LAFD, County Health Department Use FirstNet to Improve Public Safety Comms
FirstNet® and Safe Environment Engineering are providing Los Angeles City Fire Department and Los Angeles County Department of Public Health with new capabilities and reliable access to critical information while in the field. These tech advancements allow first responders and other personnel who support them to better serve those who live, work and visit the city and county of Los Angeles.
LAFD and Los Angeles County Department of Public Health are connecting its firefighters, first responders and other personnel to FirstNet – the only nationwide, high-speed broadband communications platform dedicated to and purpose-built for America’s first responders and the extended public safety community. LAFD uses FirstNet on frontline apparatus, vehicles, modems, routers, and department-issued smartphones, while LA County Department of Public Health Radiation Management use FirstNet services on smartphones.
FirstNet, Built with AT&T is a public- private partnership with the First Responder Network Authority – an independent agency within the federal government. It is designed to improve communications across public safety entities nationwide, allowing first responders to communicate with one another easily and quickly during everyday situations, big events or emergencies. This is integral to solving the communications challenges public safety has experienced in the past.
Safe Environment Engineering provides an IoT system solution for collecting, monitoring, displaying, notifying and aggregating instrumentation sensor data, including the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and high yield Explosives (CBRNE) family of devices. First responders and other personnel use Safe Environment Engineering solutions to detect and monitor CBRNE hazardous situations, such as gas leaks, refinery explosions, and poisonous plumes/clouds.
The Safe Environment Engineering solutions support access to the physically separate and dedicated FirstNet network core, which enables First Priority® capabilities on FirstNet – always-on priority and, for first responders, preemption – and the Band 14 spectrum. LAFD and LA County Department of Public Health feel confident the Safe Environment Engineering solution combined with FirstNet services will provide the necessary critical connectivity they need in a reliable, highly secure and cost-effective manner.
“Working with Safe Environment Engineering and FirstNet we have established a Los Angeles County wide radiation detection network,” said Jeffrey Day, Director, Radiation Management, Environmental Health, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. “This system is utilized regularly and was key in our response efforts during the Fukushima disaster.”
As part of the agreement through the FirstNet Embedded IoT Program - a program that allows for industry leading FirstNet eligible devices to be combined with FirstNet service to create a single, end-to-end solution that a solution provider such as Safe Environment Engineering can sell to FirstNet-eligible customers for a single monthly fee – the Safe Environment Engineering solution will include FirstNet connectivity.
FirstNet embedded solutions go through extensive review, so first responders can be confident that the Safe Environment Engineering solution meets the highest standards for reliability, security and performance.
“The Los Angeles City Fire Department utilizes Safe Environment Engineering’s systems both as component of our Hazmat Teams Personal Protective Equipment as well as being an integral component of our Hazmat apparatus, said Captain Robert M. Dunivin, Los Angeles City Fire Department, Homeland Security Division - CBRNE/Hazmat Section, Joint Hazard Assessment Team. “Combined with FirstNet, we have the connectivity and capabilities we need to keep our first responders and Angelenos safe.”
“We’re honored that LAFD and LA County Department of Public Health chose FirstNet to elevate their communications capabilities,” said Stacy Schwartz, vice president, FirstNet and Public Safety at AT&T. “It’s our mission to give first responders the cutting-edge tools they need to safely and effectively achieve their mission. FirstNet will help first responders in Los Angeles and across the country perform at the highest levels to keep themselves and those they serve out of harm’s way.”
“FirstNet is the exclusive communications platform being built with AT&T for public safety, inspired by public safety. There is no substitution for this purpose-built network,” said FirstNet Authority CEO Edward Parkinson. “We look forward to supporting LAFD and LA County Department of Public Health and all of California’s public safety community with FirstNet, making sure it delivers what they need, when they need it.”
To learn more about Los Angeles Fire Department, visit lafd.org and for Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, visit publichealth.lacounty.gov.
To learn about the Safe Environment Engineering IoT solution visit safeenv.com
For more about the value FirstNet is bringing to public safety, check out FirstNet.com. And go here for more FirstNet news.
