Chicago's OEMC: A Unified Approach to First Response

     By being together in the same room, fire/EMS, police and city department managers work as a team in managing both natural and manmade incidents.

Everything all in one place: That's the rationale behind Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications' (OEMC) four-story headquarters in Chicago's West Loop community. It is home to a centralized 9-1-1/dispatch for the Chicago Fire Department (including EMS) and the Chicago Police Department, with consoles located within a 16,000-square-foot operations floor. Meanwhile, both the police and fire departments are represented, along with the city's Departments of Transportation, Streets and Sanitation and Water Management, in the 2,000-square-foot Operations Center (OC).

     "City agencies now have a single command center, so they can work together more efficiently to prevent, prepare for and respond to incidents and emergencies happening throughout the city," said Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley when the OC was officially opened on November 16, 2004. "This center will provide our managers with the information they need to deploy emergency personnel and vehicles to the place where they're most needed."

     The OEMC building has 161,000 square feet of floor space, which is why the OC is just one of four operational centers housed there. The others are the Joint Operations Center (JOC), City Incident Center (CIC) and the city's 9-1-1 operations floor. Together, they form an integrated unit that can truly command all of Chicago's resources during local emergencies, or large-scale catastrophes that require participation from state and federal agencies. For first responders, the result is more accurate and timely direction in the field, better preparation for receiving casualties at the city's trauma centers, and enhanced safety and backup.

     "Thanks to the OEMC facility, everyone involved in Chicago first response now has better situational awareness of what's going on and what each player is doing to deal with it," says OEMC executive director Andrew Velasquez III. "When you have better awareness of what's going on, you can provide your first responders with better information, plus maximize the resources you have to best effect."

Operations center
     The OC handles day-to-day command and control in Chicago. Staff from the member departments keep on top of events at 13 arc-shaped workstations, each equipped with three UXGA flat-panel monitors. Each workstation has direct access to relevant city databases, allowing for real-time exchanges of vital information between departments, first responders and the 9-1-1 center.

     The workstations also access feeds from more than 2,000 video surveillance cameras spread across the city. All are connected to the OC via the city's fiberoptic network, comprised of hundreds of miles of cable laid throughout Chicago. Collectively, these resources form the heart of Chicago's "Operation Virtual Shield" project, aimed at providing the community with enhanced public safety, homeland security and traffic management.

     Some of the OC's most important operational data comes from the city's Traffic Management Authority (TMA), which manages Chicago's roads. This means monitoring and managing traffic light timing, tracking traffic flows using in-road sensors and video cameras. When cars break down or accidents occur, TMA staff are responsible for dispatching tow trucks and civilian traffic-control aides to the scene, plus alerting the OC to these problems and responses.

     All of this activity is overseen by a city watch manager in a raised, centralized chair. Although this point might make one think of Star Trek, the design is actually derived from 20th century battleship bridges. The OC's walls also have large displays for showing selected feeds, broadcast news, National Weather Service graphics, FAA flight tracking maps, or any other imagery deemed important at the time.