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<br />. <br />ORANGE COUNTY FIRE RESCUE STUDY <br />COUNTYWIDE RECOMMENDATIONS <br />1 to acquire the needed radios for the conversion. Also, the County has not set aside <br />2 funds to acquire the radios that will be required to make the system work. Our <br />3 department specific recommendations provide a listing of the radios needed by <br />4 each of the organizational units for proper implementation. <br />5 <br />6 Emergency services delivery requires a comprehensive communications system <br />7 through which all the providers can communicate. The reality is that the system <br />8 will be an abysmal failure if there are components of the system (i.e., emergency <br />9 service providers) that are unable to communicate over the system. <br />10 <br />11 As the 800 MHz. system is unplemented, we believe that in the first year 2 <br />12 additional communications specialists aze required and another 2 in the second <br />13 year. We estimate the cost of this to be approximately $100,000 this year and <br />14 another $100,000 additional next year. <br />15 <br />16 The communications center will need additional communicators/dispatchers as the <br />17 800 MHz. system is implemented. The use of computer truncated tackical channels <br />18 and "talk groups" necessitates that channels being used by significant incidents <br />19 (working fires, mass casualty EMS calls, and natural disasters) are monitored and <br />20 are part of the incident management process. While the EOC will ultimately be <br />21 activated for some of these incidents, even in those cases telecommunicators are <br />22 required to provide logistical and communication support to the incident as well as <br />23 handle other "normal" emergency traffic. <br />24 <br />25 Communication and call response protocols should be an integrated part of the <br />26 Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system. While the Emergency Communications <br />27 Center is technologically sound, some of the procedures relating to fire department <br />28 support are comparable to those used in the 1960s. The cazd/notebook system for <br />29 response protocols is antiquated and should be replaced. Deparhnents have limped <br />30 along using this process for many years now and the project could begin with <br />31 existing resources as available and be completed with additional project funds, <br />32 possibly funded by a grant, in the second year of our planning horizon. <br />33 Implementation might also include the use of students who could be paid on an <br />34 hourly basi.s to aid in the data input. <br />35 <br />101 <br />