Issue link: http://lawandordermag.epubxp.com/i/144260
Further, while law enforcement is the primary actor in any school-shooting response effort, there are a host of other parties involved. They range from directly impacted parties such as students, teachers and staff, as well as neighboring law enforcement agencies, and other emergency response and support entities such as Fire and EMS and local hospitals providing aid. Improving Operational Effectiveness Through the use of real-time interoperable communications and multimedia sharing technologies, these rapid-response challenges can be mitigated and overall response and operational effectiveness improved. In the frst school shooter exercise conducted in Connecticut after Sandy Hook, the Hartford, Conn. Police demonstrated the signifcant benefts that can be realized using a technology of this type called Mutualink. Set up at a local grade school, the Hartford Police conducted several exercises involving the school staff, the area school resource offcer (SRO), responding HPD patrol units, HPD SWAT, the Hartford Offce of Emergency Management (OEM), St. Francis Hospital, a local trauma facility, and Sonitrol Security of Hartford, a local security monitoring company. Through Mutualink, all available media and communications systems among the participants were enabled to permit participant communications to be bridged and media assets to be seamlessly shared on an ad-hoc, as-needed basis, including radios, mobile phones, telephones, public announcement systems, and video systems. The Hartford school-shooter exercise scenario involved a shooter near the school with shots fred being reported to police dispatch from a citizen. Thereafter, the suspect forcibly entered the school. From a panic alarm triggered within the school's administrative offce, a distress signal was sent to the school's emergency alarm monitoring company, Sonitrol, which utilizes Mutualink as part of its overall security platform. Through Mutualink, the alarm automatically created an interoperable communications incident between the school, Sonitrol emergency dispatch, HPD dispatch, and Hartford OEM. Instantly, realtime video views from inside the school were transmitted and shared with HPD and OEM. At the same time, HPD radios Officers from the Hartford, Conn. Police rush into the school in response to a report of an active shooter during an April 2013 drill. Mutualink's IP-based peer-to-peer interoperability platform enables situational awareness trhough the sharing of audio, video, text and data in real time. were bridged with the school's internal radio system, enabling HPD dispatch and feld offcers en route, OEM, and the area SRO to communicate with school personnel inside the school. As offcers responded and entered, the suspect's location inside the school was determined and continuously tracked through the school video system. The school video system views were shared in real time with HPD dispatch, OEM, and commanders and offcers on the ground via Mutualink. Additionally, school maps were shared through Mutualink with all par- ties to enable actual location and orientation to be determined for responders. In one exercise fight, this proved very useful as personnel in dispatch observed an offcer heading down the wrong hall, and through the radio system they were able to quickly communicate with the offcer and redirect him with visual landmarks. ("No. Back out and head down the yellow hall on your left.") Through Mutualink, the Sonitrol audio monitoring system was able to listen in to events occurring inside the school and share them live with offcers and commanders on the ground. Additionally, www.lawandordermag.com 17