The City"s 9-1-1 emergency assistance system consists of the following components:

· Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) 9-1-1 equipment;

· PSAP Call Evaluators who answer all 9-1-1 calls initially, process police-related calls, and transfer Fire/EMS-related calls to Fire/EMS Call Evaluators for processing;

· Fire/EMS Call Evaluators who process Fire/EMS-related calls that have been transferred by the PSAP Call Evaluators;

· Combined Police and Fire-EMS Computer Aided Dispatch system and separate Automated Information Systems (AIS);

· Wide Area Network systems connecting fire stations and police stations to the CECC;

· Police and Fire Local Area Networks at each facility; and,

· Mobile Data Terminals installed in all responding vehicles.

For emergency communications, the City uses a 23 frequency, 800 MHz Radio System, developed by Motorola. The system includes a 5-channel wireless data network and metropolitan area network that provide high-speed data communications from CAD/AIS to Police and Fire/EMS Mobile Data Terminals (MDT). The Radio System allows the Police, Fire, Parking and Traffic, and Sheriff"s departments the capability to use 48 unique or shared talk groups.

According to the Fire Department"s MIS Director, from 1976 until 1996, the Department used a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system developed by PRC, Inc., in the Central Fire Alarm Station (CFAS) located adjacent to the new Combined Emergency Communications Center (CECC) on Turk Street. In 1996, while still at the same location, the Department converted to an Interim CAD (ICAD) system, also developed by PRC, Inc., because the original CAD system had been in operation for 20 years and was no longer going to be supported by PRC. Following the EMS merger in 1997, Fire Dispatch operations were relocated to Potrero and 25^th streets in early 1998, and combined with the Central Medical Emergency Dispatch (CMED) to become Fire/EMS Dispatch. On April 12, 2000, the Department"s dispatch operations were transferred to an Enhanced CAD system in the CECC at 1011 Turk Street.

CAD/AIS Project Concerns

TRW, Inc. (TRW) and the City entered into an Enhanced Computer Aided Dispatch and Automated Information System Project Agreement in September of 1997. On July 5, 2001, the City and TRW entered into a Settlement and Mutual Release Agreement (Settlement Agreement) because "the City and TRW were unable to resolve a number of disputed issues relating to the scope of work under the Project Agreement, delays in project performance, and the City"s imposition of $1.5 million in liquidated damages . . .." According to the Fire Department"s management information systems (MIS) staff, as a result of various Project problems, numerous functions of the CAD/AIS systems are completely or partially non-functional.

Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD)

The CAD system is designed to provide a flexible and functional dispatch service for the San Francisco Fire Department. The CAD provides the dispatcher with a recommendation for the dispatch of units based on call type. These call-types include medical calls (shortness of breath, chest pain, etc.), fire calls (smoke in building, brush fires, etc.), rescue calls (cliff rescues, surf rescues, etc.), and technical rescue calls (hazardous material, bomb threats etc.). The CAD organizes its recommendations for dispatch based on geographical stationing of units, unit types, and medical response patterns.

The CAD distributes dispatch messages to dispatch-alerting terminals installed in all fire stations, and to MDTs installed in all Fire Department operational units. The CAD is also designed to interface with AIS applications for various administrative functions. Although the CAD is designed to interface with graphic map displays and Automatic Vehicle Locating (AVL) systems installed in all Fire Department ambulances, this functionality is not currently used by the Fire Department. Additionally, the 800 MHz radio system has been designed to interface seamlessly with the Tiburon CAD and can display the identity of the sending unit with each radio transmission.

While each CAD dispatch recommendation is the result of a computer algorithm, the Fire/EMS Dispatch must be prepared to operate efficiently in a manual mode because of CAD down periods that, according to the MIS section, have occurred at least 30 times since the cutover to the Enhanced CAD on April 12, 2000.

The CAD will sometimes produce erroneous recommendations that must be manually countermanded by a Dispatcher. The following two dispatches are examples of CAD recommendations that had to be countermanded by the Dispatcher.

On May 23, 2001, at 15:11:04, a Call Evaluator entered an SIB (smoke in building) entry into the CAD and transferred the incident to the "Hot Seat," which is the position designated for dispatching Code 3 (most serious) fire and medical calls. The Hot Seat dispatch resulted in only Engine 42 responding to the initial call, whereas a total of eight units, including one Battalion Chief, three engines, two trucks, one heavy rescue unit, and one ambulance should have been dispatched. At 15:12:28, one minute and 12 seconds after the initial dispatch, the Division Controller re-dispatched the remaining units. The remaining units began responding at 15:13:05, approximately two minutes after the call was transferred to the Hot Seat.

Fire/EMS Dispatch reported the incident to the Department of Telecommunications and Information Services (DTIS), which has assumed maintenance responsibility for the CAD. According to the Battalion Chief in charge of Fire/EMS Dispatch, DTIS and Tiburon (the company that developed the CAD software) were unable to identify or duplicate the problem, and closed the problem ticket on August 23, 2001.

