During this week's Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Urban Shield training exercise, SWAT and Tactical Response teams participated in 29 individual events ranging from Search Warrant Service to Active Shooter/Immediate Action Team scenarios.
Our partners at Verizon, recommended LiveCast for mobile video communications and command center monitoring. LiveCast's technology was evaluated for live situational awareness from the field, for many months prior to the event, and subsequently selected as a core component of the exercise and integrated into the overall protocol.
Teams arrived this past Friday, October 14, 2011, and received mission and safety briefings as well as an introduction to LiveCast's technology to be used in the training scenarios.
LiveCast Command Center was used during the event by Emergency Operations Center (EOP) to enable viewing from IP security cam feeds, and from individual tactical teams with mobile devices. LiveCast also provided live feed monitoring of Unmanned Aerial Vehicals (UAV) drones flying overhead.
In addition, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) teams where outfitted with LiveCast enabled HTC Thunderbolts and Samsung Tablets for secure, real-time communications between field stations, base EMS and EOC, and mobile personnel, such as the Chief Medical Officer. For example, when a vehical exploided using C4 explosives, operations staff were immediately able to view the incident live using LiveCast Command Center on a laptop, and field personnel watched on their handsets.
LiveCast's integrated GPS tracking and group mapping functionality was also utilized by operation teams. LiveCast's advantages of ensuring secure transmissions, 2-way video communications, and less than .5 sec latency, all assisted in the objective of improving situational awareness. The training events culminated yesterday, after four 12 hour operational periods.
Alameda County Sheriff, Gregory J. Ahern, expressed his appreciation for all participants and technology partners during the final evening event. Verizon, LiveCast and Cisco were three of the few technology companies specifically recognized for their contributions. Regarding LiveCast, Sheriff Ahern commented, "I wouldn't have believed this technology was possible, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes!"
This event was not limited to teams from the regional area, but was open to any team wishing to participate from the Boston Police Department, to French National Police “Research, Assistance, Intervention, and Dissuasion” (R.A.I.D.) Team. Observers from Jordan, Bahrain and the State of Israel also participated in the training scenarios.
The LiveCast team has began working with individual groups participating in the exercise, and looks forward to assisting Urban Shield organization with events in the future!
