Boston's Communications MARATHON to MANHUNT

Fmm,the morning of the Boston Marathon April 15, 2013, through the m moria! for Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) police officer Sean Collier April 24, emergency communications in the Boston region were put to the test. During those 1 0 days fi lled with shock and sadness, we leaned on a foundation of plan­ning, training and coordination to ensure communications could support the work of dozens of federal, state and local law-enforcement and pub­lic-safety agencies through a series of extraordinary events.

Marathon Bombing Aftev .j 17 years, Boston is well

practiced at hosting its marathon, and for the past three decades we have held communications meetings as part of the regular marathon planning. Working with the eight communities along the 26.2-mile race course, as

A firsthand account of emergency communications during the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the 1 0 days that followed including lessons learned.

By Steve Staffier

well as supporting state and federal agencies, we drafted a detailed com­munications plan, Incident Command System (ICS) Form 205, for the event that assigns radio channels to various agencies and functions. For the 2013 race, I acted as communications unit leader (COML) with Blair Sutherland of the Massachusetts State Police as part of the communications unit team. This pre-planning, along with strong relationships and training supported by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Office ofEmer-

gency Communications (OEC), had us ready to maintain reliable commu­nications throughout the event.

On Monday, the race started at 9 a.m. Everything was status quo and working - until 2:49p.m., when the first of two bombs went off near the marathon finish line.

For 90 minutes after the blasts, land and cellular phone lines were saturated with calls. For the average end user, whether they were a citizen on the street or a public-safety profes­sional, this became a problem

24 August 20 13 MissionCritical Communications www.MCCmag .co m

bee Th' rad OUl

res ho1 em thE Gc nic Wi to co

m~

an st~

ne w G1 se m w In sp te st:

c~

ar v~

C<

pi tv

o·

a ~

a n

s tl h b ll

v a r c e 1 \

;-

m

because so many rely on cell phones. The good news is that our two-way radio systems performed well, and our communications plan saw first responders through those chaotic hours after the blasts. The region 's emergency responders also turned to the DHS OEC's priority services -Government Emergency Telecommu­nications Service (GETS) and the Wireless Priority Service (WPS) -to connect calls despite the congested communications lines.

As we transitioned from pre­marathon planning to bomb response and then into the investigation, the state communications team drafted new 205s or communications plans. With the state police and National Guard units working underground to secure the subway system, we created radio nets or patches to connect them with first responders above ground. In addition, we had to ensure regional special weapons and tactical (SWAT) teams could talk with Boston and state police assets and provide logisti­cal and communications support among the radio technicians within various agencies. The investigation communications plan remained in place until Thursday night when the two bombing suspects killed an MIT officer, stole an SUV and engaged in a shootout with police. One suspect was killed; the other escaped.

Manhunt At 1:12 a.m. on Friday, I received

a call from one of the SWAT team members requesting communications support in Watertown, Mass., where the second suspect was believed to be hiding. Under the ICS, we set up a base camp in Wate1town, which included all of our command posts as well as tents with food, bathrooms and a media area. At that point, we realized communications needed to change gears because we were now engaged in a massive manhunt with a large number of federal resources working with state and local agen­cies.

To address the needs of the vari­ous agencies involved in the man-

www. MCCmag .com

hunt, we created a "super patch" with six different radio systems all patched together at a system level. No matter where an officer came from, whether it was an out-of-state agency or a fed­eral resource, he or she could plug into this super patch to communicate. The patch supported the entire tacti­cal operation. The unified command­ers could say, 'search this street,' 'shoot' or 'don't shoot,' and the sys-

TX RX Systems Brand

tern made sure the command was heard.

Once the suspect was found in the boat, things started to scale back dra­matically. We were then asked by Cambridge and MIT to help with the communications for a visit ~y Vice President Joe Biden and the memorial for the slain officer.

The next three days went into planning and writing the largest

Signal Booster Series

~ Signal Booster I Series - Performance booster at an exceptional value.

~ Signal Booster II Series-The industry standard for Mission Critical LMR I Public Safety Signal Boosters.

~ Signal Booster Ill Series - Offers a new programmable filter design to master the challenges of a changing RF environment.