On August 29,2001, at 1909 hours, Engine 2, which is located in Chinatown at Powell and Broadway, was dispatched to a reported "smoke-in-building" incident at 499 Illinois Street, located on Potrero Hill, approximately three miles away and through the Downtown area. Approximately two and one-half minutes later, Engine 2 was preempted and replaced by Engine 25, which is located at 3305 3^rd Street, and which is approximately 1.3 miles from the reported incident.

In response to the Budget Analyst"s inquiry concerning the foregoing incident, the Battalion Chief in charge of Fire/EMS Dispatch has provided the memorandum included as Attachment 1.11.1 to this report. The Battalion Chief has stated "The problem identified with this dispatch was that the fireboat unit identifier "FB" was omitted from the original FRES¹ pattern for Box 2374, resulting in an automatic dispatch of Engine 2 to the incident location, instead of to the fireboat. The Battalion Chief also stated "Many of the dispatchers are relatively new in the Department and are unfamiliar with the unique locations requiring a fireboat response. This fact, coupled with the "FB" identifier being omitted from the FRES pattern, resulted in the original dispatch." The Battalion Chief has also stated that there are thousands of FRES patterns and other data tables that were manually built into the CAD system and that most errors can be traced to inaccurate data entry. Finally, the Battalion Chief has stated that the error rate is approximately one in every 4,700 dispatches, or 0.02 percent.

DTIS has provided the Budget Analyst with a listing of "Tiburon Open Issues" which, according to the DTIS manager who provided the listing, represents the most serious defects and the most desired enhancements needed to make the CAD fully functional. We have included the "Tiburon Open Issues" listing as Attachment 1.11.2 to this report section.

Automated Information System (AIS)

The purpose of the AIS is to support various administrative functions of the Fire Department, and to augment the CAD system by providing incident report entry, personnel assignment and scheduling, and information on buildings from the Fire Prevention system. The Automated Information System (AIS) consists of three subsystems, as shown below.

· Human Resource Management System (HRMS)

· Records Management System (RMS)

· UCS Co. Applications (UCS)

Attachment 1.11.3 to this report, provided by the Fire Department"s MIS section, shows the modules that are associated with each subsystem; whether the module is usable, being used, and its status; the responsible office; and the approximate cost of modifying or replacing the function, where necessary.

As shown on page one of Attachment 1.11.3, the HRMS modules are mainly functional and being used, with the exception of the Doctor"s Office module, which has patient confidentiality issues.

Page two of Attachment 1.11.3 lists the RMS modules. As shown, the California Fire/Non-Fire Incident Reporting System (CFIRS) will be upgraded to the National Fire/Non-Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) by 2002. The Department intends to replace the unusable Inventory and Company Inspection modules with HRMS fixes. However, the most serious shortcoming is the lack of a means of capturing fire prevention inspection data for real-time use by fire suppression personnel. This shortcoming is discussed further below.

Page three of Attachment 1.11.3 displays information on the two UCS modules. The Patient Care Reporting module was developed for use by EMS personnel in the field to record required patient identification, patient treatment, and other data. However, as shown in Attachment 1.11.3, the effort was abandoned in 1999 for the reasons indicated. According to the MIS section, the Department is investigating alternative means of capturing patient information in the field, electronically.

The Mobile Data Terminal module refers to the terminals that are located in fire suppression and EMS units and are used for two-way communication between Fire/EMS Dispatch and the units. Use of MDTs greatly reduces the amount of radio traffic because each unit can report its status electronically. Also, prior to using MDTs, all units dispatched to an incident were assumed to be on scene at the time for the first arriving unit. However, according to the MIS section, the Department is investigating replacing the existing MDTs because the laptop models used have proven to be fragile, non-user friendly, and the manufacturer is discontinuing support.

Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL) System

An Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL) system uses ground positioning satellites, transceivers, and computers to enable Dispatchers to determine the location of emergency response vehicles properly equipped, thus permitting dispatch of the closest available emergency response unit to an incident. In some jurisdictions, such as Phoenix, Arizona, AVL systems reduce response times by keeping track of the location of each fire suppression and EMS unit, and by programming the CAD system to recommend unit dispatches based on the AVL input and the requirements of the incident type.

The AVL system designed for the City"s Enhanced CAD system is intended to provide graphic display of ambulance units only onto CAD mapping for use by Dispatchers. When the system is fully functioning and correctly calibrated, the Dispatcher would be able to visually locate ambulances in the City, identify their actual locations, and use the information to dispatch the physically closest unit to critical medical incidents.

