Cisco Cisco IPICS Release 2.1 Guia De Informação

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Customer Case Study 
 
© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. 
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Sheriff’s Department Increases Situational Awareness 
During Fires 
San Diego County used the Network Emergency Response Vehicle to more effectively 
manage response to the Harris Fire. 
Business Challenge 
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 
SAN DIEGO COUNTY SHERIFF’S 
DEPARTMENT 
●  Public Safety 
●  San Diego, California 
●  4000 employees 
BUSINESS CHALLENGE 
●  Protect lives and property 
●  Collaborate effectively with other local, state, 
and national agencies 
NETWORK SOLUTION 
●  Mobile vehicle with multiple communications 
technologies 
●  Communications interoperability system and 
Unified IP phones 
BUSINESS RESULTS 
●  Increased situational awareness 
●  Effectively managed people and resources 
●  Improved first-responder safety 
On October 20, 2007, a series of severe wildfires 
swept across Southern California, fueled by drought 
conditions, hot weather, and unusually strong winds. 
Multiple state and national agencies joined San 
Diego County first responders to fight the fires and 
protect area residents’ homes and lives. 
 
Among those agencies was the San Diego County 
Sheriff’s Department, the county’s chief law 
enforcement agency. With approximately 4000 sworn 
officers and professional support staff, the 
department provides services to a population of 
850,000 people living in a 4200 square-mile area. 
During fires, the Sheriff’s Department coordinates 
neighborhood evacuations, provides security in 
evacuation centers, supports first responders on the 
fire line, and assists the Highway Patrol at traffic-
control points. “We count on effective communications within our department and with other 
agencies to achieve our mission,” says Lieutenant Margaret Sanfilippo. “In particular, we need early 
awareness of which way the fire is headed so that we can put evacuation plans in place.”  
San Diego County public safety agencies have honed their fire response from long experience. But 
communications remains a challenge. For daily operations, Sheriff’s deputies communicate with 
each other and with command using 800-MHz radios and personal cell phones. During 
emergencies, they can communicate with other county agencies on a shared frequency, but not 
with state and national first responders, which use incompatible radio systems. Therefore, when the 
fires began, the Sheriff’s Department and other county agencies could not communicate directly 
with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), which provided 
operational incident command.