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FOCUS Hartford, CT Active Shooter Exercise During an Active Shooter preparedness drill, the police in Hartford, Conn. conduct a rapid building search. As police run through the school cafeteria, Command & Control stays informed via video cameras from Sonitrol and Mutualink's interoperable communications platform.. commanders on scene were able to visually monitor the event through video, audio and push-to-talk (PTT) communications from a Mutualink LTE wireless iPad application, and HPD dispatch and OEM were able to receive live video streamed from the iPad as events unfolded. Through bridging to the school's public announcement system, Mutualink enabled commanders over radios and from dispatch to broadcast instructions inside the school. Finally, through Mutualink, the St. Francis Hospital emergency operations 18 LAW and ORDER I July 2013 center was able to seamlessly communicate with frst responders and prepare for triage and trauma response. Communications Sharing The Hartford School shooter exercise proved to be a tremendous success. Most importantly, through Mutualink, a powerful and agile communications and media sharing capability, emerged where all communications and media assets were brought to bear and shared as and when needed. This capability transformed a schoolshooter response scenario where responders are entering a school with 1) limited or no situational awareness; 2) no information as to where suspects may be or what they look like; 3) limited understanding of the weapons or threat capabilities they possess; 4) no clear mental picture of the physical premises layout; 5) limited or no communications with school staff seeking instruction and capable of providing valuable information. That almost worst-case information scenario was transformed to an environment where critical information can be exchanged, viewed and monitored in real time to all relevant parties. Essentially, many eyes and ears are connected, bringing the ability to share critical information, assess circumstances in real time, and make more effective operational decisions. With Mutualink, the capability demonstrated is a permanent, always-on, always-available community-wide and community-to-community capability. Minimal training is required because the system is simple and intuitive and does not require communications experts performing diffcult patching through complex systems at times of crisis. Most importantly, the Mutualink system is designed to be a community-wide capability where frst responder agencies and other critical community entities participate in a virtual network. No matter the type of incident or emergency, it offers an all-hazards, all-disciplines real-time collaboration system with ad-hoc capabilities that enable all relevant parties to securely come together as and when needed to share communications and media assets with each other. For schools, the Hartford school shooter exercise demonstrates that technology like Mutualink can make schools safer and save lives. The ability to communicate and see events in real time inside schools, and across agencies and partners when needed, provides critical capabilities that can make a real-world difference in terms of safety outcomes for potential victims as well as responders. Joe Mazzarella is the Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Offcer at Mutualink, Inc. LaO Post your comments on this story by visiting www.lawandordermag.com