According to the Fire Department"s MIS section, due to deficiencies in the mapping function of the Tiburon CAD, the AVL system has been difficult to maintain and operate, and that without a fully functioning mapping system, the units are unable to display their true locations, rendering the AVL useless for Dispatchers. According to the MIS section, a functional CAD mapping system, recently repaired by the vendor, has allowed the Department to resume the required maintenance necessary to make AVL a usable part of the dispatch system.

Lack of Fire Suppression Access to Fire Prevention Information

Page 2 of Attachment 1.11.3 lists two Fire Prevention modules, as follows:

Fire suppression officers responding to fire emergencies do not have access to such information as the location of standpipes, sprinkler information, the location of any fuel or acid tanks, or any other information that would help in developing the firefighting plan. Although Attachment 1.11.3 states that the Fire Prevention module "Requires Field Collection program (see next item)," other jurisdictions have manually input the information into a Fire Prevention database. The following examples are from Premise Alerts provided by the Phoenix Fire Department.

Update timestamp 050501 / 0154 by GD0117<<

Low/High Premise Address: 04430 to 04430 OR Radius: 00.0

Entry Date: 080601 Retention: ***Hazmat?Y Drawing?_Auto Send?_Y

TEXT: Columbus Chemical. BLDG. Houses 100 gal 70% Nitric Acid

Distillation System. Bldg Has Containment - No Sprinklers. Exterior Hazmat: 7000 gal tank of 70% Nitric Acid with Containment.

Distillation Process will shutdown upon loss of power.

Update timestamp 080901 / 1822 by SS1456<<

Low/High Premise Address_____ to _____OR Radius: 00.0

Entry Date: 081301 Retention: ***Hazmat?Y Drawing?_Auto Send?_Y

TEXT: L&M MARBLE. 6700 gal. Tank of styrene monomer (flammable

liquid) inside of bldg on SE side. Area has containment & protected by

foam-water deluge sprinklers. Fire Dept. Conn. on N.E. corner of Bldg.

NOTE: Styrene Monomer can polymerize if heated & block tank relief valves. -BLEVE HAZARD- Auth C547

As shown in the two examples, extremely important information concerning incident locations can, and should be made available to fire suppression personnel.

Attachment 1.11.4 to this report section shows an update to the Premise Alert Function within the Phoenix Fire Department whereby information contained in the Premise Alert will be automatically sent to the MDTs of the units assigned to the incident.

The San Francisco Fire Department needs to develop such a capability as soon as possible.

Conclusion

TRW, Inc., and the City entered into an agreement in September 1997 for TRW to deliver an enhanced Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD)/ Automated Information System (AIS). The CAD is designed to select the appropriate fire suppression/EMS unit or units for dispatch and record the time sensitive events that transpire between receipt of an emergency call and incident closure. The AIS was developed to support a variety of administrative functions, including providing certain information to the CAD. The systems became operational in April 2000.

TRW and the City entered into a Settlement Agreement effective July 5, 2001, because the City and TRW were unable to resolve a number of disputed issues relating to the scope of work under the Project Agreement, including delays in contractor performance and the City"s imposition of $1.5 million in liquidated damages.

The usefulness and reliability of the CAD/AIS systems are impaired due to significant defects that have not been corrected, and certain desired enhancements that have not been implemented. For example, the Automatic Vehicle Locating (AVL) system, intended to provide graphic display of ambulance units onto CAD mapping for use by dispatchers, is not used primarily because of problems in the mapping function. Also, according to the Fire Department"s MIS section, the Inventory and Facilities modules are unusable.

A significant deficiency in the Fire Department"s fire suppression operations is the lack of on-line fire prevention information available to fire suppression officers responding to fires. For example, information such as the presence of any hazardous materials at a fire location is not readily available.

Recommendations

The Fire Department and the Emergency Communications Department should:

1.11.1 Jointly develop a prioritized list of defects and desired enhancements to the CAD/AIS, and work with the Department of Telecommunications and the CAD/AIS contractors to obtain the full-required functions of those systems.

1.11.2 Jointly develop and execute a plan to obtain full functioning of the AVL system to assist in dispatching medical units.

The Fire Department should:

1.11.3 Adopt a plan for developing the complete operational capability of supplying Fire Prevention information to units responding to emergency incidents. The plan should be submitted to the Mayor and to the Board of Supervisors.

Costs and Benefits

The Fire Department"s MIS section estimates the cost of fixing the AIS modules will be approximately $3 million. To that figure must be added the cost of manually inputting relevant Fire Prevention data into the Fire Prevention database so that the MDTs and the CAD can access the information. As with as complex computer systems, ongoing maintenance of and improvements to the CAD/AIS will be required.

By implementing the recommended changes, the Fire Department will be able to more effectively utilize the CAD/AIS, potentially be able to reduce response times by being better able to identify emergency units for call response, and improve firefighter safety and suppression success by having immediate access to critical prevention information at the fire scene.

¹ FRES is the abbreviation for "fire response."