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Chris Essid: The Office of Emergency Communications is the Federal focal
point for interoperable emergency communications throughout the Nation
—that’s at all levels of government. It was created about two and a half years
ago; I’m the first director. And really, we just create a forum where Federal
responders can work with State and local first responders like Chief Reyes
here, and we can share best practices and lessons learned so that these
communities don’t have to start from scratch or re-invent the wheel
whenever they’re taking on one of these initiatives. This is a team sport—
the interoperable emergency communications problem is one that
all first responders have 99 percent of the same problem. When they can’t
communicate, bad things happen. So we just really try to provide that forum
where they can get together with their peers and give us recommendations
on what we need to do to improve interoperable emergency
communications.
Deputy Chief Eddie Reyes: It has always been a practitioner-driven
approach. In other words, we never felt at the State level, and now at the
Federal level, that this was the State government or the Federal government
telling us what was best for us. This was the State government and the
government telling us, “Come in, speak with us candidly about what you think
works best in this ideal arena.”
Essid: Some of you might be asking, “What is coded language or
10-codes?” and “Why do we have to change and move away from them?"
Well, the National Incident Management System—otherwise known as NIMS
—required responders to move from coded language to plain language in
mutual aid situations. The problem we’re dealing with today is not a
technology problem. It’s things like 10-codes and other human problems—or
what we call coordination activities—that is 90% of the problem,
10-codes being a perfect example. 10-codes themselves wouldn’t be bad if
they were standardized across the Nation. They’re not.
Deputy Chief Reyes: Fire and EMS, they get this. They are already in a
plain language protocol, so for the most part, this is, they can’t understand
why the cops aren’t doing this already.
Essid:There are a lot of myths when it comes to common language and
the transition from 10-codes, and I was going to run a few by you and just
get your gut reaction to them. The first one being that I’ll lose my security for
my communications if I give up my 10-codes and move to plain language.
What’s your reaction to that?
Deputy Chief Reyes: Well, that’s one of the biggest myths that’s out
there, Chris. I’m glad you brought that one up. As everyone knows, all of our
coded language is on the Internet. You know, with the wide open use of the
Internet today, anyone has access to any municipality’s 10-codes, so this
thought that your communication is secure is nothing but a myth.
Really, the only way to achieve total voice security, if that’s what you’re
trying to protect, is encryption. We all know that, you know, our 10-codes
are out there on the Internet, they’re very widely used.
Essid: Here’s another myth: it’s going to take a lot longer for me to
communicate the same message if I don’t use 10-codes and I use plain
language. What’s your reaction to that?
Deputy Chief Reyes: Well, again, that’s probably the second most
common myth. Take this example, this is an actual radio transmission:
“Send me a signal 2 for a 10-99, code 3.”
There I used three different codes, “10,” “code,” and “signal,” and it took me
quite a bit of air space. Now, saying the same thing in plain language is,
“Send me a backup for a wanted person, lights and sirens.”
Did that sound any longer than using the 10-code?
Essid:No, not at all.
Deputy Chief Reyes: And any person hearing that from a
neighboring jurisdiction would very quickly know, I have a wanted
person, I need a backup, and I need them there now.
Essid: Yeah, and and I think Chief Reyes that you would agree with me,
that this is a culture change. I mean, some of these first responders,
primarily law enforcement, have been using 10-codes their entire
professional career, and so it’s a culture change. And anything where
you have a culture change that you’re trying to implement, it takes time;
it takes a lot of effort to get people to transition.
Deputy Chief Reyes: So the implementation has to be well
thought out.
Essid:Yeah, and that’s one of the things the Department of Homeland
Security is doing by sharing best practices, lessons learned, providing
technical assistance. We’ve been training a lot of folks on how to provide
this service to really help States and localities deal with this transition.
So, you’re not alone—there are resources out there to help you with
these transitions.