NCJ Number
211933
Date Published
2004
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This article describes the technical assistance provided by the National Institute of Justice's (NIJ's) National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC)-Northeast in helping the Lake Jackson Police Department (Texas) develop a communication system that enables emergency personnel from different agencies to communicate with one another during joint emergency responses.
Abstract
The system selected uses ACU-1000, which is a switch that can interconnect different radio systems. The ACU-1000 allows wireless communication systems to be combined at the audio baseband by using the received audio from one radio system as the source audio for one or more transmitters with different technologies. Installation in Lake Jackson included an ETS-1 Ethernet connection that allows dispatchers to control the ACU-1000 from their dispatch consoles, eliminating the need to move to access the equipment. Interoperability (communication across agencies with different communication technologies) such as that achieved in Lake Jackson is one of NIJ's research missions under its Communications Technology Program (CommTech). Through CommTech, NIJ hopes to solve both short-term and long-term interoperability problems that involve wireless public safety telecommunications and information technology applications. CommTech is involved in identifying, adopting, and developing interoperability solutions that include open-architecture standards for voice, data, image, and video communication systems that will allow multiple parties to exchange information wherever they are involved in joint operations.