently doing AVL and are tracking their public safety vehicles, or are about to do it?

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Communications Steering Committee• The Communications Steering Committee will focus on identifying

and sharing resources to support the activities of specific programs with its member agencies. Coordinating each agency’s unique resources and capabilities, the Committee will cohesively approach future planning for communications interoperability efforts.

• The following agencies are Committee members:– The Office of Commonwealth Preparedness (OCP) Commonwealth

Interoperability Coordinator’s Office (CICO)– Virginia Information Technologies Agency’s (VITA) Public Safety

Communications (PSC) Division– Virginia Information Technologies Agency’s (VITA) Virginia Geographic

Information Network (VGIN)– Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM)

• The Committee’s goals and objectives are based on current strategic planning documents and exercises. The Committee is focused on aligning its resources and achieving its goals by leveraging existing resources, relationships, and infrastructure