Southeast Communications Center (SECOMM) - Emergency Management Functionality

Subsystem Description

The Emergency Management (EM) Subsystem represents public safety, emergency management, and other allied agency systems that support incident management, disaster response and evacuation, security monitoring, and other security and public safety-oriented ITS applications. The subsystem 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 subsystem also represents other allied systems including centers associated with towing and recovery, freeway service patrols, HAZMAT response teams, and mayday service providers.  

The subsystem 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). The subsystem provides security/surveillance services to improve traveler security in public areas not a part of the public transportation system.  

This subsystem monitors alerts, advisories, and other threat information and prepares for and responds to identified emergencies. It interfaces with other Emergency Management Subsystems to support coordinated emergency response involving multiple agencies. The subsystem stores, coordinates, and utilizes emergency response and evacuation plans to facilitate this coordinated response. As the response progresses, situation information including damage assessments, response status, evacuation information, and resource information are shared to keep all allied agencies appraised of the response. Interface with the Transit Management Subsystem allows coordinated use of transit vehicles to facilitate response to major emergencies and to support evacuation efforts. The Emergency Management Subsystem 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.  

The subsystem tracks and manages emergency vehicle fleets using real-time road network status and routing information from the other center subsystems to aide in selecting the emergency vehicle(s) and routes that will provide the most timely response. Interface with the Traffic Management Subsystem allows strategic coordination in tailoring 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 Area: Emergency Call-Taking

Provides interface to the emergency call-taking systems such as the Emergency Telecommunications System (e.g., 911) that correlate call information with emergencies reported by transit agencies, commercial vehicle operators, or other public safety agencies. Allows the operator to verify the incident and forward the information to the responding agencies.

ID	Requirement	Status
1	The center shall support the interface to the Emergency Telecommunications System (e.g. 911 or 7-digit call routing) to receive emergency notification information and provide it to the emergency system operator.	Existing
2	The center shall receive emergency call information from 911 services and present the possible incident information to the emergency system operator.	Existing
9	The center shall forward the verified emergency information to the responding agency based on the location and nature of the emergency.	Existing
10	The center shall update the incident information log once the emergency system operator has verified the incident.	Existing

Functional Area: Emergency Data Collection

Collection and storage of information related to Emergency Management. For use by operations personnel or data archives in the region.

Functional Area: Emergency Dispatch

Dispatch emergency vehicles to incidents, tracking their location and status. Pertinent incident information is gathered and relayed to the responding units.

ID	Requirement	Status
3	The center shall relay location and incident details to the responding vehicles.	Existing
4	The center shall track the location and status of emergency vehicles responding to an emergency based on information from the emergency vehicle.	Existing
5	The center shall store and maintain the emergency service responses in an action log.	Existing