Community for Cops
Mike Bostic, of Raytheon Corp.'s Civil Communication Solutions group, specializes in open architecture, systems integration of communications and data programs. Mike spent 34 years with the LAPD, holding commands from communications and information technology to assistant chief. He was also a member of several LAPD steering committees, overseeing IT and facility development as well as the SWAT Board of Inquiry, which developed new command and control systems.
Raytheon has developed one of the nation's first strictly IP-based interoperable dispatch systems supporting smartphones and tablets working with Twisted Pair Solutions, a Seattle-based provider of mission-critical solutions for secure, real-time communication.
The term "failsoft" refers to any failover condition that causes a digital trunked radio system to not trunk. This is most commonly caused by a loss of the control channel that subscriber radios use when communicating to the towers to assign a resource.
The APCO Project 25 (P25) Phase 2 standard is now ready for critical communications users. This further advancement of P25 was intended to improve upon the digital public safety radio communications standards used by first-responders, homeland security, emergency response professionals, and other agencies.
On a timeline of public safety innovation and advancements, 2012 will be marked as a blockbuster year. The creation of the National Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN) and forward movement in next-generation 911 (NG911) marked a 180-degree turn from just a few years ago. And it's about time.
Technology companies can no longer take a proprietary view that shies away from open architecture and cross-platform partnerships. In our multidimensional and complex world, partnerships offer cost-efficient, workable solutions for public safety.
FirstNet (the First Responder Network Authority) will oversee the building and operation of the new nationwide public safety broadband network. The board as a whole can't allow the politics of business and Congress to shape a system with limited capabilities and limited competition.
Many of us now carry smartphones, laptops, and tablet computers with us everywhere, making our preferred mode of reporting an emergency—by cell, text, photo or video—incompatible with the current system. For example, when callers dial 911 from their smartphone, that telephone number no longer equates to a fixed location.
When this LTE (Long Term Evolution) system hits the streets for public safety, we'll see dramatic and immediate changes. For example, a sheriff might share a video of an escaping criminal and use predictive solutions to determine where he's headed, then send squad cars to that site to quickly apprehend him.
Raytheon's new Public Safety Regional Technology Center in Southern California provides an avenue for developing next-gen law enforcement technologies.
The UCLA Public Safety Network Systems Laboratory is dedicated to advancing public safety through a focus on the development of networks and operations technologies, analysis of LTE technologies, adoption of devices such as smartphones, and establishment of standards for interoperable network systems.