St Louis Metropolitan Police Center - Emergency Management Center Functionality
Subsystem Description
The 'Emergency Management Center' represents systems that support incident management, disaster response and evacuation, security monitoring, and other security and public safety–oriented ITS applications. It includes the functions associated with fixed and mobile public safety communications centers including public safety call taker and dispatch centers operated by police (including transit police), fire, and emergency medical services. It includes the functions associated with Emergency Operations Centers that are activated at local, regional, state, and federal levels for emergencies and the portable and transportable systems that support Incident Command System operations at an incident. This Center also represents systems associated with towing and recovery, freeway service patrols, HAZMAT response teams, and mayday service providers.
It manages sensor and surveillance equipment used to enhance transportation security of the roadway infrastructure (including bridges, tunnels, interchanges, and other key roadway segments) and the public transportation system (including transit vehicles, public areas such as transit stops and stations, facilities such as transit yards, and transit infrastructure such as rail, bridges, tunnels, or bus guideways). It provides security/surveillance services to improve traveler security in public areas not a part of the public transportation system.
It monitors alerts, advisories, and other threat information and prepares for and responds to identified emergencies. It coordinates emergency response involving multiple agencies with peer centers. It stores, coordinates, and utilizes emergency response and evacuation plans to facilitate this coordinated response. Emergency situation information including damage assessments, response status, evacuation information, and resource information are shared The Emergency Management Center also provides a focal point for coordination of the emergency and evacuation information that is provided to the traveling public, including wide–area alerts when immediate public notification is warranted.
It tracks and manages emergency vehicle fleets using real–time road network status and routing information from the other centers to aid in selecting the emergency vehicle(s) and routes, and works with other relevant centers to tailor traffic control to support emergency vehicle ingress and egress, implementation of special traffic restrictions and closures, evacuation traffic control plans, and other special strategies that adapt the transportation system to better meet the unique demands of an emergency.
Functional Object: Emergency Call-Taking
'Emergency Call–Taking' supports the emergency call–taker, collecting available information about the caller and the reported emergency, and forwarding this information to other objects that formulate and manage the emergency response. It receives 9–1–1, 7–digit local access, and motorist call–box calls and interfaces to other agencies to assist in the verification and assessment of the emergency and to forward the emergency information to the appropriate response agency.
Functional Object: Emergency Dispatch
'Emergency Dispatch' tracks the location and status of emergency vehicles and dispatches these vehicles to incidents. Pertinent incident information is gathered from the public and other public safety agencies and relayed to the responding units. Incident status and the status of the responding units is tracked so that additional units can be dispatched and/or unit status can be returned to available when the incident is cleared and closed.
Functional Object: Emergency Incident Command
'Emergency Incident Command' provides tactical decision support, resource coordination, and communications integration for Incident Commands that are established by first responders at or near the incident scene to support local management of an incident. It supports communications with public safety, emergency management, transportation, and other allied response agency centers, tracks and maintains resource information, action plans, and the incident command organization itself. Information is shared with agency centers including resource deployment status, hazardous material information, traffic, road, and weather conditions, evacuation advice, and other information that enables emergency or maintenance personnel in the field to implement an effective, safe incident response. It supports the functions and interfaces commonly supported by a mobile command center.
Functional Object: Emergency Notification Support
'Emergency Notification Support' receives emergency notification messages from vehicles or personal handheld devices, determines an appropriate response, and either uses internal resources or contacts a local agency to provide that response. The nature of the emergency is determined based on the information in the received message as well as other inputs. This object effectively serves as an interface between automated collision notification systems and the local public safety answering point for messages that require a public safety response. This capability depends on an up–to–date registry of public safety answering points/response agencies by coverage area, the type of emergency, and hours of service.
Functional Object: Emergency Response Management
'Emergency Response Management' provides the strategic emergency response capabilities and broad inter–agency interfaces that are implemented for extraordinary incidents and disasters that require response from outside the local community. It provides the functional capabilities and interfaces commonly associated with Emergency Operations Centers. It develops and stores emergency response plans and manages overall coordinated response to emergencies. It monitors real–time information on the state of the regional transportation system including current traffic and road conditions, weather conditions, special event and incident information. It tracks the availability of resources and assists in the appropriate allocation of these resources for a particular emergency response. It also provides coordination between multiple allied agencies before and during emergencies to implement emergency response plans and track progress through the incident. It also coordinates with the public through the Emergency Telecommunication Systems (e.g., Reverse 911). It coordinates with public health systems to provide the most appropriate response for emergencies involving biological or other medical hazards.
Functional Object: Emergency Routing
'Emergency Routing' supports routing of emergency vehicles and enlists support from the Traffic Management Center to facilitate travel along these routes. Routes may be determined based on real–time traffic information and road conditions or routes may be provided by the Traffic Management Center on request. Vehicles are tracked and routes are based on current vehicle location. It may coordinate with the Traffic Management Center to provide preemption or otherwise adapt the traffic control strategy along the selected route.
Functional Object: Emergency Secure Area Alarm Support
'Emergency Secure Area Alarm Support' receives traveler or transit vehicle operator alarm messages, notifies the system operator, and provides acknowledgement of alarm receipt back to the originator of the alarm. The alarms received can be generated by silent or audible alarm systems and may originate from public areas (e.g. transit stops, park and ride lots, transit stations, rest areas) or transit vehicles. The nature of the emergency may be determined based on the information in the alarm message as well as other inputs.
Functional Object: Emergency Secure Area Sensor Management
'Emergency Secure Area Sensor Management' manages sensors that monitor secure areas in the transportation system, processes the collected data, performs threat analysis in which data is correlated with other sensor, surveillance, and advisory inputs, and then disseminates resultant threat information to emergency personnel and other agencies. In response to identified threats, the operator may request activation of barrier and safeguard systems to preclude an incident, control access during and after an incident or mitigate impact of an incident. The sensors may be in secure areas frequented by travelers (i.e., transit stops, transit stations, rest areas, park and ride lots, modal interchange facilities, on–board a transit vehicle, etc.) or around transportation infrastructure such as bridges, tunnels and transit railways or guideways. The types of sensors include acoustic, threat (e.g. chemical agent, toxic industrial chemical, biological, explosives, and radiological sensors), infrastructure condition and integrity, motion and object sensors.
Functional Object: Emergency Secure Area Surveillance
'Emergency Secure Area Surveillance' monitors surveillance inputs from secure areas in the transportation system. The surveillance may be of secure areas frequented by travelers (i.e., transit stops, transit stations, rest areas, park and ride lots, modal interchange facilities, on–board a transit vehicle, etc.) or around transportation infrastructure such as bridges, tunnels and transit railways or guideways. It provides both video and audio surveillance information to emergency personnel and automatically alerts emergency personnel of potential incidents.