What has made Fairfax Countys public safety communications systemsuccessful?
We pre-position a lot of communications gear [and] train our people on that gear. We do exercises and test our personnel constantly. We’ve also had real-life testing, [such as] the sniper incident in 2002. We had anthrax attacks right after the 9/11 attacks in the fall of [2001]. We had Hurricane Isabel in the fall of [2003]. So, this region has been tested in real life as well as virtually. We have created a culture of cooperation that has really paid off in this region, and the interoperability of communications is essential to that culture. Getting all of us together and agreeing on a plan is not easy.
