Disaster drill tests Lee Sheriff's communication operations
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A catastrophic loss of service affecting the Lee County Sheriff's Office's ability to communicate with deputies and the public was played out Tuesday during a mock disaster drill.
The scenario put into effect at 6 a.m. was a major hurricane leaving the LCSO's communications hamstrung by a loss of primary power and a generator system weakened and rapidly draining.
"We wanted to ensure the continuity of the 911 system," said Carmine Marceno, undersheriff for the LCSO, about the drill. "If you are not proactive, then you fail. And that's not an option."
The drill started with a major storm knocking out the electrical system, leaving the LCSO's dispatch and call center at the Six Mile Cypress headquarters running on generator power.
"The power is out ,and they have five hours to set up and get running," Marceno said, adding that this kind of drill was planned about two months ago.
While the drill was in progress on Tuesday the center remained active receiving 911 calls, said Lt. Chris Lalor from the LCSO 's Public Information Office.
The drill consisted of having a backup system put into place at a remote location, the LCSO gun range at Buckingham airfield in Lehigh Acres.
Karen Ciofani, director of communications for the LCSO, said the equipment and supplies used to open the backup at the gun range is part of what is called a cold set-up.
"We just have to pull it out and set it up," she said. That process, which can take several hours, was being tested.
"The goal is to be seamless," said Capt. Robert Gizzi of the LCSO's public affairs unit.
When the alert went out in the morning, gun range staff wheeled containers out and commenced set-up.
By about 10 a.m. the staffers had a good portion of the equipment deployed and were running wires, checking connections and getting ready for the first of several transfers of call center staff.
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Once wired connections were made, generators tested to ensure continuity of power, and operators were in place, then the system would be switched over in segments, allowing for more personnel transfers to take place.
At the gun range, Jeff Gottstein, technology and information officer for the LCSO, said the blind drill was being used to test the mettle and quick-thinking abilities of the staff.
During the set-up phase, Gottstein said he continually tossed wrenches into the scenario to see how the staff reacts.
"This is no just a sterile scenario," he said. "It gives the staff the opportunity to do critical thinking. In a rapidly evolving situation, you don't have a lot of time."
Gottstein said the training exercises will be implemented on a quarterly basis. Because the communications center is a two-stage operation — call takers field calls and transfer them to dispatchers — the testing can be done piecemeal or in total.
"We want to test the response times of the workers," Gottstein said.
