Issue link: https://let.epubxp.com/i/473011
www.officer.com March 2015 Law Enforcement Technology 19 environment. This was the original goal back in 1985 before CAD and RMS systems were adopted as technology standard across the policing world and became an essential tool. Critical incident response One of the key areas that make tech- nology like CAD and RMS essential to law enforcement is critical incident response. The department decided it was time to upgrade their capabilities in the early planning stages of a large scale inter-agency readiness exercise. They presented a business case to the city and received approval for a new mobile command center (MCC) to be purchased and fitted out with the latest technology to assist in the coor- dination and inter-agency cooperative effort required in the event of a full scale incident. Previously, West Covina Police Department's MCC was a 1987 Winnebago, which "had been technologically outdated for over a decade and served no real emergency coordination role, other than to act as a shelter from bad weather and pro- vide a rallying point for departmental operations during previous incidents," said Lieutenant Pat Benschop, com- mander of West Covina Police's Special Problems Detail. Lt. Benschop's responsibilities cover operational man- agement of West Covina's specialist units such as the SWAT Team, Crisis Negotiation Team, Tactical Robotics Squad and K9 Unit. Now the MCC is fitted out with the latest technology has to offer law enforcement. It has mobile Wi-Fi to allow both internal and external use of Wi-Fi signals to incident response agencies, a mobile tactical com- munications center, fitted with large operations viewing screen, CAD/RMS terminals, and a private compartmen- talized area where crisis negotiators can operate without interruptions or distractions. In an incident that involves a SWAT response, the mobile command center serves as the nucleus of support and command level operations for West Covina. The tactical communications center portion of the mobile command center is then staffed with two specially trained police dispatchers who man- age all radio traffic from SWAT and robotics operators. The dispatchers also coordinate command requests for additional resources. Crisis Negotiators work out of the MCC in their purpose designed area where command can also monitor their progress on a real-time basis, which becomes paramount to Above: Officers and staff view the newly delivered mobile command center outside West Covina Police headquarters. At Left: Computer aided dispatch systems seen in policing today can trace their roots to software developed by the West Covina Police Service Group, an internal department of the West Covin Police started in 1985. At Right: West Covina's Chief of Police, Dave Faulkner embraces technology to create solutions to better serve the citizens of West Covina. A W p S R s Photos courtesy of West Covina (Calif.) Police