~ Rescueline Signal Booster Series- Designed specifically to meet the IFC I NFPA requirements.

~rdTechnologies· Visit us atAPCO Booth #1012

Aug. 18-21 Anaheim, CA

The RF Experts www.birdrf.com j 866.695.4569 j lm l1

MissionCritical Communications August 20 13 25

-- - - ---

STATE AND LOCAL

communications plan I've been a part of as a member of the communica­tions team. With 15 radio networks, we set up a unified command center, a tactical operations center and some forward command posts around the site of the April 24 memorial. As a result of this large, detailed plan, communications for the event were seamless and successful.

What Worked Strong relationships: Overall,

the key to successful emergency com­munications in Massachusetts is the state communications unit team, which is made up of COML, commu­nications unit technicians (COMT),

team that supported communications during the marathon and the follow­ing crucial days.

Radios: Another huge success was two-way radio. Our state 800 MHz trunked system was tried and true. A couple of busies were meas­ured on the system right after the first bomb blast, but the radio system absolutely worked. The state system provides an overlay that becomes the interoperability system and the go-to system for large planned events. We also have a regional system called the Boston Area Police Emergency Radio Network (BAPERN), which is relied on heavily by local users. Massachu­setts also has a TACSTACK commu-

The good news is that our two-way radio systems performed well, and our communications plan saw first responders through those chaotic hours after the blasts. and all of the subject matter experts who maintain and operate the radio systems. Our team meets every other month to discuss issues and address any problems or gaps in communica­tions. These meetings help foster strong relationships among agencies and can be leveraged during special event planning and when the unex­pected occurs. I believe those rela­tionships are more important than anything money can buy as far as systems and technology.

Training: In planning for marathon communications, we run through a variety of scenarios to ensure communications can absorb any unexpected event. In addition, DHS OEC observed our communica­tions during the 2010 Boston Marathon and offered suggestions to help strengthen our capabilities and improve coordination. We also used DHS OEC's technical assistance to train additional COMLs and used DHS grant funding to train more COMTs in the region. Those trained professionals comprised the robust

,. nications system that can bring together the federal and national interoperability channels. Together the three major systems - TAC­STACK, BAPERN and the state 800 MHz network - provided incredible interoperability.

Lessons Learned Batteries: Inevitably, four or six

hours into a long shift, batteries start­ed losing power. To help address this issue, the region is looking into creat­ing a portable trailer with a battery cache and charging stations.

Priority services: When phone communications became congested after the bombing, we were reminded of the need to regularly test our GETS and WPS accounts and keep them up to date. It's always some­thing that's in your wallet and in the back of your mind, but in a crunch, you don't want to be wondering where that card is.

State tactical channel plan: The Massachusetts Tactical Channel Plan's best practices suggest that the

26 August 2013 MissionCritical Communications

state interoperability channels should be programmed into every public­safety radio. All of the agencies that follow the plan could plug directly into the interoperability channels. There were a small number of agen­cies coming in to support the effort that didn ' t have those channels pro­grammed in and needed a cache radio.

Coordination with opera­tions: For the communications team, whether they are technicians, COMLs or the statewide interoperability coor­dinator (SWIC) like myself, we have our meetings and know exactly what we need to do to build a communica­tions plan. Where we have found dif­ficulties is ensuring the operations team understands the need to con­stantly and continually work with communications. We need to know what the next operational period is and what functions and assignments need to be filled so we can provide the appropriate radio channel or radio network.

We need more training for incident commanders to better understand how they should work with the COML. The ICS structure has four section chiefs: operations, planning, logistics and finance/administration. Guess what's missing as a section chief? Communications. You can't bury communications under logistics. It doesn't work.

During the Boston Marathon bombing and its aftermath, federal, state and local first responders per­formed at the highest levels. And it was the region 's radio systems and the work of our communications sup­port teams that provided the back­bone of those response efforts. •

Steve Staffier is the statewide interop­

erability coordinator (SWIC) for the

commonwealth of Massachusetts and

leader of the statewide communications

unit (COMU) team. He has more than 23

years of experience in the public-safety

communications field and is a certi fied all­

hazards communications unit leader

(COML). Email comments to

editor@ RRMediaGroup.com.

www.MCCmag.com